Lumi's Dreaming Thread; Dreams of Moon

[Luminesce]

There's no expiration on the bottle, but I'm pretty sure the Dream Leaf was expired...

 

I guess it was never going to last anyways, I'll find single ingredient supplements that'll always be around I guess, though I wish that wasn't a complete waste of nearly $40 because my bank account is too empty to buy much else now (though I do have an extremely small income of $120 to $240 a month at the moment)

 

very tired and feeling especially tired on this subject, but did my best to research what I should get instead so this post wasn't just depressing

 

Things to try: (all of these increase dream vividness in some capacity, which helps with lucidity a ton)

Alpha GPC - probably 600mg, but it's recommended for any of these supplements to try lower doses first - take as WBTB

5-HTP - might upset stomach or not up to 300mg, optimal may be to take 100mg 3 times through the day - increases serotonin, improves sleep and may cause REM rebound, some report weirder dreams - take before bed
Mugwort - tea preferable, NOT oil, it's lightly toxic but tea should be okay, dried for tea might not work as well though so IDK capsules maybe - take before bed

Valerian Root - tea or supplements should be fine, probably around 500mg - some people experience "delirious" or blurry dreams or such (or, no effect, but), others get very vivid dreams - take before bed

Vitamin B12 - 1mg/1000mcg, which is a lot - possibly any time works, but I'd take near bedtime

Some quick reference https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1o13gam/comment/nif03x4/

 

I don't want to take Galantamine or Huperzine A, plus they seem to wake you up and I struggle a ton with waking up repeatedly and not falling back asleep if thinking/planning anything, although that's not my reason for not taking them

Not interested in B6 - less success, dream recall may go away again when not taking it, less safe long-term than B12

Not too interested in the Cholines but they exist, the two versions are somewhat different

man it's been two hours since I started this post

 

 

I want to try valerian root for unknown subconscious reasons, mugwort had lots of yay-sayers but also some people saying no results with dried teas instead of fresh leaves which I'm not getting (capsules still a maybe), the amounts of vitamin B12 and B6 people take for lucid dreaming seems ridiculous to me and I already get (a much smaller amount) in my daily multivitamins, I don't believe my body will care if I take split doses of 5-HTP so I'd want to try just the 200mg capsule before bed, and I suppose Alpha GPC is the only WBTB/active supplement I ended up listing (all those kinds tend to wake your brain up and make it harder to sleep - which give the greatest results if you DO fall asleep - but researching them made me feel they would cause me to wake up and be unable to fall back asleep even if I did fall asleep once)

 

Looking at my old Claridream bottle (I still have it sitting on my nightstand... I should throw the capsules away at least), FWIW it actually contains 140mg valerian root (low), 200mg choline bitartrate (normal-low), and "huperzia serrata whole herb extract, 1% Huperzine-A, 40mg" which I take to mean 400mcg Huperzine-A, which is pretty high (I think 200mcg is normal, but most these dosages probably vary by person and body weight), and that was proven to give me super-vivid-lifelike (and for me with my training, at least, easy lucidity) dreams... the one time I managed to fall asleep after taking it

(I think it was just one time anyways, I might be forgetting us taking it successfully once or twice and it doing nothing for all I know, but I only remember failing to sleep after until it actually happened once)

Eh, and "chamomile flower extract" 260mg and "passion flower herb extract" 34mg for completeness' sake, but those are more for falling asleep/sleep quality, I don't think they affect dreams directly

 

I'm sure the crazy success was owed to the high Huperzine-A dose, but I'm going to pretend it was the low valerian root dose as well and use that as reason to try it

 

Excuse me while I throw out these nearly 6 year old capsules and then go to sleep

 

---

Spoiler

The Dream Leaf capsules have valerian root, mugwort, alpha GPC, choline bitartrate, and huperzine-A

Actual superstar lineup there, literally everything I would personally try except 5-HTP

And I'm not entirely sure if they're expired, but they uh, made the toilet smell very strongly chemical-y, did NOT do anything last night when I managed to fall back asleep after 45 minutes (should've been perfect, but maybe my digestion is just off while sleeping and/or I needed to sleep longer, which I couldn't), and more importantly I'm now realizing, they do not actually list the amounts of any of these ingredients which is kind of worrying

