Gotu Kola, Valerian, Hops, Cammomile, Peppermint

My Herbal Experiment

Tonight, for the first time, to aid the research of herbs and dreaming, I am going to try a combination I have never tried before. I do this at my own risk, and I am prepared to except full responsibility for any undersirable effects produced.

I remember reading a big list of all the herbal products which could enhance dreaming, so I searched round my room for any such products lying around, and decided I would try all of them together, in combination with Peppermint Tea.

I found a product I bought a couple of year ago called NatraSleep, which consists of both Valerian and Hops. I also have Cammomile in capsule form, Peppermint tea, and some recently-purchased Gotu Kola capsules.

In addition to all this, I take St John’s Wort regularly. However, I will not be taking any extra as part of this experiment.

I will take the lowest dose of each of these, just one of everything.

So, to recap, I’ll be taking the following:
250mg Valerian,
167mg Hops,
250mg Chamomile Flowers,
250mg Gotu Kola,
1 cup Peppermint Tea,
all immediately before bed, in addition to a dose of 600mg St John’s Wort with dinner a few hours before.

Wish me luck.

If I’m not back here sometime within the next few days, it means I’ve died and nobody else should try this combination.

:grin:

Wishing you luck.

Okay, well I didn’t go lucid, but it did seam to increase vividness and recall. Next time I will try them at the MAXIMUM doses and see what happens then. I might also take a vitamin B complex.

The problem with herbal supplements is that they have a tendency to interrupt your valuable sleep. Not to mention they are quite narcotic.

I’ve had a lot of success with combining Kava Kava with B6 and Gotu Kola. For all interested, though, I have had more lucid dreams without than with herbs.

I do find that Gotu Kola disturbs my sleep in a bad way. I don’t go lucid, but it makes my sleeping less smooth somehow, and then I wake up feeling tired.

Yes; In fact, I experimented with taking Gotu Kola twice today, last at 6PM. I could not get to sleep until 2AM and here I am awake again at 6AM.

Natural sleep, man.

Edit: I tried smoking some scullcap. Didn’t work. Oh fuck. I cannot believe that I’m still awake at this point.

I wish I hadn’t wasted my money on Gotu Kola.

However, I’m interested still in Mint. Not just Mint Tea, but I also remember I have some dried Mint Leaves I bought from the spices section of my local health food shop. I could chew on a load of that before bed!

:happy:

Gotu Kola is great for studying.

I drank mint tea (the real stuff) for awhile, but I didn’t notice a difference in my sleep patterns.

I take back what I said about wishing I hadn’t bought Gotu Kola, because I had a very interesting experience the other night with Gotu Kola and Chamomile. Read on…

I went to bed as usual, but happened to wake up in the early hours of the morning, about 3:45am. I didn’t really feel sleepy, so I decided to try another experiment. I took 500mg Gotu Kola plus 750mg Chamomile Flowers. Then, after watching TV in bed for a while, rolled over and went to sleep…

After a while, I went into that state where to wake up on the border between wake and sleep, you know, where you become aware that you’re lying on your bed, but you still feel like you’re in a kind of dreamy state.

In the past, I have found that all I need to do in this state is focus on my body and then the vibrations start, and this incident was no exception. Instantly the vibrations came on. I actually really enjoy this moment, I find it really exciting. This went on for a while, until it got to the point where I could hear a loud sound in my ears. In the past, I have found that if I try to roll whilst in this state, I actually roll out of my body and end up stood in my dream bedroom. I tried to do that this time, but just couldn’t move at all, it was really frustrating. I tried so hard, and then suddenly I rolled over but instantly realised that my physical body had actually rolled over and I was no longer in the dream state I was in.

So, although this was frustrating that it didn’t quite work out, it a really good breakthrough. I’m curious to know if it would have still happened if I’d used only Gotu Kola, because I have more of that left than the Chamomile Flowers.

The only problem with this, is that the following morning at work, I was still slightly buzzing, and felt a bit more hyperactive than my normal relaxed self. Also, later on in the day, my head started to feel slightly weird, like a slight pain, but that could have been partly down to lack of sleep plus having just received some distressing news during the day.

The good thing about doing it the way I did it though, was that it didn’t interrupt the main part of my sleep, which it did previously when taking it before bed.

Focusing on Chamomile on more detail, this may not be necessary because it’s main constituents are tryptophan and calcium, both of which are in my diet quite a lot anyway. Also, Gotu Kola is known as being able to stimulate the mind whilst simultaneously relaxing the muscles.

Next time, I may try 500mg Gotu Kola in the early hours of the morning, see what that does.

I love that moment though, when you spontaneously become concious on the boundary of sleep, and then the vibrations and intense feelings happen, that’s really exciting! Any advice about what to do in that situation? Just continue to focus on the body? Visualise objects?

:happy:

I think I know what you mean. I’m more familiar with sleep paralysis, but I think I’ve experienced something similar. Try focusing and not moving; physical movement will disrupt your comfort if anything.

It’s a really intense feeling. I’m sure I’ve had it happen spontaneously in the past, but then fallen asleep and forgotten about it.