I have often wondered if there was any physiological explaination for why this occured. It has happened to me and also to friends I have spoken to about the subject. Dreams are so weird aren't they? Have you ever lucid dreamed or read any articles involving this topic?

Briana,
Thanks for your reply. Dreams are susceptible to suggestion and intervention. A really fun thing to do when you are in a semi-conscious dream state is try to change your dream. Have you ever done that? More than once, I have had a scary dream and I said to myself in my dream that I was only dreaming. Also, a really fun way to get in touch with your dreams is to keep a dream journal when you wake up. The more you pay attention to your dreams the clearer they become. Creative, imaginative people are known to be more sensitive to hypnosis. How about you? Any interesting dreams? Do you dream in color or black and white?

... in particular, the phenomenon of extremely vivid dreams upon cessation of long term, heavy marijuana use.

I am trying to help a friend quit smoking pot. It seems that a major obstacle in this effort is the fact that within a week of his last high he is troubled by "extremely vivid", frightening, violent dreams that leave him shaken well into the next day. I did not experience this when I gave up marijuana, so I have no idea how to help.

This problem has invariably lead him back to use of the drug. I have found some references to this phenomenon on the internet, but no suggestions about how it might be addressed (medications, supplements). Might you have any information about this, or suggestions as to where I might look?

Thank so much

I have been smoking marijuana for years. I stopped two or so weeks ago. My dreams these past few nights have been very vivid and very long; they seem to go on for days. I remember them very clearly and can't stop thinking about them. I never noticed how my dreams have been suppressed by my smoking until now. This is a fascinating topic.

Hi, Kt,
Yes, I think it is a fascinating topic, too, obviously. Are you keeping a dream diary? Are they scary dreams? Can you break into them and change them? Are you willing to share one or two? Yes, dreams are fascinating.
Jann

When I was younger, lucid dreams occurred often and I didn't know they were uncommon. But in order for me to gain awareness in my dreams, something supernatural or bizarre usually had to occur. Lately, I've been having normal dreams, so to speak. I haven't been lucid.

I dreamt about fire for the first time in my life a few nights ago. It was a huge, bright, beautiful, fire. I felt no heat from it. I ripped a window net so two cats could jump out of the fire, into my window. They did.

I can't remember having any nightmares in years, although they may have occurred, sparked lucidity, and I may have manipulated myself out of them. Maybe.

I was a long-term, heavy marijuana user for almost 20 years of my life. I stopped smoking a month ago and have been experiencing the most vivid dreams. They started off with negative connotations, but have turned into intense, detailed dreams that do seem to last all night. I love it! It makes quitting pot that much more worth it. When I wake I have to sort through my head to figure what is real..."did this really happen or did I dream it?".
My husband who also quit is experiencing the same thing. It is fascinating!

Brandy,
Very interesting! I hope you will keep a journal by your bed, write down some of your dreams, and share them. Carl Jung wrote some fascinating things about dreams. Freud was interested in our dreams, too and thought they told us a lot about our ourselves.
Are your dreams in color? How is your sleep? Do you feel rested? Thanks for sharing.
Jann

I have been smoking marijuana daily for nearly 30 years. Anytime I have stopped, even for a short amount of time, two weeks or more. I experience vivid dreams and my friends report the same, Mine are in color, and they are very intense, some times frightening, and they often trouble me for days and days, as I try to remember and decipher them. (This does not happen when I smoke, although I still dream, but do not remember much and thoughts of the dream do not haunt me throughout the day).
On a recent trip to Provence,France, I was reading the book " The Life of Pi" and was quite engrossed by it before I went to sleep. In this part of the country the wind blows and makes a haunting sound and it was a wind storm that the residence said they had not heard in years. I feel asleep and dreamt that the huge tree outside my window had come alive (like the trees in the movie the Wizard of Oz) and the branch turned into a tree arm and long tree fingers and began banging at the window and banging at the window, making an awful sound. The tree was God and I knew that God wanted me to open the window and let him in but I was terrified, afraid to move, and I asked God to go away that I was frozen with fear and I could not go and open the window. I pleaded with God to go away because I was too afraid to go to approach. I thought it was real and that I was awake in my bed, I still wondered if I was awake and it was real sometimes for days later, except when I looked out the window in the morning it was impossible for the tree branches to reach the window. Then I felt that maybe it was something evil trying to make me sleep walk in the middle of the night to the window and open it and try to go out to God and end up smashed on the marble thirty feet below. Wondered if the room was haunted, wondered if the book was too intense. But I always felt guilty that I was a coward and did not answer "the call of the creator".

