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Comment by smithcoin | Hacker News Reader

I used to be able to lucid dream quite regularly. I had a friend tell me that looking at your hands throughout the day would help as when you looked at them in your dreams you would realize it.

Now as I’ve grown older I don’t even dream anymore (I suspect due to THC use) but even on nights where I go to bed stone cold sober - nothing happens. I don’t dream. Does anybody else find themselves lacking the ability to dream at all?

I don’t mind it because while I do miss lucid dreaming and pleasant dreams, I completely miss out on the ability to have a nightmare.

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It's more likely that you're not remembering your dreams. When I kept a dream journal, it became clear how easy it is to forget them. If I woke up in the middle of one, the longer I waited before I wrote it down, the harder it was to remember. It was also harder to remember further back into what dream I was recalling, as well as dreams preceding it. The next day, I would read them and have no recollection of much of the contents that I had written that night before. If I hadn't written them down, I'd be totally unaware they were even occuring.

I believe most of the dreams we remember are only because 1) we wake up midway within them and 2) their content happens to be somehow memorable. For part one, this can actually indicate poor quality sleep. Periodic nighttime alertness is a great way to remember more dreams. You may currently be experiencing better quality sleep than you used to.

Perhaps I should invest in some sleep tracking and investigate again. I don’t know how to describe it, but I’m not dreaming while asleep. Here’s an analogy - imagine dreaming is like putting your hand in a cup of water and remembering your dream is like your hand being wet until it evaporates (forgetting) the sensation I have when asleep would be akin to having a dry hand- I do not have the sensation of having a dream.

You can prove it to yourself by starting a dream journal and setting some alarms. Dreaming happens more frequently in the early morning to the time you wake up. Set yourself 2 or 3 alarms during this period, and keep a notepad and pen by your bed. Doing this on your phone may make it more difficult to go back to sleep. When the alarm wakes you up, write down any dreams you can remember and then try to go right back to sleep. Do this for a week, and I think you'd be surprised how many you realize you're having each night.

I’m not really craving dreaming again to be honest, like I said I don’t have nightmares.

It sounds like waking myself up wouldn’t be conducive to better sleep health.

You need to be on THC break to resume sleeping. What you suspect is true as THC disrupts the sleep cycle and you don't get much of REM sleep while on it.

You have to quit THC for at least two weeks until you start dreaming again.

I had 2.5mg of thc every day for ~7 years. I couldn't remember the last dream I had when I quit thc in August. After not sleeping for 2-3 weeks I started having vivid nightmares every night for about a week. I'm still having extremely vivid dreams since, but they're no longer all terrifying. Sleeping better than ever and my anxiety is also better than ever.

I just read your comment after posting mine and it sounds like you've had a similar (but unfortunately opposite!) experience. The vivid dreams stop for me a few weeks after they start. Are your vivid dreams "permanent", or has it only been a short while since you started experiencing them?

You do, maybe. I’m a heavy user and have and recall plenty of dreams.

I'm a regular user and I dream if I take a nap and haven't smoked

Imagine what you could dream about if you stopped THC.

That implies I want to dream

Indeed, and IME, the dreams I have after taking a break from daily THC use are extremely vivid - to the point that I can remember them in detail for days afterwards. I enjoy that a lot.

I started CBD that had THC in it a couple years back. At first I noticed a great ability to get to sleep. It was fantastic. I've often had trouble getting to sleep (going back...decades). But I did notice over time I had far fewer dreams. If I did have any, I couldn't remember. It wasn't an immediate loss, but I noticed.

I stopped THC in January this year, and ... dreaming came back. Been dreaming for several months at least. Probably back as early as Feb/March, but I can't recall for certain.

Hello there. This reply is probably too late, but I have a recommendation.

Of course you should confirm the absence of contraindications first, but a good quality catnip supplement can induce vivid dreams. If you cannot find a reliable supplement, try a good quality catnip tea. Make it strong. Consume right before sleep.

Keep in mind that the effects rapidly reduce with consistency, so spread consumption sessions a week apart.

Sweet dreams!

Take 400mg Magnesium Glycinate and be careful what you wish for.

Never heard of it, it appears to be a supplement for inflammation? When you say vivid dreams what are we talking about here?

Look at your hands was a Casteneda trick. I find my quality of sleeps suffers so greatly when lucid dreaming that its not worth it because of health impacts.

I’m on the wrong end of my 30s and I haven’t dreamed consistently for years (or I can’t remember it at least). I have never used THC, so I suppose there are more reasons then THC to not dream. I’ll get the odd dream on a vacation every now and then- I suspect I’m too sleep deprived on a regular basis.

Looking at my Apple Watch data, I get regular amounts of REM sleep and Deep sleep.

I’ve noticed the same thing oddly- I’ll dream when I travel, especially when camping.

I'm 41 and have vivid dreams most nights. I jealously guard my sleep hygiene though and getting enough sleep every single night is one of the major priorities in my life. For this reason I never smoke week and almost never drink, as both of those effect my ability to sleep well. Even a single beer will show up on my sleep tracker as messed up sleep cycles.

How do you know with certainty that you do not dream? You spend zero minutes in REM? Do you track with Whoop or something similar?

I’ve tracked with both Whoop and Sleep number, I’ve gotten good “sleep scores”

I am a n00b when it comes to this matter, but... does THC stand for cannabis? And it helps one sleep?

Does dreaming less mean more deep sleep? Why would more deep sleep be a problem? I'm looking for a solution for my mother in law, who has only slept for 4-5h a night for the past 10 years and can't seem to fix it. This is wearing down her health.

THC is the primary compound in cannabis responsible for its “high”. Some plants are bred to be high in THC, but there are also those bred for CBD content, which doesn’t get you high. Both are useful in aiding sleep, though I’d say THC can be more stimulating, go for a strain labeled as indica for best results there. I’d recommend gummies (or mints/pills/etc.) as oral ingestion gives a much longer duration, otherwise it’s just a couple hours.

As you likely know, THC is illegal in many places, CBD is much more commonly available and socially accepted.

THC is the primary psychoactive chemical in marijuana. CBD is another compound that typically is sought after for pain reduction and as a sleep aid. THC is known to mess with REM sleep. If your are looking for information Erowid is a good resource, Reddit can be helpful too.

it makes you stoned - heavy and sleepy, but when you sleep it takes away REM phase - where you have dreams, some say, it's because it makes you micro-halucinating when you don't sleep

I'm at the opposite end. I dream every time I sleep, even if it's a 10-minute nap. Could be undiagnosed narcolepsy in my case, but it doesn't bother me enough to get it checked out.

When you say "nothing happens", I'm not even sure what you mean. Do you just fall asleep and wake up hours later with no sense of time passing?

I can answer this one, you are aware of time passing and if you've trained yourself with an alarm you can still wake on cue. But there's just nothing in between, higher order thought just turns off.

I don’t really know how to describe it. I guess I have no sense of how long I was asleep until I see how dark it is (which is my immediate reaction when waking up) then I usually I have a decent guess. Although there are times I wake up and I have no idea if it’s 2 or 6 am.

Are you able to more accurately guess the time when you wake up based on the contents of your dreams? The rare occurrences when I dream if it’s over “10 minutes” there’s no difference in my perception if it’s that or hours.

No I can't estimate the time according to dream content at all. It could seem like hours in a dream even if I’ve only been asleep half an hour.

Is it a case of not dreaming, or rather not remembering the dreams?

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around..

No I’ve dreamed before so I can tell when I don’t. I’ve discussed my dreams with my wife when I have them. They’re vivid on some occasions when I travel, most nights I don’t have any.

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