Galantamine issues/questions

Let me detail the background to this as briefly as I can: A few months after Inception came out, I had my first real lucid dream, which was about five minutes long and very interesting. I would have these every few weeks at random from that point on, most them ending almost at once but a few lasting five minutes or so at most, no matter what I did to try and stabilize them. Then they pretty much stopped happening around the start of 2013. I started trying various supplements; B6 just made me wake with the need to urinate more often, Calea Z was worse than nothing, as I never seemed to remember dreaming at all on the nights I tried it. Finally, with much skepticism, I tried a Galantamine/Choline combo. At 4 mg, not much happened, but my first time with 8 mg I managed a WILD for the first time ever and had a very vivid dream wherein I flew to the moon under my own power (still only about five minutes, but flying attempts usually woke me right away, so it was a big step). However, it's never been that successful since. I'd say nine times out of ten it does result in a lucid dream, and the dreams have become much longer, but they've also gotten fuzzier. I tend to forget what I intended to do in the dream, I forget to stabilize it, and most aggravatingly, I have as much trouble remembering them later as one would with a normal dream; they're hazy and have large gaps. It's as if I've been having dreams wherein I'm lucid, but very inebriated.

So here's the thing: I recall reading here somewhere that Valerian root works well with Galantamine, and have been taking them together, but I can't recall if my first, most successful attempt involved the Valerian root or not. It might have been something I added afterwards. Has anyone had similar experiences? Should I drop the Valerian root? I can only try this once a week at most, so the ability to experiment is stretched out over a long time. Any ideas?

I can only share my own experience with Galantamine and Choline, which is limited. But has been very positive so far. I think the first and most obvious thing is that it makes WILD entry much easier. That's pretty much without question and very valuable if you are using the WILD method. Any lucid dream is better than a failed attempt.

As far as the lucid dreams go once you get there, can't say I've had anything near the quality of previous unaided lucid dreams, but not giving up trying. None have been over about 5 minutes so far, although the clarity hasn't been a problem. But so far all of my lucid dreaming experiences have been very late in the sleep period, usually around 8 hours and that's likely part of the problem. After that point any dream starts to become fairly shallow and unstable anyway so I'm not drawing any conclusions from that.

Many people have had excellent results with this combo so I would look at the other factors and see if there are other things you could change to see if you can get an improvement.

I have no experience with Valerian Root so can't comment on that.

The timing does seem to play a crucial part in it: if I take it too early in my sleep period, any lucid dreams I have are very muddled and vague, but if I take it too late, they're very unstable or don't happen at all. Optimally, I need to take it around six hours after going to bed, and I don't always wake up at the right time (alarm clocks are no help, as I hate being woken by an alarm so much that I'll constantly awaken with increasing frequency in a subconscious attempt to pre-empt the alarm). It's a difficult trick to practice, as I've had no luck at all achieving an unaided WILD after a year of trying, but I can't try the Galantamine more than once per week, not only due to the desire not to build tolerance, but because I end up so relaxed that I'll always oversleep while on it. I suppose I'll try doing without the Valerian root next time, if no one has any other/better recommendations.

Yes the timing does seem important and I'm still experimenting with it. I generally wake up at some point in the night so I have a general plan maybe to try them in next few days, but make the final decision to do it when I happen to wake up at a good time. I find the peak of the effects are 2 hours for me so I try to get the peak to occur at around 7 hours of sleep which means taking them at 5 hours.

Would be very interested to hear the details of your results if you are going to try again so please post them.

So, am I to take it that no one else has had similar issues with clarity on this supplement?

What would be a good amount of time to stay awake when you take the supplements? Iv'e read about some staying up for an hour before going back to sleep. Maybe to seed the lucid dream? I guess this is where the valerian root could be used. This is probably something to be discovered on an individual basis as is most everything about LD from what I'm reading here.

The key is to get fully awake so for me that is at least 30 minutes of activity, normally online researching something of interest. It can be hard to get back to sleep but that is the price I pay for what I do

CJ21 wrote: What would be a good amount of time to stay awake when you take the supplements? Iv'e read about some staying up for an hour before going back to sleep. Maybe to seed the lucid dream? I guess this is where the valerian root could be used. This is probably something to be discovered on an individual basis as is most everything about LD from what I'm reading here.

