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Nicotine Dreams - The Effect of Nicotine Patches on Dreams

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Mr X:
report 3

report 2 was a day late, so report 3 a day early doesnt matter.

week 3 had some interesting results, the nicotine worked and produced crisp intense dreams, nightmares and strong memory retention.

as it is hard to quantify memory, and this is not exactly the most scientific experiment, i will present week 3 data in numbers.
each day i wrote down what i could remember from my dreams in dreams.txt, the following is word count numbers for each day. the number of words used to note down the dream memory.
see if you can guess the patch days, and the double patch day.

day 1 -(15) -74
day 2- (16) -92
day 3- (17) -102
day 4- (18) -16*
day 5- (19) -477
day 6- (20) -597
day 7-

on day 5 and especially 6 i just stopped typing into the journal as it was taking too long, first thing in the morning. i could of kept going. sometimes going back to type a sentence or so for things remembered hours later during the day.

the difference this week, aside from double patch, was that by day 5 it had been about week since i cut down smoking significantly. not fully quit but about a 90% reduction.

so this time, the dosage/tolerance was about right on patch 5. very clear intense dreams, bordering on nightmares. for the most part i resisted the shift to nightmare mode but it kept things at an strong uncomfortable intenseness.
even classic things like monsters in the dark was actually pretty enjoyable as i couldnt quite shift into nightmare mode. probably the worst parts were dreams of social situations i didnt want to be in.

what was interesting was being able to remember content from act 1 dreams all the way through the night until i woke up and typed down very clear memorys. there was even some lucidity towards the end.

i have to admit i was overall pretty happy with the patch doing what i had expected it to do from week 1. so double patch time.

day 6 was strong, clear, crisp, intense, nightmares. and i have to admit, it was fun, i wanted more at the end. i spent about an hour after waking up to try to sleep more for one more dream. even after that hour i could still type the biggest dream recall of the experiment so far.

the dreams would typically be something normal, like grocery shopping, then escalate to something nightmarish, such as violence. it was like a roller coaster, like the dream part that night with the roller coaster, making you get that feeling in your gut or chest as you drop. and that feeling is so strong and intense it can make you wake with fright.

double patch also made it hard to get back to sleep after each wake up.

a notable side effect of the experiement at week 3 is that i have too many memories. daily life memories, and tons of dream memories that are generally useless.

i will have to see after week 4, but i think a stronger patch or 1.5 (cut a patch in half) of the current patch would be my sweet spot.

that is report 3, i can edit in day 7 data later.

-

 a side note, in week 1 one of the repeating themes were about some people i dont think about much. i dont think about them enough that during the day i thought things like "huh, why i am repeat dreaming them". dreams with those people in them were generally about packing, getting ready to go somewhere.

those people tried to find me in the past week or so, they contacted my assistant to say they were heading overseas. not claiming psi or even sync, just thought it was interesting as i wouldnt of known if not for being able to remember dreams.

mr x.

Mr X:
report 4
part 1

experiment is over now, i did the 4x7 days. i am looking forward to not keeping a dream journal.

week 4 was a mess.

patch 7 (25mg) resulted in nightmares and sleep disruption. i got one good memory from act 1, then woke up after about 6 hours of sleep. over a 12 hour period it was very difficult to get back to sleep.

when getting to sleep i would very quickly have a nightmare that would make me wake up, and then about an hour or more to get back to sleep.

with so much time to think while trying to get back to sleep, i was pretty annoyed at the experience. at some point i got up to get water and take an extra sedative, paracetamol codeine and doxylamine.

one nightmare, when i was cornered and had few options to fight back, i was clawing at someones eyes, eye gouging, and i woke up, with my finger nails dug into my mattress. that happened within minutes of falling asleep, waking up resulted in over an hour before drifting off again.

i wanted to give up, as each wake up meant some time commitment to get back to sleep. i wanted one more dream, some payoff for the time spent. it was eventually worth it due to a lucid dream that lasted a few minutes. in that dream i had given up and got up and went about my day, with the plan to type into dreams.txt, but eventually realized i had woken up in the wrong house, it was a dream and so on.

it was very fun to be in a very lucid dream as real as normal life, i had maybe 5 or 6 minutes before the nightmare started. as i was about to bash someones head in with a coil of fencing wire i hesitated, as it all seemed so real, then popped back into being awake and being annoyed at not being able to sleep.

patch 8 was not much. i think i over sedated for that. still got plenty of memory from it, not intense, not close to real nightmares but some minor uncomfortable content.

week 4 also included the only day with no report, had to get up and go in the morning with no time to use the journal.

that is report 4 part 1, part 2 will be about the experiment overall, and i will collect the word count data for the whole 4 weeks as i have not much else data to present.

i will just say now, i would be interested to see what happens if anyone else were to do this experiment or a modified version.

mr x.

Mr X:
report 4
part 2

a flaw with the experiment was that in the journal i only recorded wether or not a patch was used, how long i slept, if the dreams were intense or not, and the dream content. there were lots of other variables, such as sedation, intoxication, general energy level of the day, food consumption anomalies, holding pattern strenght of that day, and so on, that were not recorded, but surely would make an difference.

dosage seems to be the main thing. a non smoker or full time smoker would possibly find it easier to find the right dosage, possibly. i fluctuated in nicotine intake through smoking during the experiment.

if i had of recorded more info, i would try to replicate patch 5. then a little more. week four had the choice of 25mg 16hr patches or 21mg 24 hour patches, 21mg probably would be good.

pic attached of the 25mg patch.

first 25mg patch i experienced two audio hallucinations. first was most likely hypnagogic (?) hallucination - hearing a loud bang or crack, like a sonic boom or sound of a cannon just as i was drifting.

second was while trying to get back to sleep later, i thought i could hear music for about 20 minutes, but was certainly pareidolia from the fan near my bed that i use for background noise.

as i have nothing to offer but ancedotes, here is the word count for the full month. i was going to present a neat table but it is a pain to do, so here is a simple list. day one is always monday and day 7 is always sunday. patch days are bolded.

week 1 (15mg)
1 - 58
2 - 51
3 - 45
4 - 124
5 - 57*
6-  90
7- 163
week 2 (15mg)
1- 100
2- 30
3- 44
4- 92
5- 165
6- 9
7- 178
week 3 (15mg and 30mg on day 6)
1- 74
2- 92
3- 102
4- 16*
5- 477
6- 597
7- 16
week 4 (25mg)
1- 85
2- 6*
3- 34
4- 24
5- 194
6- 667
7- 192*


it was an intersting bit of mind tourism. a few days after the experiment i can still remember nightly dreams but i am not paying much attention to them or noting them down. i will consider casually trying to find a sweet spot with patches over time. being able to have lots of realistic dreams and even lucid dreams on demand would be a fun option to have.


mr x.

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