this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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Regularly smoking friends recently claimed to rarely have intense dreams after weed consumption, can you confirm?

Edit: Thanks for your replies everyone. I hadn't been aware of the impact of THC on sleep, and will take it into account from now on when trying to make responsible consumption choices, as I believe quality of sleep and quality of waking life to be strongly correlated.

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[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nope, weed does kill those dreams. The upside is, after 3-4 days of a t-break, holy crap are the dreams intense.

[–] zammy95@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Truth. I smoked every day for many moons, and then had to quit for job related reasons. The dreams were crazy, I went from never having them to having many extremely vivid dreams one after another.

[–] ard@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

yeah I quit 2 years ago (after 20+ years of smoking) and still have several vivid memorable dreams every night. Even during a short nap. It's a weird side effect.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I specifically use it to get rid of night terrors. It stops me from dreaming when nothing else does.

[–] BURN@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I don’t dream at all

It’s been years since I’ve had a dream I can remember, and it almost always coincides with a T-Break. My dreams have always been a little awful, and I don’t miss them at all.

YMMV though

[–] Tiritibambix@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The more I consume, the less I remember my dreams.

I recall having ultra vivid dreams when I switched from combustion to vaporization, because I was using less.

[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

That’s been my experience. I haven’t remembered a dream in years.

[–] amio@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

I've never had intense or frequent dreams (that I remember) anyway, but I can confirm that smoking seems to "block" dreaming for me.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah. The other night I dreamt I took both my dogs out at the same time (I usually take them one at a time because they act like fools when together) and had the brilliant idea of tying the leashes to my belt loops so I could have my hands free. But then they saw a cat, took off in unison and ripped my pants off.

I've heard that smoking weed and going to sleep high makes you unable to dream, but I've been smoking since 19 and I've never not dreamed. Might not always remember details, but I remember dreaming.

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very light but daily smoker. Usually a couple puffs before bed and my dreams are very vivid and sometimes lucid.

Came here to say this.

When I was younger and consumed more, I would not remember my dreams. If I stopped for a week or more they would come back.

[–] mriormro@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Reminder that Aphantasia is a thing and it can affect our ability to remember dreams.

[–] wolfshadowheart@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From my studies aphantasia (the lack of visualization) is a separate part of the brain from where our dreams are handled, so from what we can tell aphantasia doesn't interfere too much with the process of dreaming?

Anecdotally, I find myself rarely dreaming (daily herbal vaporizer user) but can under certain methods (like the lucid dreaming method wake and back to bed). Very very rarely I'll get visualization right before falling asleep, and dreams I do remember are effectively like I'm living in them, but for as long as I can remember my dreams have been in black and white (sometimes with red skies). When I do dream they are also always very chaotic, usually being chased, running through forests and hiding in cabins or fighting giant monsters. But always fairly detailed just in grey scale. That said, just like life, remembering my dreams is the same. I can only describe what I remember and I don't visualize any of it again.

I have aphantasia and the most visualization in the waking world that I have is understand space - the layout and size of objects in a room for example - however beyond a rough "knowing" of the shape and size of a chair relative to the size of the room and other objects is all based in memory. It helps have my eyes open to reference other things. But anything beyond can this box fit in there is pretty much a blank (black with static, rather).

In regards to cannabis, THC in the majority of people inhibits our REM cycles which can prevent the process of making/remembering dreams. I've pretty much had roughly the same experience with dreams since I started smoking around 16 though, and still when I switch to vaping at 19ish, although consumption has gone up since those ages (and subsequently down a little bit lately).

All in all, anyone who wants to consistently dream should look into incorporating lucid dreaming techniques, writing down whatever they do remember when they wake up, and maybe looking into other aids like mugwort.

[–] mriormro@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Aphantasia has been found to affect your remembrance of dreams. Not your ability to dream. I'm pretty high on the Aphantasia spectrum and very rarely, if ever, remember my dreams.

[–] young_broccoli@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

I have weird, vivid dreams when I'm not smoking, but also wake up once or twice at night and get sleep paralysis.
When I smoke I sleep the whole night without waking up, but I dont have dreams, or cant remember them.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I never remember my dreams, but considering how intense my nightmares used to be, I'm good with that.

[–] dumbcrumb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I feel like I still have dreams but they are very infrequent and I almost never remember anything from them. But after a week or so off thc I get very intense dreams. I remember one of the first times I took a t break I had my first lucid dreams twice that week and haven't had any since.

[–] thesprongler@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Regular smoker here. I occasionally have VERY vivid dreams, but usually in the 4-5am range after my cat has woken me up and I go back to sleep.

[–] Blizzard@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

I either don't have or don't remember dreams. If I take a break, they're back.

[–] AtomicPurple@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

My dreams tend to be way more intense when I'm stoned, but I have a much harder time remembering them afterwards.

[–] SoupBrick@yiffit.net 2 points 1 year ago

No dreams when weeding.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I only started smoking regularly in the past few years, but I've never really had many dreams. I only ever remembered them if they were happening just as I was waking up, and even then I had to REALLY focus on what was just happening or it would be lost forever, or, I end up with single images with no context. "There was something involving my 3rd grade teacher, but I have no idea what or why."

[–] ridethespiral@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Nah I still have some pretty wild dreams but I also have quite a low tolerance, one puff off a live resin cart and I'm ripped lol.

Slightly unrelated, it tends to help with keeping my anxiety controlled when first waking up if I fall asleep stoned.

[–] n3cr0@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

No change for me since I started. Well, maybe it is even the opposite: I notice when I'm falling asleep because I'm dreaming lucid then.

[–] Thteven@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I haven't ever noticed a difference from my normal dream habits. I always remember my dreams when I wake up but it slowly fades out unless I focus on what was happening.

One time though I ate a huge hash cookie and had a dream where I was in a dark tunnel and then there was the brightest light and loudest sound I've ever heard and I woke up in a cold sweat thinking I just saw god lmao

[–] LegionEris@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

I dream less intensely when I fall asleep stoned. It's a feature, not a bug for me. I have naturally weird, sometimes intense dreams. My welbutrin makes it even worse. I can have one extended dream all night, wake up and fall asleep to the same dream. A double dose of delta-9 dampens the dream demons.

Depends what I'm on. Mirtazipine gives me dreams of being chased.