5-HTP

Had a vivid nightmare after taking 5-HTP this time…
better than the usual no dreams…
perhaps its starting to work.

well i had to stop taking it. i am having some major stomic and intentence problems.

Since my mom has some, she now takes it every night as a sleeping aid too, so I thought I would try it…

Didn’t remember my dream but I was like… knocked out from sleepiness!

Oh, and I’m a tad bit of an insomniac…

EDIT: brand is Natrol…

I can confirm that 5-HTP does infact increase the vividness of dreams by quite a large margin.

I wouldn’t be using this too often. As the wikipedia article states, it does cause problems (like mild serotonin toxicity, which causes tremors and strong bowel movements). For the most part, only use it if you really need it, like on weekends (which I assume to be the days that most people attempt their LD-ing). Stay safe guys :tongue:

I’m heading down to my local supplement store, I found they have this half price: £7.50 for 60x50mg capsules :grin:

EDIT: Not sure if this has been answered before but I’d like to clear it up: The large amounts of Vitamin B6 in the drugs are there to help the enzymes break it down into serotonin and to get rid of any excess in the body.

Ok , this is weird … I asked in a pharmacy and the woman there claimed its prescription only :confused:
I really wonder wheter thats true (and no ! I will not try doing anything illegal :razz: no warnings needed :smile: )

How queer…I guess it’s because they must use a higher dose of 5-HTP at a pharmacy? I’m not sure.

Could try any supplement shops? (Can’t really help out too much here: Living in the UK, the only shop we have is Holland And Barrett :neutral: )

Other than that, I guess you’ll have to order online.

Which continues ther queernness , an American shop which has a branch in switzerland offers to ship to Austria (and , even though they aren’t in the EU they will definetly keep away from such a Faux Pas )
The website of the ministry of health is a-MAZE-thing. …

But i will continue my recherche :yes:
As far as i see it will be worth it …

Indeed.

Just don’t chew the damn things (if, like me, you have difficulty swallowing pills)- you’ll get a horrific stomach ache! :sad:

I have been trying this for a couple of days for the second time now at 200 mg a day. I have had a good frequency of LDs without this stuff but none with it. Also while taking this supplement I actually become more restless, Wake up more frequently and have amazingly vivid nightmares. Sometimes the nightmares invoking amazing fear at the moment of waking up even though I’m not terribly concerned while dreaming.

Normally I have excellent dream recall remembering 3 to 4 a night. so my advice is don’t bother with this stuff unless you really struggle. If you don’t struggle without it you properly just mess yourself up as I understand you’ll never get an LD if you’re too emotionally involved in the dream to begin with.

I’m this [] close to buying 5-HTP. I’ve been in the health store comparing brands for almost an hour. I found one that had vegi caps.(a must for me since I am super anti animal gelatin caps-yuck)

I first had the idea to take this because of my bad moods. :tongue: I have a history of depression, but now it has turned into just irritation and introversion that I know is not fair to myself and others and I don’t like it. It really seems to me to be a slight chemical imbalance I have.

I have tried St. John’s Wort and that gave me some vivid dreams, but I hear the 5-HTP is better some I’m going to have to give this a try.

Like I said, this is first for my mood, but since this is ld4all, I’ll have to post my results when it comes to my dreaming. :smile: For besides not having very many LD’s lately, my dreams in general need a big boost.

How many mg’s do you plan on taking, #Six?

I just bought a bottle that has 100mg vcaps. What’s strange is that it says to take 1 three times daily with food. But another bottle I read that seemed exactly the same but was a 50mg siad to take only once a day before bed.

So one company suggest taking 300mg and another suggest only 50mg in a day.
Big difference huh?

So this is what I am going to do. I will start by only taking one 100mg dose before bed for about 4 days. Then I will add another 100mg in the middle of the day for the rest of the week and pay extra attention to how I am feeling and of course Dreaming! :wiske:

If you are taking it for dreams, then you should only take 100 - 200 mg before you go to sleep. Don’t bother taking it during the day.

If you are taking it to regulate your mood (depression), I think you could take up to 500 mg/day.

Thanks for your advice, Working Class Hero. I’m taking it. and I’m doing this for 60%mood reasons, and 40% dream reasons. But I’m avoiding taking this stuff too close to bedtime…

So this is what happened to me so far: It’s a big story as I love to share the details:

The first night, Thursday night, I took 100mg before bed. I went lunatic! I was laughing and had a million crazy fun ideas. I sat in my bathroom laughing for about 20 minutes! I started feeling emotional and had ideas that I wanted to hug people more often. :woo: But this was kind of crazy to me! Like a looooooong time ago when I was a young teenager and all bad :tongue: I did end up going to a rave and mod edit..
Now I really thought, “OMG! some ecstacy is probably made with just a huge dose of HTP!”
because that was how I was feeling for sure.

