Can Vitamin B6 Help Recall Dreams Move Vividly? A study, just released on April 18 2018, explores the relationship and effects of vitamin B6 and a B complex on dreaming and sleep. Apparently there’s been anecdotal evidence of improved dream recall by taking moderate to high doses of vitamin B6. Before you rush out and by enormous quantities of B6, please consult with your Physician before pursuing any radical dietary or supplementary changes! …Damn it Jim, we’re mattress makers not doctors…
The study, conducted by scientists in Australia, involved 100 participants utilizing randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled testing, found that “vitamin B6 significantly increased the amount of dream content participants recalled but did not significantly affect dream vividness, bizarreness, or color, nor did it significantly affect other sleep-related variables.”
The participants ingested 240 mg vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride).
So, perhaps we should just take our Vitamin B Complex before bed, and we’ll be good? Not so fast. Participants in the B complex group actually showed significantly lower self-rated sleep quality and significantly higher tiredness on waking!
So, you want to be a more lucid dreamer? An article in Medical News Today, outlines a few methods that could work:
- Reality testing. This “involves examining one’s surroundings multiple times throughout the day, questioning whether one is awake or dreaming.” Two reliable techniques are rereading written text — as text continuously shifts in dreams — and the “inhalation test,” which involves inhaling air with one’s lips closed.
- Wake back to bed (WBTB). This technique involves going to bed, waking up after 5 to 6 hours, staying awake for between 10 minutes and an hour, and then going back to sleep. It is meant to “launch” the dreamer directly into the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep, which lends itself more often to lucid dreaming.
- Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD). This is often combined with the WBTB technique, but before going to bed, the dreamer must repeat a phrase such as “next time I’m dreaming, I will remember that I’m dreaming.” This is meant to establish intention, which will make it more likely that that person is able to attain lucidity within their dream.
We can’t guarantee better dream recall with our Fawcett Mattresses. But being well rested with a good night sleep can’t hurt!