{edit I turned my PC back on for - I realized it lists the total mg of each pill in an odd way, so I can estimate the doses are likely on the low end of all the ingredients, although they still don't tell me exactly how much of which are in (e.g. huperzine I assume wasn't much of that 125mg when it's normally dosed ~0.2mg...)}

 

I think I'm definitely wasting money throwing these away, but, I'm just not comfortable continuing to take them, so oh well, I'll use the tiny bit of money I have to buy individual supplements to try one at a time I guess, though it's not out of the question that I'd take multiple of them together once I've ended up with them on-hand

Edited November 22, 2025 by Luminesce

[Byakko]

oh, tb's taken a lot of those before, didn't know half of those help with dreams. maybe it is why tb passively has vivid dreams/frequent lucid dreams without trying that it makes us feel bad when thinking about your struggles

 

alpha gpc was usually whenever wanting to heal brain from perceived brain damage of failed psychiatric med

 

we have valerian root right now in the form of a bed time tea we sometimes drink to try to get to sleep easier, but unsure how much it helps with falling asleep. i think it does a little bit. unsure on dream stuff

 

we've had mugwort tea as well for purpose of vivider dreams, it does work somewhat i think. there was another tea herb that worked a lot more but tastes NASTY i forget what it was called, calea zacatechichi or something, haven't had in long time

 

didn't know vitamin b12 helped. we take a b vitamin supplement sometimes. have also had chamomile teas, just for non caffeinated tea for bedtime tea drinking purposes, didn't know it had any help with things like that. tb tried passion flower before for hope it would lower anxiety issues but it didn't really help any significant way

 

didn't know tb's pursuits of fixing broken brain/fixing insomnia/fixing hangover/fixing anxiety/bed time tea history was adjacent to lucid dream starter pack. hmm

 

never had 5 htp and dunno what it is, or the other stuff

 

there is also a lot of choline in eggs so sometimes we just fry eggs and make sure we get all the yolk to get choline

 

minus eggs and valerian root tea and sometimes b vitamin in morning, we don't currently take any of those and we still have semi decent vivid dream/occassional lucid dream though it isn't as much as when the rate is at its peak

 

going to have fried eggs and valerian root tea for dinner and see if we have another fun dream with lb exploring out wherever we can go (rb and nm and others welcome too or outer system people if that's possible)

 

good luck

Edited November 25, 2025 by Byakko

[Luminesce]

Took the 500mg valerian root capsule (pretty much any time I've said pills I meant capsules, pill is just easier to say) right as I was going to sleep, and it did have an effect, it basically increased my dream recall by a flat amount, from (my current) "not really any usually" straight to "each dream COULD be recalled if focused on after waking up", which while not outstanding is at least useful

 

I do still have the problem that practicing dream recall basically means waking up, if I start focusing on recalling a dream then I wake up enough it's very likely I won't be able to fall back asleep. I only recalled one dream after 7 hours, and doing so woke me up enough it took 45+ minutes to fall back asleep for 2 more hours, and those two dreams remained about as recallable as the previous ones (so the valerian does last the night decently)

 

I wonder if the effect of "{Supplement} improved my dream recall but it went away after I stopped taking it" is only a result of not actually practicing the recall and just taking it for granted. I didn't get the feeling that the awareness of all those dreams I had had improved my overall dream recall, only the one I spent time purposely going back through, so maybe I should look back into whichever one I made that note on - Oh, it was B6, meh, I'm already happy with the amount of vitamins I take and don't really want to take unnecessary amounts just for side effects

 

Anyways, guess I'll keep taking valerian every night as long as I have them. I'll probably try 1000mg (technically the "serving size" though those are meaningless) spaced slightly apart for digestion's sake, but I should do at least two nights of just one first to be more sure of its effects

I'll still be trying some of the other supplements I listed as I feel like doing so (payday just passed so I have another $140, though I've never liked having this little money in my account so I'm not splurging or anything)

 

 

Also after the reading of people talking about all these smelling bad (and smelling the valerian capsules myself) I guess I figure the Dream Leaf capsules probably are not expired, since they're mostly the "loses potency" kind of expirations anyways, so it's not out of the question I try one again if I randomly decide to. I just don't understand why the one time I took one in perfect timing nothing at all happened, maybe I really do need to eat something with it for my stomach to digest it? That requires being awake long enough to qualify as a WBTB, which if I could pull off easily I would be doing far more often...

