Hi, I used to have lucid dreams regularly as a child which peaked my curiousity about the mind, dreams and nature of consciousness. As I grew older and went through puberty and the lucidity of my dreams almost disappeared. Once I began experimenting with natural plants I began to learn more about lucid dreaming and wanted to experience it again. I ordered some dream herb online, got 3 seeds and none of them germinated. Devastated.

Then I came to try and stop smoking. I used nicotine replacement patches and noticed the first night that dreams were extremely vivid. For the first week I woke up feeling completely unrested, no matter how much sleep I had. The reason was I remembered all my dreams and had spent the whole night running round my own head. After a few months of using the patches as a dream aid I began to experience lucid dreaming again! I even managed two lucid nights in one week, which was great.

My technique is to buy the strongest patches and cut them in two, since 14mg and 24mg are the same price and that price was ridiculous. I also make sure that I replace the patches nearer teatime than breakfast. I've since read that the side effects of nicotine replacement is "nightmares". Now while this is semi-true, it serves to scare me into the realisation that I'm dreaming and so helps lucidity.

What I'd like to discuss is others experiences on these patches and whether they find they have more lucid dreams/nightmares. I'd also like to see if anyone has any hard evidence that cutting patches is damaging to the nicotine delivery system. My gut feeling is it isn't and that dis-information is rife to keep people buying half strength patches for full strength prices.

NOTE: Please don't attempt to use nicotine replacement AND smoke, it is extremely hazardous and can cause collapse and death, especially when used with alcohol.

With Nicoderm patches you can safely cut in half, but being a brand name, they are twice as expensive as generics. However, you can't safely cut the generics in half because the adhesive is only around the edge of the patch and not throughout the patch like with Nicoderm. I have smoked while on the patch and noticed that I get no kick or buzz from a cigarette. Also, blood nicotine levels spike quickly if smoking a cigarette but are lower and more sustained on the patch, so the nicotine delivery and blood concentrations are completely different. I've had intense dreams too. If you don't like them, you can always remove the patch before bed.

Nope, I actually enjoy the lucidity and will probably continue using them after I quit smoking.

I see an oppourtunity for experimentation here.

We have a list of several OTC things now that increase dream recall"

B6
Melatonin
Magnesium
Nicotine
Amanita muscaria

Interestingly enough, Amanita and Nicotine are both agonists for theri respective acetylcholine receptors, which suggests that this may be the mechanism by which they increase dream recall. This makes several nootropics likely candidates to increase DR though I can personally attest that Piracetam, Aniracetam and Huperzine have no effect in this regard.

Someone should try several stacks to see if synergism can be created. In fact, I may undertake this myself.

Galantamine has a remarkable amount of feedback for this particular effect.

Most probably due to it's effects on allosteric modulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which also effects dopaminergic neurotransmission.

Calea zacatechichi is a herb highly recomended for lucid dreaming.

Thats the dream herb I tried to procure. Why buy and grow seeds though if the patches can do it just as well? I suppose the quality and content of the dreams may be effected by the chemicals used. It seems nicotine has a habit of creating wacky emotional rollercoasters as well as lucidity, this maybe why the side effects are "nightmares".

I guess I need to try some of these other substances to see if any of them produce a more pure experience, and maybe increase lucidity further.

I forgot to say above that I think I read somewhere that oxygen (in air) is bad for nicotine. So if you cut the patch in half, you probably should put the unused half in a zip-lock bag.

Well I cut patches whilst they still have the backing paper/material on, so only the edge would be effected. i doubt very much that its enough to invalidate the patch as some of the marketing would have you believe.

If they lie about that, how can you trust them on purity, dose, etc.?

Because the patch needs to be successful. However, profit maximisation would be damaged by people paying the same for high dose patches and doubling their usage.

This is somewhat of a tangent, but the first time I took sleeping pills before bed (2-3 250mg), I experienced a very lucid dream, but only the first time. Does anyone have any input on this?

My girl is taking pain killers (codeine) for gall stones and she said the last few days she's had extremely boring dreams. She goes to bed and dreams of getting up and going to work etc. She was kind of freaked out, but I assured her theres nothing to worry about.

What concerns me, is that since I'm on 30 fags a day, I'll need 30 patches a day if I give up smoking, so I'll look like a Dalmation and dream for England!! LOL!!!

1 patch, step 1, is 21 mg of nicotine. Each cigarette has 1.5-2.0 mg, so each patch is 10-15 cigarettes.

I have a wicked and distorted sense of humour cerebral (note the LOL).

I do appreciate the info. you provide, though; I didn't know that detail!

Never thought about that. Sounds interesting.