This is a guest article by Ben Jacobs of Calea Z Dreams.

One of my first experiences with Calea zacatechichi involved taking bong hit after bong hit from my couch at home, a spectacle that evidently warranted harassment from any onlookers. “What – do you think you’re going to get high or something?” The question was posed along with an incredulous look, like I was some kid who got bored sniffing glue and wanted to try something new.

The truth is, I do like to try new things. Like the time shortly thereafter that I took over the kitchen for half a day grinding out Calea leaves and put them into little gel caps in an attempt to make my own capsules – an entirely inefficient process I do not recommend. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Just what the heck is this strange sounding thing called Calea zacatechichi?

Oh, and by the way – no, it doesn’t get you high.

What is Calea zacatechichi?

A jade Chontal Figure from Guerrero, Mexico. 500-100 B.C. Today's Chontal consider themselves the descendants of the Olmec.

Calea zacatechichi is a plant native to Mexico known for its effects on dreams. Traditionally it’s used by the indigenous Chontal as a means of dream divination. A Chontal shaman would smoke a cigarette and drink a tea made from its leaves before going to sleep.

The dream would then give them the answers they were looking for – such as the reason why a person was sick.

Also called “the dream herb” or just “Dream Herb,” Calea zacatechichi has become well known outside of its traditional usage by the Chontal.

Much of the excitement surrounding this plant revolves around its reported ability for inducing lucid dreams.

Effects on Dreams

A 1986 study in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology showed several interesting results in regards to dreams and Calea zacatechichi. Of particular interest is that the “results show that zacatechichi administration appears to enhance the number and/or recollection of dreams during sleeping periods.”

Additionally, the authors state the data collected “suggests that Calea zacatechichi induces episodes of lively hypnagogic imagery.” In summary, the study suggested that Calea zacatechichi causes an increase in the following:

• number of overall dreams experienced
• ability to remember those dreams
• intensity of hypnagogic imagery experienced while falling asleep

Experiential reports suggest that its effects also include:

• spontaneous lucid dream experiences
• increased dream clarity and realism

By “experiential reports,” I mean the experiences of everyday people who try working with Calea zacatechichi and then report on those experiences online.

Working with Calea Zacatechichi

Calea zacatechichi is most commonly sold dried and bagged by the gram. This makes it perfect for its two most common preparations – either making it into a tea or smoking raw leaf in a tobacco pipe or as a cigarette.

Making Calea zacatechichi Tea. For those trying this for the first time, I recommend making a tea by pouring boiling water over 1-2 grams of Calea zacatechichi. Let steep for 10 minutes and then drink about an hour before going to bed. As you fall asleep, confidently hold the intention in your mind that you will have a lucid dream.

The first time I made the tea I used about 5 grams. I did not have a lucid dream but I had two very vivid dreams. There were other times I made the tea but I cannot find my notes on it.

Making the Tea Taste Better. Some people seem slightly offended at the suggestion of improving the taste of this rather bitter tea. Nevertheless, any discussion on Dream Herb tends to get into the taste, which then gets into what people have done to make it less bitter.

Years ago I wrote a blog post called How to Make Calea Z Tea Taste Bitter…I Mean Better! which has since collected some great tips from others. Some of these suggestions include adding honey, soy milk, mint leaves, lemon balm herb, or agave nectar to the tea. One person even suggests kool-aid.

Other tips include chewing gum or sucking on hard candy while sipping on the tea.

It's a bitter brew, so add some kool aid!

Smoking It. Of course, you can always smoke it instead of making a tea, too. Personally I’ve never had a problem with the smoke, but some describe it as harsh and try blending it with other herbs or using a water pipe may be useful.

In my experiments, the first couple nights I saw little to no effect on my dreams. Or worse yet, it seemed I had lower dream recall than normal. But there’s a curious little note about these first few sessions that flags the research between dream herb and hypnagogic imagery.

I saw a noticeable increase in the intensity and fluidness of visuals using my Sirius Mind Machine before going to bed. This makes sense, given the almost dream-like state I would be in using my mind machine to help me fall asleep and the ability of Calea Z to ramp up the hypnogagic imagery.

I continued smoking Calea zacatechichi the nights following this experience, and I’m happy to say I had a lucid dream. The realization that I was dreaming came on spontaneously and for a few minutes I roamed around in my dream being obnoxious before this awareness left me as quickly as it had come, and the dream returned to “normal.”

It’s also worth noting that the dream sequences that played out before lucidity were very long and full of strange details. By the way, I wasn’t taking exact measurements but I was smoking about a gram on each of these nights. I wanted to smoke more but it takes a lot of work on the lungs to do so.

Other Preparations. You can also find Dream Herb sold as a tincture, resin, or in a capsule. In these forms it is typically enhanced to be either 10x or 20x as strong as it would otherwise be for the same amount.

Calea Z is also known as Bitter Grass, Cheech, and Leaf of God

One time I took 10 grams of raw leaf and crushed it into pieces small enough to fit into 24 capsules. I took 12 capsules or about 5 grams that night and again the next night.