Edited November 26, 2025 by Luminesce

[Luminesce]

Well, there were slight effects when I took just one I think, but taking two made me doubt that it was actually the valerian (or maybe it only worked once, despite skipping a couple days). Took one 500mg like 50 minutes before going to sleep and another 500mg 5 minutes before, and I didn't really remember any dreams at all even in the middle of the night. It was basically what dream recall is like when it was ~okay recently but you've stopped recalling dreams at all for a few days (or well, I guess people's baseline recall varies by person; mine is nothing)

The "unknown subconscious reasons" for wanting to try it were probably recognizing it as an ingredient in Claridream pills, which did technically work for me, though I think it was probably not the valerian that made them work lol

 

I guess I'll take two one more time tonight, at the same time, but I'm not exactly impressed

I've been taking these things just on an "I ate two or three hours ago" stomach, but I really can't stand having to micromanage what exactly I eat and when for medication effects, as long as my stomach is currently functioning and I didn't eat something clearly disruptive like a bunch of lemonade or something they should just work. (I think in the middle of the night my stomach is not functioning so that's why I tried eating crackers as well with them in the past, but to stay awake long enough that my stomach is out of sleep mode is... I can't go back to sleep after an hour)

 

Anyways, going to try 5-HTP next, and since it helps some people with mild depression I'll get the 240 100mg capsules instead of the 120 200mg and try taking it during the day in addition to before bed, with I guess 300mg being the target, 500mg the highest recommended (spread through the day, probably only 200mg if right before bed?)

 

Pretty much all of these are around $15 for a bottle on Amazon for the record, nothing crazy, though of course I don't get the full value if they don't do anything and I stop taking them 10% through

Edited November 30, 2025 by Luminesce

[Luminesce]

noothiiiiiiingggg wwwhyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 

500mg valerian with no food (ate 2-3 hours prior) the very first night improved my dream recall from "none" to "some, of each dream", 1000mg the next two nights dream recall was "maybe a little bit of the very last dream", took a break from it for a few days to try 5-HTP, then tried 1000mg again after a week off, nothing, dream recall nearly nonexistent and dream vividness itself of the tiny bits I remember was meh

 

300mg 5-HTP spaced as 100mg hours before bed and 200mg before bed with or without food did nothing at all, dream recall stayed next to nothing

 

1000mcg vitamin B12 (kind of a lot, family member had a prescription supplement that's a 1ml dropper for 200,000% vitamin B12 lol) taken as (about 1/4 of 1ml) liquid I kept under my tongue for 20 seconds and then swallowed, 2-3 hours after eating, sleep about 40 minutes later as with all of these - nothing at all, my dream recall has literally gone backwards at this point

 

500mg mugwort (in two clear capsules, I can literally see the stuff) taken with a cookie, sleep 40 minutes later, NOTHING

NO DREAMS REMEMBERED EXCEPT A BIT BEFORE I WOKE UP WHICH I CAN LITERALLY TELL WAS THE LEAST VIVID A DREAM CAN BE, I literally categorized it as "dreamy visualized thoughts" when I woke up except the timing makes no sense as I was completely asleep prior and the dream wasn't something I'd intentionally visualize even when barely awake

 

and to top it off I actually took one of the red Dream Leaf Pro pills (some 125mg blend of Alpha GPC, Choline Bitartrate, and Huperzine-A) yesterday after waking up after 6 hours, after walking to the kitchen for water and a small brownie, and while it did take me like 50 minutes to fall back asleep I DID and when I woke up an hour and two hours later, NOTHING HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE THOSE ARE GOOD CHEMICALS that I haven't been trying standalone because they're WBTB/middle of the night ones that wake your brain up a bit, and I can never fall back asleep after taking any due to waking up too much (mostly anticipation I assume), but I DID and NOTHING

 

