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[GlyphGryph]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20120921arizona-national-guard-misconduct-whistle-blower.html?nclick_check=1



I don't think there are any good feelings to take from this story.

[Hanslanda]

Xanax is alprazolam, iirc, a short-half-life bd. It shouldnt have stimulating effects (except as a weird and unusual paradoxical reaction). It's more likely that, if you were abusing them regularly, you simply developed resistance to it's effects (and its worth noting that resistance comes faster for some effects than the others. In particular, sedation is the first to go).

The rule of thumb is that tolerance and dependence come after about 4 weeks of continuous usage, but it can be much faster when used recreatively.

From what I understand, no one else I know has the same effect when they took too much xanax as I did. I also didn't do them regularly per se, perhaps once every couple of weeks. But when I did, I went big.

A million people is nothing. There are three hundred million people in the USA. One million is less than a percentage point.

You know, there's other countries but the USA out there.
A million people is 50% of my country's population

Yes, I know this, but it's pretty irrelevant to my irrelevant point. I was just musing.

[TSTwizby]

Only reason I do what I do is because I want to experience new stuff. I crave new experiences.

It's why I'm a fan of psychadelics and stay away from sedatives.

I agree with you in principal, but indulging in any kind of addictive behavior robs you of experience in the long run. Learn to dream lucidly instead, you get more benefits and only lose the time you would have spent sleeping anyway. And it costs less.

[GlyphGryph]

Psychadelics, in general, are non-addictive, and using them is not addictive behaviour. Or at least no more so than lucid dreaming, which is honestly a completely different animal anyway.

What benefits does lucid dreaming give, anyway? Far as I can tell, none, while psychedelics can quite literally open your mind to possibilities you've never considered before, allowing you to solve previously intractable problems or at least see the world in a new way. ("Can", mind you. Not "will".) Used responsibly, the non-legal risks are basically nil.

But yeah... to even compare the two is pretty crazy. The closest sleep related thing is extreme hypnogagia, and trust me on this front - that is NOT something you want to start doing.

[GlyphGryph]

Lucid dreaming, to me, was much like marijuana. It did not live up the hype.

By the end, I was basically "Why did I ever think this was going to be a good idea? This is perhaps one of the most unimaginably boring things in existence, and holds no benefits to me whatsoever. I can not believe I expended even an ounce of energy to get to this point."

All lucid dreaming accomplished was ruining a fuckton of potentially awesome dreams for me. And one nightmare - I guess that one worked out.

[RedKing]

If your lucid dreams don't involve scantily-clad women parachuting in to feed you strips of bacon...you're doing it wrong.

[GlyphGryph]

That... does not sound particularly appealing to me, I'm gonna be honest.

[Loud Whispers]

Lucid dreaming, to me, was much like marijuana. It did not live up the hype.

By the end, I was basically "Why did I ever think this was going to be a good idea? This is perhaps one of the most unimaginably boring things in existence, and holds no benefits to me whatsoever. I can not believe I expended even an ounce of energy to get to this point."

All lucid dreaming accomplished was ruining a fuckton of potentially awesome dreams for me. And one nightmare - I guess that one worked out.

That's just the start. Keep going and you get to be able to do really, REALLY fun things. I'm still yet to fly or ride a dreamsaurus-rex. Getting closer every night.

[Scelly9]

The one lucid dream I remember, I managed to create an entire city. I had glowing fruit in stalls and lots of very odd people. That's all I remember, but it was amazing.

[kaijyuu]

Whenever I truly lucid dream, my gut reaction is to immediately try to wake up. So I haven't had a true lucid dream last more than 5 seconds.

I sort of had a half lucid one recently, though; I fell asleep in the dream, so I knew I was dreaming. Sort of. Anyway I ended up flying over the local landscape trying to change things, and ultimately only succeeded in changing anything outside of my field of vision. Eventually I flew into a Subway, forgot I was lucid dreaming, and spent an hour or so arguing with the dude making my sandwich. Then I woke up.

[GlyphGryph]

That's just the start. Keep going and you get to be able to do really, REALLY fun things. I'm still yet to fly or ride a dreamsaurus-rex. Getting closer every night.

The problem with lucid dreaming is, of course, the essence of lucid dreaming. You know you're dreaming. There's no unknown, no unexpected, no thrill, no interplay. There's nothing. It's boring. At it's best, it's as exciting as drawing a picture is in real life - except that if your attention wavers for all of a second, you lose any sort of realistic continuity, and your effort is wasted.

It's boring. Period. Especially compared to the fact that my normal dreams are super awesome. And if there's a way to make it fun, I've yet to discover it. And I usually end up not sleeping well either, so there's that.

[The Darkling Wolf]

Yeah, where's the fun in everything going exactly as you imagine it. I thrive on leaping into the unknown and seeing what my subconscious throws at me.

[RedKing]

The episodes I've had of it, it's more like I'm editing a movie. When I'm actually "in" the movie, I don't realize I'm dreaming. Then something happens I don't like, or that doesn't seem right, and suddenly everything freezes and I find I can roll back time, add/delete people, change motivations, etc.
Then when I start back up, I quickly lose that 4th wall and it all becomes real to me again.
 

[GlyphGryph]

Oooh, that. That's... isn't that normal dreaming? It's not what I'd consider lucid dreaming, anyway.

I'm pretty sure that's just normal dreaming.

[Scelly9]

Oooh, that. That's... isn't that normal dreaming? It's not what I'd consider lucid dreaming, anyway.

I'm pretty sure that's just normal dreaming.

If you can control it, it's generally lucid.