Thank you for your reply, Dr. J. This is the first time I have ever posted anything on the internet and it is intimidating to be so honest to the unknown in cyberspace. But I have remembered more of my dreams from that trip.

My dog of many years in the U.S.A was put to sleep while I was away. I did not know until I arrived back home in the States but I had a dream.... that I was taking a bath in the bathroom just like the one in the house I was staying at in France and I looked down into the water and my dog, Rover, was lying in the water next to me breathing under water. There were little bubbles going in and out of his nose and he seemed to be in a suspended state of animation. I remember thinking, "Wow, I can't believe that Rover can breath under water!". It was all calm and relaxed, no anxiety, just surprise at his amazing skill. We were both just relaxing in a really nice hot steamy bath, in a very calm sleepy dreamy way, getting ready to wash up and start the morning. When I went home and found out he had passed away a week or so before I had the dream I felt as if he visited me to say, "Don't worry Mom, I'll be waiting for you, I am happy and well taken care of", something like that.

Regarding my previous post, I agree that a natural instinct for safety took over in the brain and stopped me from getting up and going to the window. Perhaps the brain even sent the feelings of anxiety in order to prevent the body from moving when it/I was in a dream state, (the brain "writing the script" of the dream for a desired result).

To answer your questions:
In the dream God scared me because it's nature was so powerful, larger than the house, the tree towered up to the universe like a Jack in the Bean Stalk vine and the "branch hands" were so huge. I felt that God was a typical Catholic God (I am indoctrinated), kind and loving but capable of great Wrath and vengence

I

Feeling better?
Yes, I look forward to dreaming this dream again someday and finding out what God wanted from me.
I believe the dream is stress related, feeling powerless over problems that I temporally closed the "window" on back in the U.S. but still haunted me on my vacation. I know I feel guilty for not using all of my talents that I have been given through my creator and fear that someday I will have to stand accountable and I feel that I do not have a great report to offer as to my time spent on this planet. And all this perhaps because of my consistent marijuana use. In fact I found this post while searching for more information on the effects of marijuana. As one of your readers mentioned, the ability to have vivid dreams is a great motivator to stop smoking marijuana. After reading your writings, Dr. J, I am inspired to quit smoking for awhile, begin writing a dream journal and try to discover more about my subconscious.
Perhaps I will get that second chance to end that dream in a more empowering way for myself.

Question for you,
Do you think it is bad to think about your dreams during the day, rewinding them like a movie in your mind and try to play them over to understand them?
Is that against, "living in the now".
Are you exciting about the release of Carl Jung's red leather book?

Thanks!

I have been smoking daily for about 6 months now, primarily as a sleep aid. Never before in my life have I gotten such quality sleep. Without marijuana, I toss and turn for hours before finally getting to sleep on most nights, and I wake very easily. With marijuana, I fall asleep quickly and soothingly, and I stay asleep all night until the sunrise or my alarm wakes me up. I have never been able to consistently remember my dreams, and the use of marijuana doesn't seem to have any effect on my ability (or inability) to remember my dreams.

i have 4 friends 3 which are girls including me and 2 males. weve been smoking weed together for the past week and ever since we started smoking together strange things have happening to us. first we always end up in circles. no matter what we do. when we are high we stand in circles and look at our feet without realizing it. where ever we smoke we leave our chairs in circles. when we drive and smoke we always drive around in circles. we even make sitting circles in the car. it always finds a way to make us make a circle.are being haunted or are we just paranoid??

What I've been wondering lately is what are the consequences of my daily use of pot. I am essentially depriving my body and mind of full REM sleep for extended periods of time.... like years at a time.

Depriving myself of that nightly rejuvenation has to be screwing with me somehow right? I'm thinking this could be a major factor in my depression, and this fog I walk around in.