Does my stomach just not actually digest anything I put in it??? Does my body just disintegrate any substance that enters it? I DO have a well-known history of strong tolerance to drugs/medications, but is it even possible for all of these things to not affect me whatsoever at decently large doses? It's hard to believe the answer is that I need to just take giant doses of each of these, like sure mugwort is usually taken in tea form but there are plenty of reviews of the capsules working for people, like everything else

 

I am very caught between wanting to crash out and wanting to productively ask the right questions to address the problem, but I don't know who to ask about digestion efficiency so back to the crashout

 

EVEN IF LITERALLY ALL OF THOSE DID NOTHING I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE SPENT OVER A WEEK FOCUSED ON DREAMING AND NOT HAD AT LEAST SLIGHTLY GOOD DREAM RECALL BY THE END

 

Seriously, my dream recall is NOTHING AT ALL right now, but I've been vaguely attempting to recall dreams the few times I wake up each day (random times usually 5+ hours in for just a minute, and final awakening) and the few days where I remembered bits of dreams I pursued recollecting them as best as I could, with at least three dreams recalled in the last 10 days relatively fully (even if they weren't anything special or vivid), it's unprecedented that this not lead to okay dream recall after, I should be aware that I dreamed every hour from hours 4 through 9 and should at LEAST remember a long dream somewhat vividly in my final sleep cycle before waking up, but no

 

So either turning 30 is bringing the newfound inability to dream at all, or I guess my sleep schedule currently being vampire hours (been going to sleep from 2 to 8AM gradually over the last couple weeks, but it's so dark during the day it's not making it hard to stay asleep or anything) is somehow ruining my ability to dream, but I was going to sleep at a pretty normal time at the start of the month so it'd have to be moreso "not on a steady sleep schedule", and THAT can't even HAPPEN because I WAS on a steady sleep schedule for like a week, and then one day I slept 11 hours because waking up at the same ~7-8AM time every day actually meant I'd only been sleeping 8ish hours each day which has once again been proven to be slightly too little vs my normal 9, as every time I sleep 8 hours for 4+ days in a row I end up sleeping for 10+ hours after (not normal for me, only happens when making up sleep)

 

So... conclusion on that... Steady sleep schedule is impossible, but going to sleep between 9PM and 1AM tends to make me feel a bit better overall in other ways so it's possible there's effects on my dream quality too I guess, even though that's very weird to me, but also in my opinion there's no chance whatsoever that these supplements all just failed to work because my sleep schedule is a bit off, it is clear they are straight up just not working at all. Still feels like a 50/50 on digestion context vs body's innate tolerance to all drugs though, but what am I going to do, fast for 8 hours before bed and take them without food? Taking the two I did with a small sugary snack seemed like the best thing I could do, and I can't spend any longer than 20 minutes awake for a WBTB waiting for my stomach to start going in the middle of the night, so (aside from trying fasting one time, I guess) where does that leave me? (With $50 of supplements sitting in my room unused...)

 

I have no idea what to do

[Rena Bonnie]

I'm sorry to hear that (｡•́︿•̀｡)

 

For what it's worth, we have always used mugwort or valerian in form of tea, not pills, and it may or may not secretly contribute to our seeming natural decent dream recall, but who knows

 

Historically naps have always had strong dreams for us. I am not sure if you are able to sleep 8 hours at night and 1 during the day so you can get the sleep you need without a random 10 hour sleep day, but also have that hour nap be prime time. I haven't read your entire thread so I am unsure if you've tried that before

[Luminesce]

Body can't nap, no

If we somehow manage to fall asleep when we're not tired enough to actually sleep, we tend to wake up in an hour or two kinda head-dazed and even slightly sweaty sometimes - no idea what's up with that but it's hard to even accomplish in the first place, normally it just turns into actually sleeping for 3+ hours

 

Uh, I hope you know mugwort has a toxic component (thujone) and shouldn't be drank long-term without breaks, similar to mercury in fish
Tea would probably work better but I still find it hard to believe any of these supplements are working for so many other people and not us just "because they're capsules", else they wouldn't work for others either

 

 

