Some people who smoke cannabis before bed often struggle to recall their dreams the next morning. But there’s a simple reason why marijuana users tend to have less dreams.
This phenomenon can be explained by how marijuana affects the sleep cycle, specifically a stage known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
During the night, the brain cycles through 4 different stages of sleep, spending the most time in deep sleep (or slow-wave sleep) and REM sleep. The amount of time spent in these two stages is closely related. In fact, studies show that cannabis lengthens the time the brain spends in deep sleep, which leads to less REM sleep.
Deep Sleep Vs REM Sleep
It’s not clear whether the effect of marijuana on REM sleep is actually harmful. In fact, experts are still not sure why we need REM sleep.
While more research is needed, it’s possible that the ability of cannabis to increase deep sleep, even at the expense of REM sleep, might turn out to be a good thing. Getting into Lucid Dreaming can help produce vivid dreams even after smoking weed.
The ability to become lucid during a dream and gain control of the dream itself has been coveted, examined and practiced for centuries; resulting in many methods and exercises that cultivate lucid dreams. The opportunity to consciously explore the dream-space can provide insights into the mysteries of the unconscious mind; lucid dreaming can also be used therapeutically to address traumatic memories or chronic nightmares.
Recently a team of scientists led by psychologist Ursula Voss of the Goethe University in Frankfort, Germany successfully induced lucid dreams in test subjects by stimulating specific brain regions with an electrical current. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience in May, provides some of the first data necessary to understand the biology of lucid dreaming.
Voss’ early studies found that participants’ reports of lucid dreams tended to occur during REM sleep. At the beginning of a sleep cycle, the brain slows from high frequency gamma and beta waves associated with waking, processing and alertness. The patterns of brain activity progress through slowing alpha waves to deep sleep’s delta and theta frequencies.
Paradoxically, the sleep cycle apexes in REM, and the brainwaves speed up. Dreams normally occur during REM sleep, when many regions of the brain appear to be functioning as if it were awake. When subjects reported a lucid dream, there was distinct gamma activity, the highest frequency range of brainwave, in the frontotemporal region.
The frontotemporal region is associated with executive functioning, decision making, processing complex stimuli, and self-awareness. Voss and her team theorized that lucid dreams occur when the frontotemporal region of the brain is active at a gamma level during REM sleep. To test this theory, they used a non-invasive method called Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation. TACS uses electrodes placed on the scalp to stimulate the surface of the brain. When they sent an electrical current in the Gamma frequency into the frontotemporal region of the scalp, the participants overwhelmingly reported a self-aware dream upon waking.
The ability of physicians to induce lucid dreams could provide new treatment models for sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress, and even anxiety and depression. Sleep, especially REM, is vital to the formation of memories, the consolidation of stimuli into larger concepts, and the regeneration of the brain. If Voss’ research provides a consistent method of psychic exploration, scientists and psychonauts will be able to further understand the mysteries, mechanisms and potential self-discoveries of dreams.
Lucid Dreaming with Electrical Stimulation
Elliot Hill seems to miss the point in the video above, but I’ve left it in since some people would rather see a video about the study rather than read about it.
Elliot glosses over the multitude of benefits lucid dreaming offers and instead says he doesn’t want to be alertly conscious all of the time, claiming dreams are his last bastion of unconscious musings. It is laughable that Elliot believes he is fully conscious and aware throughout his entire waking life, a feat that many of us struggle with hourly!
Much like psychedelics, lucid dreaming can be a tool to help further your understanding of yourself and the universe, and honestly, what is more important than that?
For those uncertain of taking the mental plunge into lucid dreaming or psychedelics or with experience on the subject sound off below with your thoughts.
This scene from Waking Life describes how modern work conditions can delay the progress of conscious beings.
The trick is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams. Because, if you can do that, you can do anything.
Did you ever have a job that you hated and worked real hard at? A long, hard day of work.
Finally you get to go home, get in bed, close your eyes and immediately you wake up and realize… that the whole day at work had been a dream.
It’s bad enough that you sell your waking life for minimum wage, but now they get your dreams for free.
We spend about 1/3 of our lives sleeping and some of us still don’t have it down.
You would think that something that involves a lot of nothing would come easy but a lot of us have bad sleeping habits that can lead to joint pain, spinal issues and disease.
Sleep is when the body heals and regenerates and even though we may not be actively conscious the brain still sends many signals through the spine to our organs.
Healthy Sleeping Positions
Sleeping Solo
Sleeping With That Special Someone
The key to maintaining a healthy sleeping position, whether you are flying solo or snuggling with a fine dime piece, is a neutral spine.
Dreams are best interpreted by you and in the context of your particular dream.
Your recent mood and waking life experience can also play a part in your analysis.
Common Dream Symbols
Animals
often represent the part of your psyche that feels connected to nature and survival. Being chased by a predator suggests you’re holding back repressed emotions like fear or aggression.
Babies
can symbolize a literal desire to produce offspring, or your own vulnerability or need to feel loved. They can also signify a new start.
Being chased
is one of the most common dream symbols in all cultures. It means you are feeling threatened, so reflect on who is chasing you (they may also be symbolic) and why they are a possible threat in real life.
Clothes
make a statement about how we want other people to perceive us. If you dream symbol is shabby clothing, you may feel unattractive or worn out. Changing what you wear may reflect a lifestyle change.
Exams
can signify self-evaluation, with the content of the exam reflecting the part of your personality or life under inspection.
Death
of a friend or loved one represents change (endings and new beginnings) and is not a paranormal prediction of any kind. If you are recently bereaved, it may be an attempt to come to terms with the event.
Falling
is a common dream symbol that relates to our anxieties about letting go, losing control, or somehow failing after a success.
