Questions about methadone and dreaming...

Quest for Lucidity
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I just e-mailed these same thoughts to the Lucidity Institute and am hoping for some answers and insight.

Have there been any studies on the effects of methadone on the dreaming brain? Or the ability of a person in a methadone clinic to successfully recall dreams and have lucid dreams?

I wonder because I have been attending a clinic daily for nearly eight months (I am detoxing finally, thank goodness, but it will still be a couple months before I’m totally done) and have been attempting to recall my dreams for almost seven months.

The very first month after I started reading about lucid dreaming, I had a typical first short LD (on January 5, 2005: realized I was dreaming, got happy, tried to fly, couldn’t, woke up) and that was it and I haven’t had any LD’s that I know of since then.

Sometimes I have dream droughts that drive me crazy, like this week, I haven’t recalled one single dream since Sunday morning and today is Friday! I wonder if it’s not so much the methadone as my schedule; I am always tired (so you would think it would help but it doesn’t) from getting up at 4:30 a.m. to leave at 6 to go to the clinic which is a half-hour each way by car and then get to work by 8:30, stay there till five, go to bed at nine, and do it all over again every day.

I really try to do techniques at bedtime but I think I need to do more reality checks, still I had that first LD with no reality check at all, I just knew I was dreaming, so I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if this lower dose of methadone (I am detoxing 1 mg every 3 days and am on 23 mg today; the dose when I had my LD was 90 mg) is affecting my ability to recall my dreams or not and I doubt the clinic doctor would have any answers, most people don’t even know about lucid dreaming.

I wonder, is anyone else here on a methadone program or am I the only one? If you’re afraid to say so publicly, please PM me! And to those of you with no experience with methadone or other opiates or opioids, I still want to know anything you’ve read or heard or any thoughts you may have or encouragement for me. I’m really wondering if I should just give up until I get out of the program and see what happens or just say what the heck and if I recall a dream I do and if I don’t, deal with it as I have been so far. I’ve tried VILD this week but I’m so exhausted I can’t even keep my thoughts on Pedro’s “visualize the dream over and over and over” suggestion before I conk out. Thanks.

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:cheer: :cheer: :hurray: :cheer: :cheer:

First of all, Kudos for you on your journey to abstinence. Unfortunately, I couldn’t give you advice on how methadone affects dreaming. If it does at all. But I’m sure there are other people here that will know.

But I can tell you that dry spells happen. Everyone on the forum is very supportive and I’ll tell you what they’ve told me, relax and let it happen.

Happy Dreaming.

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:hurray: :boogie: :cheer: First let me say Congrats on your successful road to recovery! :grin: …I know detoxing is the worst! And another Congrats 0n your LD! :hurray:
But on dreaming and methadone I can only tell you what I’ve heard and it doesn’t really jive with what is happening with you…From what I’ve been told dreams come more frequently when your dose is being lowered than when it’s maintained, on the average,…How sick do you feel?.. Just being tired all the time could lead to poor dream recall and plus if you have to get up and get moving right away then that could interfere too…but don’t stress about it…just trust that you did it once… you will do it again :smile:

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Hi Cynster!

Here is the few information I found on the internet. There is not many information about sleep modifications due to opiates. This field seems not to have been very researched up to now. The slow waves sleep rate seems to be a little longer and the REM sleep (in which you recall dreams the best) is (very slightly) decreased. But all these modifications are very weak. The main thing is that the global quality and efficiency of sleep is often disturbed because of an increase of micro-arousals during sleep, due to the treatment. That’s perhaps why you feel always tired. So I think the main reasons why you hardly recall dreams is the stress of your current and temporary way of life and your sleep schedule.

You’re very courageous and I admire you for what you’re doing. :grin: I send you all my best wishes for your happiness and recovery. And never forget that detoxing is far more important than lucid dreaming! :wink:

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Thanks for your thoughts and support! This forum has been one of the best things for me since I’ve been attending the clinic, I don’t know what I would do without it, dreams or no dreams.

The only correlation I know for sure between opiates and dreaming is, when I used to take painkillers (my ex-addiction), if I took a lot of them, they would often give me nightmares. I haven’t had too many nightmares since being on methadone since it’s moderated by a doctor and also now my dose is very low. In fact, the one LD that I did succeed in having back in January was due to a nightmare…I had a nightmare and realized no way was the scary stuff real and blammo, clarity and low-level lucidity! :content: I think at the time the dose I was on was too high for my system, which could have something to do with the cause of that particular nightmare.

Thanks again for sharing!

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:grouphug: need I say more.