I experienced what are known as lucid dreams when I kept a nicotine patch on at night while trying to quit smoking. After two nights of this I left the patch off at night and had no such dreams, then put it on again the next night and had another night of lucid dreams. It is a very intense experience, being in a dream and being aware that it is a dream! After the third night I did not feel like repeating it - these dreams went on apparently all night and I found it to be emotionally draining. It might be worth trying if you want the experience without all the training effort? If you don’t smoke I would try the smallest patch (maybe even cut in half).
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How do you have lucid dreams? (05-Aug-2005)
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Back to the original post: does this mean that if I started smoking or chewing tobacco, I would experience lucid dreams? Any smokers or tobacco chewers care to relate their experiences?
I’ve been smoking for about 8 years now, with an upper bound of about 3 packs a week (to give an idea of how heavily). As I’ve said elsewhere, for all I can tell I dream maybe once every other month.
I smoked about 4+ packs a week and had this effect with the largest patch (I forget the dosages, they seem to come in three sizes). I was not smoking at all duriing the day, I put the patch on in the morning and left it on at night to have this effect. You might want to try a mid-size patch applied before bedtime? Note that the effect seemed to be caused by having a constant low level supply of nicotine while I slept - and to put it mildly it’s really, really weird! On the plus side, if it works and you keep at it maybe you’ll quit smoking? 