Pseudoephedrine I Have Known And Hated (PIHKAH)

I have found the culprit behind my inability to have lucid dreams.

This guy here.

Apparently, because I was so obsessed with [medicinal] drugs to the point of daring to prescribe myself random medications, I bought a tab of Allerpid (loratadine 5mg + pseudoephedrine sulphate 120 mg) without consulting a doctor beforehand. Without even Googling 'if I ask for decongestant from a pharmacist what kind of drug will she give me and what will the drug do to my body' first. I just went to my favourite pharmacy, asked the lovely pharmacist for a tab of oral nasal decongestant for my rhinitis, was presented with two options (Claritin-D and Allerpid) and opted for Allerpid because it's cheaper (cough cough). And then I just sort of take em whenever I liked (dosage says one tablet bd, I took one tablet every itching days). Of course I checked MIMS, but they didn't give me any alarming information, save for one DI with antacids (not of my uttermost concern since I don't take antacids - cimetidine is not an antacid isn't it?), and somnolence as its adverse reaction. What I failed to realize is the fact that pseudoephedrine is a phenethylamine, belonging to the same class of chemicals as amphetamines (shoot I should've realized about that earlier) and also in the same group as MDMA, 2C-B and mescaline. Mescaline FGS.

Picture is for decorative purposes only

Nah, of course taking an innocent pseudoephedrine tablet won't give you peyote-like effects, or ecstasy-like effects either. But one should bear in mind that apart from being a potent decongestant, pseudoephedrine is also a potent stimulant. Although your regular OTC nasal decongestant drugs (like my dear Allerpid here) come in the form of antihistamine + pseudoephedrine combination, the mildly sedating properties of antihistamine do not cancel out the stimulating properties of pseudoephedrine (that's why Claritin-D is labelled as 'Non-Drowsy' FGS!). Thus, side effects ranging from headache to restlessness to nausea (akin to that of a caffeine overdose) are not uncommon. In rare cases, nervousness, irritability, disturbed sleep and palpitations/ increased heartbeat can also rise up. Unfortunately, these 'rare cases' are the ones that I've been experiencing for several days already.

I didn't really know what triggered this, but a few nights back I kept waking up in the middle of the night, around 3 a.m. or so, with my heart beating extra fast and me feeling extremely restless. I tried to get back to sleep (with renewed hope because Stephen LaBerge said you can get lucid dreams easier if you take a nap after waking up in the middle of the night or something) but after almost 30 minutes of tossing and turning, I was all but sleepy. The next day, I felt an overwhelming sense of irritation, and almost screamed at my mom who woke me up for my kuih frying obligations. Heartbeat was probably 120 bpm, and not only did I feel irritable and edgy, I also felt some sort of general malaise. I wanted to fall down and pass out, but I couldn't even if I try. It was as if I had just swallowed three packets of extra strong coffee. And I hadn't even touched a drop of coffee for 3 weeks already.

So here, I would like to hypothesize that my history of caffeine abuse has caused the rare side effects of pseudoephedrine to manifest themselves. You know I love making up twisted hypotheses like that.

Eh wait, this is getting way beyond our scope. So what has this got to do with lucid dreaming, you may ask. You see, as mentioned earlier, pseudoephedrine is a stimulant under the amphetamine chemical class, and apart from being used to relieve nasal congestion, it is also used as a wakefulness-promoting agent. That simply means less tendency to fall asleep, and when that happens, you tend to have less REM sleep. When you do not have much REM sleep, dreaming would occur lest often, which also means less lucid dreaming. No seriously guys, I have looked this up; stimulants like amphetamines and their relatives do suppress REM sleep (Shneerson 2000). And it's tried and tested also; I only had around two non-vivid dreams each night for the past few nights (I usually have 4 or more extra-vivid dreams per night). No wonder I found it more difficult to recall my dreams these days (please check out my dream journal). Haish.

For the time being, I think I'll just stick to good ol' REM sleep-promoting cetirizine, since I don't have any obligations which require me to stay awake for long periods in the morning (goreng kuih is meh - I just need to put on my headphones and treat my groggy self with 1200 Micrograms of Hallucinogen and I'm good). I'll probably need those pseudoephedrine tablets for my new academic session later this month though. Ah hey, I made it sound as if I'm planning to launch into some full-blown pharmaceutical abuse. Hahaha. Gosh, must go see MD. I think I also have palpitations.

You know the moral of the story already. Don't self-medicate.

Alice

p/s: yes, title is a rip-off from Phenethylamines i Have Known And Loved (PiHKAL). Sorry Shura/Alice!