While I was still awake yet nearly asleep, I saw “some breed of throbbing visuals on my eyelids.”

However, my dreams were nothing special on either night – it was as if there was no effect at all.

Conclusions From My Own Experiences

Based on my own experiences, dream herb seems to work best when smoked. Higher doses taken via other methods didn’t translate to an increase in the effects I had when smoking at lower doses. This is based on only a few experiments though and I wouldn’t draw any linear conclusions here.

But the question everyone really seems to have is this: Does Calea zacatechichi cause lucid dreams?

It’s a safe bet that experimenting with it over a number of nights you are going to see a variety of results, which will almost certainly include an increase in vivid dreams and probably will include having a lucid dream. And then there will be nights with nothing at all.

I honestly don’t know what to make of that, which is one reason why I’ve remained so intrigued with this plant after all these years.

About the Author

Ben Jacobs runs a site devoted exclusively to Calea zacatechichi. His intention is for it to be both a handy reference guide and a community oriented site where people share information on working with Calea Z and also growing it at home. He is always looking for contributions, photos, and personal stories.

My US readers are preparing for Thanksgiving, the traditional harvest meal to celebrate family and friends. And most of us that sit at the Thanksgiving table will probably want a serious nap after eating. While the tryptophan in turkey is often blamed for this holiday nap effect, actually it’s more complex than that.

What is tryptophan? It’s an essential amino acid. Turkey has tryptophan. But so do the buttered biscuits, the cheese, the deviled eggs, and Aunt Bethany’s famous garlic mashed potatoes.  Other meats like chicken, ham, fish and beef are high in tryptophan, too. It’s well represented in the dessert category, as well, including chocolate cake, pumpkin pie and banana fritters.

But all this tryptophan is not directly responsible for the family exodus from the dining room to the den. Actually, that’s probably due to old-fashioned carb-loading.

Here’s how it works. All those carbohydrates spike your insulin levels. This stimulates the uptake of large amino acids in the bloodstream — except for tryptophan. This gives you a suddenly high level of tryptophan in the blood, which crosses the blood-brain barrier and enters the central nervous system. From here all that excess tryptophan is synthesized into serotonin. Much of this serotonin is further transformed by the pineal gland into melatonin–and it’s the melatonin that brings on the snooze.

A natural jet-lag remedy

The convenient thing about melatonin is that it appears to be a natural jet-lag hang-over cure. So if you’ve taken a red-eye to see your family over the winter holidays, make sure you have a tryptophan-rich bedtime snack on friday night too. This could be a small turkey sandwich, a cup of cottage cheese, or a glass of warm milk. Excess melatonin can decrease the time it takes to get to sleep as well as strengthen the architecture of sleep: so you’ll wake up less often in the night. People report feeling more energetic the day after they take melatonin as well.

Bizarre Dreams and Lucid Dreaming

I'm not sure what is more bizarre: dreams caused from eating tryptophan-rich foods, or an actual turkey.

What really interests me about the tryptophan-melatonin partnership is that they can bring on bizarre and vivid dreams. About ten years ago, dream researcher Tracey Kahan and associates from Santa Clara University ran a two-week study looking at changes in dream content after taking 6mg of melatonin supplement, compared to placebo. The melatonin-subjects’ dreams were analyzed to contain more “transformations of objects” and “overall transformations.” Kinda trippy.

There’s also a heavily documented link between melatonin and REM latency, the time between REM sleep phases, which is the stage of sleep most remembered dreams come from. Coming full circle, Tore Nielsen and company (2010) from the Montreal-based Dream and Nightmare Laboratory have noted an association between the REM sessions that follow long latency periods and the increased level of nightmares and disturbing dream imagery in general.

This REM effect therefore could make melatonin a potential aid for inducing lucid dreaming, albeit it bizarre and nightmarish lucid dreams. More weirdness in dreams means more chances to recognize “This is creepy and weird–hey, I’m dreaming. And I can fly!”

So is this really all by random chance that traditional harvest feasts involve carb-loading and tryptophan-rich foods, served for days-on-end with the seasonal sleep-overs of close family and friends?  I argue that harvest feasts also function as dream incubation sessions. Our culture has set us up to live together, dream together, and share it all in the mornings — just like the old days, if only for a night or two, before we go back to our neolocal lives.

So when Aunt Bethany says, “More potatoes, hon?”, that’s an invitation to dream a little deeper tonight.

Yes, ma’am.

References

Kahan, T.L., Hays, J., Hirashima, B., & Johnston, K. (2000). Effects of melatonin on dream bizarreness among male and female college students. Sleep and Hypnosis, 2(2), 74-83.

Nielsen TA, Paquette T, Solomonova E, Lara-Carrasco J, Popova A, Levrier K. (2010).  REM sleep characteristics of nightmare sufferers before and after REM sleep deprivation. Sleep medicine, Feb;11(2):172-9.