Mt method is going back to bed after a half hour and start to relax and prepare for WILD entry. For me, the effects don't peak until about 2 hours after taking them. I find that I really have to follow the same process to do WILD as without them because yes they make it easier, but no they don't do it for you. Last time I didn't put as much effort into it, was not relaxed enough, and failed. If I allow myself to stay completely awake, I really can't even tell I've taken them. Only when I am already into the right state for WILD entry are the effects obvious and you can easily navigate the entry into WILD. But, you have to be able to get to that state before they can help you, that's been my experience.

lucidinthe sky wrote:

CJ21 wrote:What would be a good amount of time to stay awake when you take the supplements? Iv'e read about some staying up for an hour before going back to sleep. Maybe to seed the lucid dream? I guess this is where the valerian root could be used. This is probably something to be discovered on an individual basis as is most everything about LD from what I'm reading here.

Mt method is going back to bed after a half hour and start to relax and prepare for WILD entry. For me, the effects don't peak until about 2 hours after taking them. I find that I really have to follow the same process to do WILD as without them because yes they make it easier, but no they don't do it for you. Last time I didn't put as much effort into it, was not relaxed enough, and failed. If I allow myself to stay completely awake, I really can't even tell I've taken them. Only when I am already into the right state for WILD entry are the effects obvious and you can easily navigate the entry into WILD. But, you have to be able to get to that state before they can help you, that's been my experience.

I am 0 for 2 right now. I shot myself in the foot the first night by turning into a little kid on christmas eve. I got about 5.5 hours with a quick roll over pill pop. I snapped the choline in half and even made a fabulous cup of rancid feet tea to wash it down. Only one g-cap and lights out. Slept straight through without even a dream to recall. Too much prep.

Night two(this morning) I got 4.5 and took the half hour recommendation, but 2 caps this time. I'm still awake. Galantamine is a pretty incredible supplement. This is definitely something that will stay in your system long enough to carry over to the next attempt. It must be just a matter of keeping a steady level in your system and I don't think I'll be needing 2 caps for my next try(If I can get to sleep). This is feeling like something out of Limitless. This must happen to everyone, or maybe Iv'e had Alzheimer's all my life and did't even know it. Have you ever tried to take the caps sublingually? I must sleep now.....

Was wondering if you've been able to WILD without the G and C. It's easier with them, but not that much easier. Last time, I made the mistake of not putting in as much effort, thinking the supplements would make it happen with less work.

Although I'm tempted to try more, I have never used more than one cap of Galantamine, mainly because even one often makes it too difficult to go back to sleep.

But the truth is they really do work so don't give up. I've had some really excellent experiences with them and plan on doing more, maybe even tonight :)

I have had plenty of WILD's without supplements but is a lot harder as the entry points and change of states are very gentle and its hard to get an entry but can be done

I studied and practiced astral projection 19 years ago but all I got were obe's and lucid dreams out of it(ha ha). Joking aside, there were different techniques in the book I read, but there was only one that I stuck with. I just recently started to read again and there's almost too much information out there, but I discovered Hemi-Sync and binaural beats in the process. The audio puts a whole new spin on meditation and I wish I had it back when I started. I was intrigued when I learned of the supplements but I don't think It's something I want to use on a regular basis. I only tried it twice and I found It hangs in your system for quite a while. I don't know how it can used on a daily basis without it piling up in your system. Maybe it's just me. I think just a focus 10 meditation with some Hemi-Sync audio could do the trick for most.(projection at will) Patience is the key here. I will have to share what specific audio I have found, and I think I saw an audio/ CD topic here. I must share my findings. I have just begun to knock the rust off my astral body and it's comforting to have a place to share experiences. Who do you talk to on the streets about things of this nature? Iv'e never found anyone my entire life. My dream journal is on a cocktail napkin, so I need to get my stuff in order before I get back to business. Good times.

Post away and would be pleased to see what you use and think. I will use supplements once every 2 weeks or so and sometimes coffee as well.

I also have a decent run of lucids without anything other that patience as well. I have just got a Kasina to play with and its new to me so need to adjust to the noise and lights but its got a lot of potential and excited to have one