There seems to be little information available on -how- these work, as in mechanism of action or even identified active substances in the root.
It seems there is something with somewhat comparable effects from middle america (calea) but the description of that doesn't clarify a mechanism either.
What i find most interesting is reporting upwards of 10 dreams in a single night, which is quite a lot. It is normal to go through a couple of REM stages during a normal night, and one stage can have more than one continous dream, but that rarely ends up with such high numbers.
This makes we wonder what this plant actually does: does it make you dream more, remember dreams better and/or perhaps influence if dreams are lucid or not?
I realize that's 3 parameters in one go, but without sleep phase analysis and such it is not really possible to tell them apart. It also makes me wonder how safe it would be to try these as they seem to interfere with your normal sleep/dream pattern. Especially since some effects lasted for months this could be problematic.
Would you rate the overall experience as a positive one?
Personally i would not be inclined to test something which doesnt even have a known active compound nor mechanism of action, but i do like lucid dreams.
Overall it was a great experience and I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in lucid dreaming!
The only ill effects I had was being a bit tired the day after my 3rd night because I didn't get much quality sleep. I didn't realize how intense the dream root would be and ended up having my 3rd night in the middle of the week. I had a few classes and homework assignments to do that day and that kinda sucked because I was very tired. Next time I do it Ill start on wednesday or thursday.
Also, I experimented with just taking one 0.25g dose instead of the whole 3 day regimen and that did seem to increase my dream activity for the next few days but nothing crazy.
I can say for sure that it makes dreams easier to recall and makes dream much more vivid/detailed. It seems to make me have more dreams too but I cant say for sure because I have no clue how many dreams I have in a night that I dont remember. I believe the detail in the dreams is a big part of why it induces lucid dreams. Both times when I had a lucid dream on it I realized I was in a dream by looking at the details far off in the background and realizing something was quite right. For example in the first one I was in a mall and some of the shops in the background just had sort of colored blobs in the windows (instead of clothes, people, signs, or whatever) which I looked at closely and realized it wasnt a real store. In a normal dream that type of thing would have just been glossed over and never noticed.
Everything I can find about the active compound seems to say it is "triterpenoid saponins" but none of the articles I found went into much detail on that. From what I could find they think this is the active compound because it is what causes the froth when mixed with water and the shamans who originally used the root took it by ingesting the foam. I read a lot about the dream root before I tried it and most every guide was full of hippie psuedo science about how the only way to prepare it is by mixing it with a forked twig and slurping up the foam. Well I figured that was BS so I just chopped up the root, measured out 0.25g doses, swallowed them and it worked just fine.
In all my research I never found anything to suggest it is dangerous and I had no bad effect other than being tired. I think you shoud try it, from what youve said about lucid dreaming I think you would enjoy it. It is an awesome experience like nothing else. Its not like you are getting high from it either, I noticed zero effects through the day.
Ultron, Im wondering if you experiences with dream root are similar to mine? Also what dose and how often do you take it?