US Department of Health and Human Services: Melatonin for Treatment of Sleep Disorders

First Image Attribution (CC): Sleeping by kaibara87

5-HTP has increasingly gained notoriety as a dream supplement in the last few years. Its primary use is as an appetite suppressant and for “natural” depression treatment. I haven’t personally tried this amino acid—even though it’s readily available as a dietary supplement pretty much in any suburban drug store—but I dug up the latest research on the effects of 5-HTP for dreams because it may have more ill effects than expected.

What is 5-HTP and what does it do?

5-Hydroxytryptophan is derived from the seeds of an African tree known as Griffonia simplicifolia. Chemically, it’s related to tryptophan of Turkey Dinner fame. Both trytophan and 5-HTP are precursors to serotonin. It’s brain food, and taking it increases the serotonin level on the brain, which regulates mood, sleep cycles and appetite.

Increases Dream Vividness and Bizarreness

Over the years, people have noticed that taking 5-HTP increases dream vividness. This really isn’t so surprising, as lots of research has correlated increased serotonin levels with dream vividness. A classic article comes from the early aughts, when psychiatrist Edward Pace-Schott and his merry crew reported that subjects on SSRIs (serotonin reuptake inhibitors) reported much longer dream reports than normal, as well as more dream bizarreness in the content. Translation note: “dream bizarreness” does not just mean magical fluffy bunnies but also includes nightmarish creatures and unsettling imagery.

The effect is indirect. In the first part of the night, 5-HTP causes a REM suppression while promoting deep sleep. REM suppression leads to REM rebound in the second half the night. Cannabis and alcohol have a similar effect on dreams.

POW: here come the dreams like alien creatures hurtling through a ventilation shaft.

Increases Dream Recall

Due to the REM rebound, more dreams can be remembered in the mornings. So 5-HTP may be an effective dream supplement if you can’t remember any dreams at all. Michael Murray, ND, author of 5-HTP, suggests that dream recall is also increased by the improved sleep that 5-HTP provides. Dunno, maybe. Or maybe it’s because your dreams are now filled with the aforementioned alien creatures. Simply put, we need more research on this subject.

Increases Lucid Dreaming

You're dreaming.

I know a lot of folks who say 5-HTP has increased ability to have lucid dreams too. Thomas Yuscak stands behind this claim in his book Advanced Lucid Dreaming. Interestingly enough, Yuscak also says 5-HTP gives his dreams a calming effect, akin to “witnessing.”

Yuscak’s method: Use the 5-HTP in the first part of the night to cause dream rebound, and after waking up after 5 hours or so, take galantamine or another lucid dreaming supplement.

5-HTP may also increase the chance of lucid dreaming by virtue of the increased dream bizarreness/three-headed dogs. If you use dream-signs, or train yourself to look for things-out-of-the-ordinary, 5-HTP could be a useful ally.

Warnings and Contra-indications

5-HTP fools with your brain chemistry, and everyone has a different brew. If you’re already taking SSRIs for depression or mood stabilization, 5-HTP could really interfere and possibly lead to a serious chemical imbalance known as serotonin syndrome.  Do not do this.

Also, 5-HTP can be rough on the belly.  The most common side-effect is gastrointestinal distress. The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter also notes nausea, vomiting difficulty breathing are possible. High doses can cause high blood pressure, agitation and an elevated heart rate.

Bottomline: 5-HTP is a powerful brain supplement and its long-term safety still is not determined. Be wary, and be prepared. This is no placebo.

References:

“SSRI Treatment suppresses dream frequency recall but increases subjective dream intensity in normal subjects,” Journal of Sleep Research; Pace-Schott EF, et al.; 2001, 10, pp. 129-142.

5-HTP by Michael Murray, ND, 1998.

Advanced Lucid Dreaming by Thomas Yuscak, 2006.

5-HTP, UC Berkeley Wellness Guide to Dietary Supplements, January 2005.

My take is that a lucid dreaming pill is not going to be of much help for beginner lucid dreamers unless they are also engaging in mind-development practices as well.

In fact, these supplements can have some nasty side-effects for the unprepared, including lucid nightmares. There’s nothing like a good, old-fashioned nightmare to take the fun out of your mind-hacking explorations.

So, in the spirit of education and cognitive liberty, here is my guide to lucid dreaming supplements, the first part of a longer series of developing lucid dreaming naturally.

And thanks to Boing-boing for the image.

Mugwort has been known for ages as a reliable dream enhancing plant. I have also had good results with this mild herb that is a close relative of wormwood and has a long history of medicinal use.

In the West, mugwort was historically associated with the Greek goddess Artemis and the moon, perhaps because it stimulates blood circulation and was used chiefly to aid painful and irregular menstruation.

Of course, Artemis is one of the Greek Gods who was known to send divine dreams. In other words, mugwort, dreams and the Moon are all bundled together in an aromatic and cosmic smudge stick.

I recommend picking fresh mugwort consciously and ritualistically and placing it close to the bed, or even under your pillow before bed. Also try burning some mugwort as incense (and even smoking it – very pleasant), which can make bedtime into a ritual that will support more dream remembrance.

Here is my recommended source for mugwort, grown organically and sustainably harvested.