Any thoughts??

I am a lucid dreamer and have been since childhood. I am very good at manipulating my dreams. Just last nite I found myself in a dream that was getting pretty creepy and disturbing so I decided to go horseback riding instead....then I flew around my city waterfront just to enjoy the view.

I smoke marijuana regularly and never really noticed how much it effects my dreams til I read this post. Nights that I go to sleep 'high' I have always known that I end up waking up unrested and cranky the next morning but now I realize that I also find I do not dream (or at least remember them). I miss out on all the 'fun' of dreaming.

I do keep a dream journal because my friends (ok I do too) find them fascinating (especially if they are in my dream). Now on I will take note of my marijuana use as well to see if I can use it and then stop for a few days to create more vivid dreams which equals better lucid dreaming.

Thanks!

What I don't see posted here is the opposite. Been smoking 35+ years, and yes, am educated and have a well paying career. Not what a non-smoker envisions as a "user".

With that said, for me it has been a benefit that dreams seem to be suppressed. I used to have horrible nightmares, but I never do when I'm smoking, and I love that side effect. It's not that I don't dream, I do, but they are lighter, shorter, and I'm less aware of them.

I have been smoking for sometime, but not on a daily basis, and I always have the weirdest dreams after i smoke up. There a reason for that?

Had been a long term daily user, about 20 some years, and quit about 2001, started again after about 6 months, and have now quit again for about a month at this point. I noticed then and now that I now remember my dreams, which are not particularly vivid or frightening, rather plain, perhaps associated with recent, 'pre-bed' thoughts, ie dreaming about my aquarium etc. I do know that cold medicine, particularly Contac C, gives me tremendously vivid dreams that I recalled even when I was smoking, but I feel that the likely culprit is the fabled short term memory loss marijuana causes. I also find that I get more frequent headaches (just sorta nagging, not splitting) now, and restarting when I did last made the headaches go away. Back then I had all the CAT scans etc and they found nothing, so can't really attribute the headaches to anything else but quitting. Just thought I might share my experience in case others found it interesting. If I could say so, even if no one cared to listen I would say that the sense of well being that pot causes is the worst of all, because, rather than sapping motivation, it simply makes you happy with what you have even if it's nothing, and that seems pretty scary in retrospect. I'm not saying I would have done things differently, but with dope the strength it is today and wasn't when I was 18, I feel pretty certain that kids smoking it, like 'txt boy' above, are really playing with fire.

i smoke grass on a daily basis when i'm on my normal routines. when i'm home for holidays, i can't always bring grass home with me and sometimes i can't find any at all. the last time i was home, i had a day i couldn't smoke at all, there was none to be found. that night, i had a my first lucid dream in nearly 2 years. i've smoked every day since then with and i have a hard time even remembering my dreams. i love reefer, but i might have to take a little break to see if my dreams pick up at all.

I have long noticed this almost universal trend too. My theory is that the often meditative and creative qualities of the altered state induced by cannabis allows the subconscious mind to reorganize and stabilize, serving a similar function to normal dreams. Being stoned can be described as "day-dreaming" but that may be more literal than a metaphor. When regularly ingesting cannabis the psycho-biological need for dream activity decreases but when use is interrupted dreams recommence.

Does this mean that cannabis can be psychologically helpful to people who don't dream enough or have access to their subconscious blocked?

I think Evan has a great point and is a perspective my brothers and I have considered. We Study Jung and discuss his theories quite a bit and conjectured that cannabis stirs up the store house of subconscious imagery, just as you said "day dreaming", therefore reducing the need while asleep. Another idea is that some believe that melatonin is not only responsible for our circadian rhythm but also normal rem sleep. Anyone who has taken melatonin can tell you that it increased their dreaming. Well there are anecdotal studies (sorry, no sources on hand) that claim thc causes up to 1000% of the normal amount of melatonin to be released into thr blood stream. It's a potent antioxidant too which may leverage damage done from smoking which is why some studies have shown little damage to lung tissue from heavy smoking. Just my 2cents. And remember kids, it's always good to take a break now and then. You'll disrupt dopamine production and feel lethargic if you don't balance intake. Exceed in subtlety I say.