I went to bed and seriously laid there awake all night, having too many wild good thoughts. I was excited and sleep didn’t exist. It was now 7am and I had to be up by 9 to go somewhere! I must of finally fallen asleep but then had to get up.

I didn’t remember any dreams, as the sleep was way too short.
I was surprised I got through the day, I was actually not too tired.

So that next night, Friday night, I got home and was soooo tired. I thought, “well I am super duper tired, so no way will it keep me up this time!” and with that, I took another 100mg dose, but again, I felt wired! I did not get to sleep until about 6 am again! Good thing I didn’t have to go somewhere in the morning, but sheesh, you know!

But I did have one dream that was short but interesting and then it came true later on that evening :content: It was simple, like I was in a certain place with certain people and a girl asked for a shoulder massage… and then it happened that night that spontaneously, this guy asked this girl if she wanted a shoulder massage.

So when I got up late in the afternoon on Saturday, I made the decision," I will Not take this stuff before bed." and with that, I took my third dose on the 3rd day around 6PM.

I must of gotten a bit used to the 5HTP because I didn’t feel too wild good crazy, but i did feel the effects of just overall feel-good higher energy( like that ‘regular’ fatigue of slight depression was just gone! :content: and I was able to talk with many people yesterday with out feeling my usual anti-social anxiety. (I actually made a friend yesterday and got invited to a party, this is a huge change! as my mood has been keeping me from socializing for a year, and finally I felt friendly in a very balanced and socially acceptable manner.

So even though last night I took the 5HTP at 6pm, I was still kind of afraid that I would have insomnia again, so before bed I took 3mg of melatonin which also had 3mg of vitamin b6 in it. And I laid down for an hour and was still scared I wouldn’t fall asleep because of the 5-HTP so I took a another 3mg of melatonin.

Well I fell asleep and I did have this Super vivid dream that was so vibrant and rich feeling! I should have gotten lucid from it, but I still really enjoyed this bright dream. :cool:

So here are a few thoughts I have on 5-htp based on my experience:
I am SHOCKED to death that someone could take more than 100mg, because I’m kinda wishing I got the 50mg bottle because 100mg seems way to strong for me.

I am SHOCKED that 5-HTP is supposed to help with insomnia, because it wired me crazy! and I could NOT sleep.

I LOVE how it made my social anxiety do a disappearing act!

I am IMPRESSED with the brightness of my last dream, but am wondering how the melatonin affected/contributed to the does of 100mg of 5-HTP.

Well tonight, I am going to bed with 3 mg of melatonin/with 3 mg of b6 and I took 100mg of 5htp 15 hours ago. So I am hoping for awesome dreams…but don’t I always everynight :peek:

Dear dreamers,

Taking supplements to have more vivid dreams or more lucid dreams can be risky! Always check for possible side-effects!

In the case of HTP-5; if you take Ritalin (or the likes) for ADHD, do not take HTP-5!

If you have ADD or ADHD, your brain needs a balance between dopamine and serotonine. Taking HTP-5 can disrupt this balance.

Futher reading: brighthub.com/mental-health/ … 82677.aspx

Wow, that’s some weird stuff :tongue: I agree with DutchThor. In case you already take any kind of medication, for depression or anxiety, for example, you should check it out.

And great thing that your anxiety went away. Social anxiety can really screw up a persons life :sad:

I totally agree. It is better to be natural. I have just been having depression and terrible anxiety and never wanted to go to a therapist or take harsh medication, so I found out about 5htp, how it doesn’t have bad side effects and how as a plus, it gives vivid dreams, so that’s why I’m taking it. I really wouldn’t recommend anyone taking it solely for dreams.

And I have always wondered if I may have ADHD, but I won’t ask a doctor about it because they will say I do just so that I can start buying medication$! I don’t trust doctors so I take matters into my own hands, but I truly thank you for your advice.
BTW I don’t take any other medication.

#Six, I wasn’t aware 5-HTP could have that kind of affect on someone.

I’ve taken doses as high as 400 mg before sleeping, and I find that my dreams are much more trippy without 5-HTP, although the length, and vividness of my dreams remain unaltered.

Again, strange that it had such a powerful effect on you, sounds to me a lot like mod edit. :content:

Interesting…

I’ve tried 5 htp and personally can say it vastly improves vividness and recall.
I’ve yet to try it with my Rem Dreamer mask to attempt lucidity and cannot for a few days as I’m entering a work cycle.
I’ve also ordered some Lucid Dreaming pills to try those out too.