It’s Independence Day today, and what’s more American than drug use? I’ve recently become aware of an herbal supplement called galantamine and thought I’d mention it as a tie-in with my interest in dreaming.

The wikipedia page for galantamine explains the chemical details of the supplement, which appears to be used mostly as an anti-alzheimer’s drug. But people interested in dream-work have reported that it results in more vivid dreams and can even lead to lucid dreaming.

My own recent experience with galantamine hasn’t been extensive, but I bought some on amazon.com and it works for me just as well as some people have said. I had two extended series of vivid dreams after taking galantamine–the first time after taking it before bed, and the second time after waking up in the morning and taking galantaime before returning to bed. The later dream was so vivid that, after having an insight in the dream, one of my dream characters even handed me a pen, reminding me that I ought to wake up and write it down!

According to people who’ve experimented with the stuff, galantamine is more likely to induce lucid dreams when taking it about 5 hours after sleep. That’s because it metabolises quickly and it’s at the peak of doing its thing about an hour after taking it.

I’ve got 86 4 milligram pills of galantamine left and will be using them off and on over the coming months. I’ll write again if anything of note happens during further experimentation.

Happy dreaming!