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Insomnia, Dreams and Deep Sleep
Kava
Citation:   Wolfenstien. "Insomnia, Dreams and Deep Sleep: An Experience with Kava (exp49487)". Erowid.org. Jan 10, 2010. erowid.org/exp/49487

 
DOSE:
3 Tbsp oral Kava (plant material)
BODY WEIGHT: 84 kg
I recently ordered 150 grams of kava from a herbal store in Southern Queensland. 100 grams was of higher quality Samoan Kava and 50 grams was of what they called 'budget kava' from Fiji, though the price difference was only $1 per 50 grams between these two types. The order arrived a week later but I did not use it straight away because I normally don't have any problems going to sleep and did not want to develop a dependence on sleeping aids.

One Saturday I got hold of some X and MG seeds and so decided to spend that lazy Saturday flower flipping. The experience was wonderful but it left me a bit exhausted and somewhat depressed and insomniac as usual. So 3 or 4 hours after my trip, at about 9 PM, I decided to take some kava to help me feel relaxed and fall asleep. Now this was my first time with kava and I actually wasn't so sure about its effectiveness, considering it was legal and readily available amid this so called 'war on drugs'. Anyway, putting some faith into it, I decided to give it a go.

The herbal store website suggested a recipe for it: Mix 2 to 3 tablespoons of kava into tap water and stir well. Filter the mixture through a strainer and discard the mush. Mix one serving of powdered milkshake and powdered milk into the filtered liquid and stir until it turns into a smooth and even mixture. Then sit back and enjoy drinking it slowly! I decided to try the higher quality Samoan kava and followed the recipe exactly without using any blender or additives. Five minutes later I had a mug of prepared chocolate+kava falavoured milkshake, which was a bit thicker than usual (I think I added a little more dry milk + kava made it a bit more viscous). I put on a DVD and sank in my chair with that mug in hand, sipping it slowly while watching the TV. The taste wasn't bad at all and felt a bit like earthy; though it was numbing my mouth which itself was an indication that the mixture was well-prepared.

Anyway, I finished the mug in about 15 minutes and waited for it to kick in. It actually didn't 'kick-in' per se, but after about an hour or so, at about 10:25 pm I started feeling relaxed and calm in a 'very' natural way, not like the drug-induced relaxation provided by benzos or cannabis. As time passed I got more and more relaxed and kind of sleepy too. I was really enjoying this and was getting a bit excited too because the fun part was still to come: The vivid dreams and the deep deep sleep! I had read a lot about how taking kava before bed makes you go into a deep and relaxing sleep with very vivid dreams. I had in my mind dreams like going to a cartoon-like environment with bright colours and funny faces -- that was my definition of vivid dreams anyway.

So finally, just 30 minutes before midnight I turned off the lights and went to bed in a pleasantly relaxed and mildly euphoric state. I closed my eyes and slowly started seeing some mild but interesting visuals, which were turning shapes very quickly (maybe after-effects of MG seeds and X). As I was enjoying the visuals I started drifting slowly and slowly to the sweet valley of dreams and sleep. Then all of a sudden everything turned black for some time. I felt a jerk in my body after some time and got up feeling wide-awake. I though what the hell and looked at my watch. It was 1:20 am. What? I only slept for an hour or so! And where were those vivid dreams and deep sleep? I got a bit frustrated but then relaxed again thinking that's what a legal drug would give me anyway. So I turned on the TV and decided to spend my night watching it because sleep was simply light years away. One thing I should mention is I had a funny and dreamy kind of feeling during all that time, like spending the night like this was fun in some indescribable way. Maybe the kava was still active in my system!

Anyway, cutting long story short, I spent my night watching movies from my DVD collection and doing other things like eating snacks and drinking juice. Time was passing quickly. Then finally I went to bed again a few hours before sunrise, hoping again for a deep sleep and vivid dreams. I remembered the time I fell asleep and started having dreams, which was kind of funny because I can never notice or control these things. But I was like in total control and was directing my dreams in any way I liked, that included watching my sexy neighbour naked in a spa without her stupid boyfriend. Kind of fun! Had other wonderful dreams as well, and then for some unknown reason, I decided it was 'enough' and 'got up' breaking my dreams and sleep intentionally.

Right after waking up it felt like I went into some deep sleep again for a while then finally I got up again feeling very fresh, relaxed but a bit hazy. It was 8:30 in the morning. Not more than 30 seconds had passed when I started realizing that I slept for 8 hours straight and the waking up after an hour and watching all those movies was actually a very 'vivid and realistic' dream and that I dreamt while I was dreaming already! I can only use one word to describe it: UNBELIEABLE.

Note: Insomnia is common side effect after using ecstasy, and having rolled on ecstasy that day I was a bit worried about having a bad sleep. That fear was with me all day and I guess that was the reason I had that kind of dream. Maybe the vivid dreams you have on kava depend heavily on your state of mind. Next time I will try to spend a few hours with my neighbour when her boyfriend is away!

Exp Year: 2005ExpID: 49487
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jan 10, 2010Views: 29,913
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Kava (30) : First Times (2), Glowing Experiences (4), General (1), Alone (16)

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