Taking Vitamin B6 helps you remember dreams

Researchers from the University of Adelaide have found that taking vitamin B6 before going to bed helps you remember dreams. They conducted a large-scale study to understand the impact of Vitamin B6 and other B vitamins on lucid dreaming. Every day we experience many dreams while we sleep. But we don’t remember the majority of the dreams, even though we try to recall them.  Lucid dreaming is to be aware of the dream when it is still happening. In order to have lucid dreams, you need to recall the dreams on a regular basis and it is here Vitamin B6 comes in handy. Lucid dreaming has many potential health benefits that involve overcoming nightmares, treating various phobias, and also helps in rehabilitation from physical trauma.

Researchers carried out a randomised study on 100 people and gave them high doses of Vitamin B6(240mg) for five consecutive days before going to bed. By the end of the study, the participants said they were able to recall their dreams. In contrast, the participants rarely remembered the dreams prior to taking B6 supplements. Research Author, Dr Denholm Aspy, explained the mechanism about how Vitamin B6 helps in lucid dreaming. Seratonin is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is responsible for deep sleep. Vitamin B6 enhances serotonin levels and thereby suppresses lucid dreaming at the start of the night. But after the effect wears off, brain by Rebound effect tries to compensate the loss. Hence, you will experience an intense dreaming activity in the second half of the night.

Source of Vitamin B6:

Vitamin B6 occurs naturally in many foods like milk, cheese eggs, red meat, fish and whole grain cereals. Fruits like bananas and Avocado are also rich sources of Vitamin B6. It is also available at various pharmacies. But before you make the purchase consult a doctor to have the exact dosage of Vitamin B6 required by your body.

Future Research:
Researchers are now planning to study the variation of the impact of vitamin B6 on lucid dreaming according to the dietary intake.

The Research study is published in the Journal Perpetual and Motor skills.