Faulty Machinery
in dreams is often caused by your language centers being shut down while asleep, making it difficult to dial a phone, read the time, or search the internet. It can also represent performance anxiety in life.
Food
is said to symbolize knowledge, because it nourishes the body just as information nourishes the brain. Food for thought?
Demons
are sneaky evil entities which signify repressed emotions. You may secretly feel the need to change your own behaviors for the better.
Hair
has significant ties with sexuality, according to Freud. Abundant hair may symbolize virility, while cutting hair off in a dream shows a loss of libido. Hair loss may also express a literal fear of going bald or becoming unattractive.
Hands
are always present in dreams but when they are tied up it may represent feelings of futility. Washing your hands may express guilt. Looking closely at your hands in a dream is a good way to become lucid.
Houses
can host many common dream symbols, but the building as a whole represents your inner psyche. Each room or floor can symbolize different emotions, memories and interpretations of meaningful events.
Killing
in your dreams does not make you a closet murderer; it represents your desire to “kill” part of your own personality. It can also symbolize hostility towards a particular person and the desire to see them suffer.
Marriage
may be a literal desire to wed or a merging of the feminine and masculine parts of your psyche.
Missing a flight
or any other kind of transport is another popular dream, showing your frustration over possibly missing out on important opportunities in life. It’s most common when you’re struggling to make a big decision.
Money
can symbolize self worth. If you dream of exchanging money, it may show that you’re anticipating some changes in your life.
Mountains
are obstacles, so to dream of successfully climbing a mountain can reveal a true feeling of achievement. Viewing a landscape from atop a mountain can symbolize a life under review without conscious prejudice.
Nudity
is one of the most common dream symbols, revealing your true self to others. You may feel vulnerable and exposed to others. Showing off your nudity may suggest sexual urges or a desire for recognition.
People
(other dream characters) are reflections of your own psyche, and may demonstrate specific aspects of your own personality.
Radios and TVs
can symbolize communication channels between the conscious and subconscious minds. When lucid, ask them a question…
Roads
aside from being literal manifestations, convey your direction in life. This may be time to question your current “life path”.
Schools
are common dream symbols in children and teenagers but what about dreaming of school in adulthood? It may display a need to know and understand yourself, fueled by life’s own lessons.
Sex
dreams can symbolize intimacy and a literal desire for sex. Or they may demonstrate the unification of unconscious emotions with conscious recognition, showing a new awareness and personal growth.
Teachers
aside from being literal manifestations of people, can represent authority figures with the power to enlighten you.
Teeth
are common dream symbols. Dreaming of losing your teeth may show a hidden fear of getting old and being unattractive to the opposite sex.
Being trapped
(physically) is a common nightmare theme, reflecting your real life inability to escape or make the right choice.
Vehicles
may reflect how much control you feel you have over your life – for instance is the car out of control, or is someone else driving you?
Water
comes in many forms and can symbolize the subconscious mind. Calm pools of water reflect inner peace while a choppy ocean can suggest unease.
Korean artist Jee Young Lee’s beautiful dreamscapes are living proof that you don’t need Photoshop or even a large studio space to create psychedelic imagery.
She creates all of these scenes by hand in a room that is only 3.6 x 4.1 x 2.4 meters and then inserts herself into the pictures. Some of these self portraits represent her own experiences, dreams and memories, while others represent traditional Korean folk tales and legends.
Alan Watts describes the nature of consciousness through a series of dream analogies.
Reality is a dream we share as one.
Alan Watts – The Connection Between Dreams and Consciousness Transcript
If you awaken from this illusion and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death; or shall I say, death implies life. You can feel yourself not as a stranger in the world. Not as something here on probation. Not as something that has arrived here by fluke. But you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental.
I’m not trying to sell you on this idea in the sense of converting you to it; I want you to play with it, I want you to think of its possibilities. I’m not trying to prove it. I’m just putting it forward as a possibility of life to think about.
So then, let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time, or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes, you would have every kind of pleasure you could perceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each you would say, “Well that was pretty great, but now let’s have a surprise! Lets have a dream which isn’t under control! Where something is going to happen to me that I don’t know what it’s gonna be”. And you would dig that and come out of that and say, “Wow that was a close shave wasn’t it!”.
Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream. And finally you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today; that would be within the infinite multiplicity of choices you would have, of playing that you weren’t god. Because the whole nature of the god head, according to this idea, is to play that he’s not. So in this idea then, everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality. Not god in a politically kingly sense but god in the sense of being the self; the deep down basic whatever there is. And you’re all that! Only you’re pretending you’re not.
Here are the video’s lucid dreaming pointers in list form:
-Maintain a dream journal: this improves recall and lucidity.
-Reality checks: Remember to check the time often, even when you think you’re awake.
-MILD: Put that dream journal to use! Think of a recent dream as you fall asleep, while focusing on having a lucid dream. Try waking in the middle of the night for half an hour and then heading back to sleep.
-WILD: Keep your mind awake as your body slips into sleep.
Richard Feynman on the Fear of Sleep Paralysis
During the time of making observation in my dreams, the process of waking up was a rather fearful one. As you’re beginning to wake up there’s a moment when you feel rigid and tied down, or underneath many layers of cotton batting. It’s hard to explain, but there’s a moment when you get the feeling you can’t get out; you’re not sure you can wake up.
So I would have to tell myself — after I was awake — that that’s ridiculous. There’s no disease I know of where a person falls asleep naturally and can’t wake up. You can always wake up. And after talking to myself many times like that, I became less and less afraid, and in fact I found the process of waking up rather thrilling — something like a roller coaster. After a while you’re not so scared, and you begging to enjoy it a little bit. – Richard Feynman, Theoretical Physicist
