Weeks? Months? Years? Any other interesting experiences?

  • Rogmonster@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I dont remember my dreams when I use. It’s the main reason I do. I have terrible nightmares and weed helps me not wake up screaming… But when I stop for a time, it all comes back. It’s terrible that I have to choose between being too tired to function and being able to pass a drug test

    • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You could talk to a doctor about prazosin. It’s a blood pressure drug that stops dreams for some unknown reason. I have PTSD nightmares and will take it for a week or so when they crop up again. Just something to consider

      • swordsmanluke@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Plus one for prazosin. I have a family member with PTSD nightmares. Prazosin has made them able to actually sleep for the first time in their adult life.

      • Rogmonster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I appreciate your suggestion. I have some of the same issues as a few other commenters. I have low blood pressure from an autoimmune issue which contraindicates BP drugs. I’ve tried a lot of things, but I have a sensitive system and the side effects tend to be worse than the dream.

      • Mistymtn421@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I took a BP medicine called Clonidine for PTSD nightmares as well. I wonder what it is about them that help.

        My biggest issue was having already naturally low BP, so couldn’t take it at the dose they wanted. Luckily, it still worked. Just had to go in frequently to have my pressure checked.

      • Rogmonster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t find it an insensitive question online. Usually I’m committing horrible acts of violence. Stuff I didn’t even know I knew about. And I’m one of the nicest people you’d meet. It really fucks me up.

  • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m a heavy daily user and have been for two decades, but I regularly have vivid dreams. I’ve also quit a few times, once for three months, but I didn’t really see a lot of difference when it came to dreaming.

  • PixelAlchemist@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I was a heavy user for years and it helped suppress dreams a lot while I was using. At the time I also had an early morning college course. When I would come back from that class and pass back out, I was able to consistently trigger lucid dreams like clockwork, which was awesome.

    When I quit smoking, I had insane, cinematic dreams for probably about 3 weeks before my normal REM cycle returned.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    You have vivid dreams for a few days. It’s just a matter of your hormones equalizing, so it doesn’t take a really long time.

    Similar timeframe to getting over nicotine withdrawal which is a few days to a week, which is basically the time it takes your brain to alter its calibration.

      • Drusas@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It wasn’t exactly a story that made any sense, as it rarely is. I dreamed of fishing, and sea monsters. Later, I was part of a team fighting off…combatants in a tall building. Humans from another world. The elevators didn’t all work and weren’t all safe. We had to sneak about to get to the top to fight off the leaders.

        This is pretty typical of my dreams.

        Edit: It ended when I was watching some whales leaping from the water and one of them became stranded on the land. I woke up very upset about the dying whale.

  • Seraph@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’m actually quite convinced that you do dream you just don’t remember it anymore. I really only remember waking dreams.

    I have not experienced more vivid dreams when on a break, but I do remember more of them.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      So by inspecting your memory you see more of a particular thing happening … and your explanatory model is the memories of it happening in the other context just got erased?

      What makes you suspect they’re there but forgotten, instead of just absent?

      • Seraph@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It’s a suspicion based on the second point and that our brains naturally want to dream to rehash our day for memory purposes, particularly during REM, though of course there are other types of dreams & timing too.

  • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve read this before, and even my brother had it happen, but I never have. I smoke 10x more than he does.

  • deezbutts@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Not a super heavy user but when I stopped regular edibles (basically daily for months) I hit the dream wall.

    I didn’t realize I’d stopped having them until they started again. Weird dreams about school, past relationships, etc. Mostly awkward social situations that my brain mashed together, thankfully nothing downright horrid.

  • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Thats textbook my experience. Whenever I do consume frequently I have zero dreams whatsoever, at least I can’t remember even one during that all that time.

    During breaks I suppose it all comes boiling to the surface, at least two to three weeks of weird dreams and general sleep issues like very high internal tension and stress levels, and heavy sweating when I actually fall asleep. During those first days and weeks I have essentially zero appetite either.

    Essentially it depends on for how long you have been consuming, and how frequently. During my early days when I smoked like once a week I didn’t have those issues.

    That being said, while the withdrawal symptoms are unpleasant they are barely worth mentioning compared to other substances. Poor sleep, some general discomfort, lack of appetite. Eventually it sorts itself out

  • Narrrz@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I would guess this effect is caused by lowered anxiety, or rather, reduced alertness. I take a medication that includes an adrenal blocker - for my anxiety - and if I miss even a day my dreams go crazy as my body is flooded with levels of adrenaline it’s no longer used to.

  • Woovie@artemis.camp
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    1 year ago

    I’ve been taking chunks of days off from smoking recently. My dreams’ vividness and frequency of remembrance increase a lot around 12-24 hours after being sober. That will last for a couple of days. I find I can avoid dreamless sleep if I just smoke less. Sometimes I’ll take one fat rip before bed, I’ll have a pretty wild dream vividness if I hadn’t smoked for a couple of days.

  • sky@codesink.io
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    1 year ago

    I hadn’t considered it might be quitting weed since I started an antidepressant around the same time and had been assuming it was that. It’s been a little over 5 weeks and I’m having awful nightmares every single night. Not interesting, just unpleasant and rooted in my various traumas.

    Not ideal, but all the other positives of sobriety are worth it.

    • frogfruit@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Antidepressants cause vivid dreams for me. Cyclobenzaprine is a serotonergic muscle relaxer that causes the type of vivid nightmares that make me yell in my sleep.

      • sky@codesink.io
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        1 year ago

        That sounds terrible, I’m sorry! I have to admit I liked not dreaming at all.