Oneironaut: A Guide to Lucid Dreaming

Who would've thought the foods you eat during the day and right before sleep can affect the way you dream? Even some drugs can either help or hinder you ability to dream at night. No dreams, no fun with lucid dreaming.

To start off this chapter, let's speak about the foods you should avoid.

Avoid liquids to prevent having to go to the bathroom later in your sleep. Most foods that prevent sleep should be avoided at least three hours before bed. Some of these include: chocolate, steak (foods high in protein, like meats), alcohol (it suppresses REM sleep), spicy food, coffee (caffeine obviously), decaf coffee as well, broccoli, french fries (anything high in fat), chili, and generally large amounts of food should be avoided.

When it comes to drugs, marijuana is said to reduce the possibility of having a lucid dream. It also suppresses REM sleep. The THC affects your sleep overall. However, most stoners report having a lot of vivid dreams after they stopped smoking for a while.

Now, on to the enhancers!

Foods to enhance your dreams/increase lucid dream chances:
Mustard - a spoonful can help increase the chance of being lucid.
Milk, cheese, eggs, yogurt, most dairy
Fish, especially cod and tuna
Mushrooms and lentils
Apple cider vinegar- said to cause extremely vivid dreams; take 2 tablespoons, mix with water and add some honey for taste
If apple cider vinegar is a little too difficult, apple juice made from concentrate works wonders in high amounts.
Some people claim bananas and peanut butter (maybe even together) causes vivid dreams.

These are more meant to affect the way you dream rather than guarantee dreams. Food is often the safest way to enhance your dreams but should you rather take a more intense approach, there are drugs and supplements you can take in for the purposes of dreaming. These often have better results than just food alone and I advise you to take caution with what you put inside your body. Further research for one own' sake on these is advised.

One drug to know is galantamine. It is a drug that may be the most effective drug for inducing lucid dreams. For best results, 4-8mg should be taken in the middle of the night. (Taking it before bed can worsen sleep quality and bring in unpleasant dreams.) It is only recommend to take occasionally as it may come with unpleasant side effects. This drug can take taken in pills and Amazon offers it for a reasonable price for the sole purpose of lucid dreaming.

Another would be calea zacatechichi. It is known as the Mexican dream herb, which is used to increase reaction times and the frequency and recollection of dreams. It can be taken as a tea, smoked, or as a capsule. It is known to have a foul taste if taken in as tea. Other names can be calea ternifolia. As always, be careful with intake as some side effects include nausea, hallucinations, and vomiting. It is popular within the lucid dream community nonetheless.

Nicotine patches is an option and a addictive one as well (so be wary!). One of the side effects of nicotine patches include hyper vivid dreams that lasts for quite a while. There has been a study on this to prove it. Nicotine, however, is addictive so please take a note of that before starting the patches. This is the drug that is often found in cigarettes that can cause cancer with prolonged use.

Vitamin B5 or B6 can increase dream vividness at 100mg but this amount taken regularly can cause damage to your peripheral nerves. Use at your own risk. It may be counterproductive if you are a light sleeper since it can wake you up at night.

Serotonin is important to have for dreams. Different supplements and foods can provide this as well as tryptophan. This helps you stay alert and lucid. It is great to take with melatonin, which keeps your body asleep. Serotonin is known to create melatonin as well.

Melatonin (the sleep aid) can also help with the dreams. It is meant to keep you relaxed and asleep after all. There are pills you can take for this supplement and are often inexpensive at any drug store. It is recommended to take about 5mg as it increases REM sleep and it is best taken right before the third step of Wake-Back-To-Bed Method in order to increase the chances of lucid dreaming.