Melatonin

Melatonin is easy to come by in the US, but in the UK one usual has to mail order it from abroad! Melatonin is a sleeping pill which heightens dream vivacity. Due to this, Melatonin is something of a novelty for me. I’ve taken one 3 mg tablet each night from 10th June 01 to 12th June 01, missing out the 13th and having one again on the 14th June 01 & slept for roughly 8 hours each night.

I don’t dream in colour. My dreams are rarely linear, typically confused, muddled & easy to forget. Sound is usually muted or absent. Each night, having taken Melatonin I can remember all of my dreams except for last night (the 14h). These dreams had almost linear plots, dialogue, vivid colours & even a little music. They were all extremely bizarre involving real & non-real people I know (some from the most mundane margins of my life). No significant meaning or symbolism could be drawn from these experiences, except two dreams. One which was very sexual in tone, it challenged certain taboos & resulted in arousal. Interestingly, Melatonin doesn’t just induce “nice” dreams though. The night of the 11th resulted in a nightmare (the second “significant” dream) which was not very bad, but disturbing enough for me to realise Melatonin seems to amplify what is there in ones mind (the nightmare involved the occurrence of something I fear) - it doesn’t introduce pleasantness. The night of the 13th was unusual as I slept soundly & dreamt vividly then too, despite not having Melatonin. This implies some sort of suggestive effect or that the half-life of Melatonin is longer than expected or some other psychological/physiological side-effect took place. There is certainly a marked difference between mundane & Melatonin induced dreaming. I don’t remember my dream of the 14th perhaps because it was interrupted by Bea-Bea (my cat).

I don’t subscribe to any particular dream theory. I find Freud’s to be (as usual) quite absurd, Jung’s amusing & W S Burrough’s ideas interesting but idiosyncratic. Dreams have never been of great interest to me as things to draw subconscious meaning from, they only interest me as another form of altered-conscious experience that just is & shouldn’t necessarily be experienced through any kind of theoretical or spiritual filter. There are certain scientific dream theories I find intriguing (as a physicalist), but I know so little about neurology I prefer to reserve judgment. Melatonin is interesting and mild.

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