Didn't eat a meal for the last 9 or so hours I was awake, and only a snickerdoodle like 6 hours before sleeping, and took one of the Dream Leaf Pro blue pills (125mg mix of mugwort and valerian, seems low but maybe they used stronger concentrations idk) aaand... Well, it didn't do anything, but it aside I finally had "very poor dream recall" with bits of a few non-vivid dreams remembered in the last few sleep cycles, but it's still ridiculous that I wasn't already at this point a week ago. Most people have that level of dream recall by default, let alone after practicing for two weeks, LET ALONE WITH FOUR DIFFERENT SUP-

 

 

Anyways before I just try any high doses, I suppose I'll try taking basically one of everything, since I do have it all on hand lol. Not going to bother trying every combination possible just for none of them to work, since I simply have some months' worths of each of them on hand at this exact moment and might as well just try to get some value out of them, but it seems like the doses I'd need to experience any real effects are too high (if any work at all) to want to continue buying more of in the future, so, whatever

 

When this doesn't work, I'll try mugwort tea I guess

Edited December 14, 2025 by Luminesce

[Ido]

If this stuff worked, it would either be illegal or worth a fortune. But it's a relatively cheap 'supplement' on par with hair loss remedies. Quackery. Maybe it works for some people but most likely it doesn't. 

 

I feel our dream recall varies widely. Mostly it's nothing and then there are days with 3 vivid dreams in a row. Why? No idea.

[Miri]

Sucks that absolutely nothing seems to work for you guys but I can't help but think that a sedentary lifestyle is definitely not compatible with good sleep quality and that means lucid dreaming or dreaming in general, especially if your desk is also in your bedroom which I have a feeling it is. Memories are going to be mixed together and be seen as pointless and 'scraps' type of content by your brain

 

Stress can also play a role even when the stress isn't too obvious. It can be feeling stressed about turning 30 with nothing to show for it and that still affects your dream recall

 

 

[Luminesce]

My age is not immediately on my mind

My dreams (not the last few weeks apparently) are normally really entertaining to me personally (just recalled poorly), some are boring but for the most part my brain's exploring being in tons of random scenarios (often but not always media related, but including stuff like meeting e-celebrities at parties and such for example)

I have no idea if sedentariness affects "sleep quality", but the exercise I do daily is really as much as I can expect from myself "right now" - "get out and have a life" is as meaningful advice as "remember to be lucid when dreaming" - I just spent the year seriously trying to fix/improve my life at all and only came back to lucid dreaming when I ran out of anything else to try (as opposed to, intending to come back once I had made progress on motivation stuff that made practicing lucid dreaming easier... but alas)

 

3 hours ago, Ido said:

If this stuff worked, it would either be illegal or worth a fortune. But it's a relatively cheap 'supplement' on par with hair loss remedies. Quackery. Maybe it works for some people but most likely it doesn't. 

You can't just say "It's all fake, actually" just because that's how you feel, there are tons of threads of people discussing the effects of all these things. I didn't search "dreaming supplements" on amazon, I did research on actual people talking about all these things

 

With as much evidence as you, I could say all antidepressants are fake, since I tried like 7 of them and experienced no positive or negative effects

No, people's bodies are just different, and mine has a particular tolerance to seemingly all forms of chemicals - the only reason I don't think I'm genuinely ultra-resistant to ALL drugs is general anesthesia still knocked me out in 20 seconds, but everything from numbing shots to pain meds to antidepressants and ADHD stimulants, and even having to brush the bodyweight limit of ketamine dose I'm allowed to take (@monthly sessions, not quite now that I'm doing every 2 months), make it pretty dang clear something is different about my body

 

Anyways, plan is trying one of everything tonight, and from there I'll increase doses past the recommended amounts I saw (because normal recommended amount of anything has never worked for me, ie ibuprofen only works if I take slightly more than it says to, does nothing before that) and probably take multiple at once, though still nothing unsafe

After that, I guess I'd have to try mugwort in strong tea form to see if it simply digests/absorbs better and makes the difference, and after that, I guess I have to go back to WBTB brain-activating supplements like huperzine-A, though it's still confusing/upsetting that the Dream Leaf Pro red pills have not worked at all - I guess I can just take two, since I know their blue pill (mugwort/valerian) dose is super tiny
(reminder the only reason I don't do this is I can rarely ever fall back asleep afterwards, which is stressful and demotivating, but I at least know it can work great if it happens to go right)

Edited December 15, 2025 by Luminesce