Calea - A One Week Experiment

I finished my one week experiment with Calea and didn’t find it as helpful as I had hoped. I used Calea for 5 days straight and then missed one day by mistake and used it twice more before ending the experiment. The mild relaxation effects weren’t as strong as something like Valerian and although my dreams seemed to be more clear, there was no increase in frequency or lucidity. I was having a dreaming dry spell though and Calea brought them back the first night of use. Unfortunately, after a couple of nights I had a really hard time falling and staying asleep, which is something I almost never have a problem with.

I could not get used to the taste of the Calea, it was really unpleasant. I remember a long time ago trying it as a tea and no matter what I put in it, it still tasted awful. If this was something I wanted to use on a regular basis, I would have to find a way to make it more palatable. I tried mixing it with Tobacco but that didn’t help very much. I may end up cancelling my Calea tea experiment and move straight on to the sleep tincture.

Herbs work differently for different people and Calea has been reported to have better effects than I experienced. I was really hoping for something more powerful. In the long run I still think the best thing that can be done to improve dream clarity and lucidity is keeping a dream journal and taking time to evaluate your dream content. Dream programming seems to work well and hypnosis-like techniques can help with the process of falling asleep. Becoming an active participant in the dream world is important because on average it takes up about 1/3rd of our day. We can either fall asleep and treat it as something that just happens to us or we can become active participants and utilize this unique state that we all experience.

Calea - Sleep Fragmenter

After several days of smoking calea before bed I've encountered a problem. For three days I not only had trouble falling asleep but also had trouble staying asleep. The fragments of dreaming that I remember were still more vivid and clear but I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept at all.

I only had this happen to me a handful of times in several years and never several nights in a row. So I am assuming that it is calea related. I wonder if the calea is having some strange interaction with something else that I'm eating or consuming.

I plan on continuing the experiment and then switching to tea to see if it has a different effect. So far it has been interesting but the effects aren't noticeable enough to make it a daily routine and dream aid. I've had much better success with dream programming and meditation.

My next dream project is going to be a tincture creation of several sleep and relaxation related herbs. My wife and some of my friends have bad insomnia and I want to see if I can create something that may help them fall asleep and stay asleep naturally, with out the use harmful pharmaceutical drugs.


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The Calea Z Expirement - Day One

Last night I smoked some Calea Z right before heading to bed. I immediately felt very relaxed and slightly tired. I haven't been able to remember my dreams for about 2 weeks now, so I was eager to see if the Calea Z could help. I did not drink it as a tea because it is incredibly bitter. It's also very bitter when you smoke it, but it seems more bearable that way. I also placed a small amount in a bag with hops and lavender and placed it near my pillow in bed.

I fell asleep quickly and had a very vivid and long dream, which was easy to recall when I woke up several hours later. I was not able to sleep all the way through the night. I did feel better rested than usual in the morning but over the course of the evening I woke up three times and I usually sleep all the way though the night. I did not have any trouble getting back to sleep though. I will continue to experiment with Calea Zacatechichi and so far I have to report that it looks promising.

Calea Zacatechichi - Dream Herb

For the past 5 years I’ve been on a quest for the ever-elusive lucid dreaming experience. I keep a dream journal and attempt to program my dreams with the aim of becoming lucid (or in other words realizing that I am dreaming within a dream). Since I started consciously working with my dreams, I have only had a handful of lucid dreams but they have been amazing.

Calea Zacatechichi on erowid.org

When I first got into lucid dreaming, I stumbled across an herb used by the Chontal Indians of Mexico called Calea Zacatechichi. It’s leaves are used before sleep to relax, increase clarity and recall of dreams and promote lucid dreaming. It’s effects are not well documented but you can find many people experimenting with it and posting their experience reports in lucid dream forums. There is only one Scientific study that I know of but there are a lot of experience reports from individuals being posted online.

I used this herb for a short period of time, shortly after I quit smoking cannabis. Cannabis is well know for clouding a person’s dreams and reducing the ability to recall them later. I can’t really be sure if Calea helped me start dreaming again, but after I started to use it, my dreams came back in full force. Over a couple of weeks, my dreams also became more clear and easier to recall. I stopped using it after a couple of months but I plan on embarking on another series of experiments to see if it’s effects are noticeable enough to warrant further use.