Talk:Oneirogen

Are you guys/girls sure this class exists?

I'm aware of psychedelics once having been called oneirogens, but I'm a pharmacologist and never came across this term any more in the literature. Since there are no references to its use in the scientific literature, I'm questioning whether some wikipedia editor decided to make it up.

Does the term pharmacocentric exist in your literature?

Dream incubation redirects here??

Dream incubation should not redirect here. The technique of dream incubation has nothing to do with psychedelics. JS747 (talk) 01:51, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Except of course for the glaringly obvious fact that psychedelics induce dream-like states?

Sourcing

none of the refs here were OK per MEDRS.... The term "Oneirogen" pulls no reviews at pubmed. Hm. under construction. Jytdog (talk) 03:07, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Which part of medicine is occupied with dreams, for it to be included in pubmed? Oh... none. Considering that, do you find that surprising?

unsourced

The following is unsourced and was moved here per WP:PRESERVE. Per WP:BURDEN please do not restore without finding independent, reliable sources per WP:MEDRS, checking the content against them, and citing them, and ensuring that this content has appropriate WP:WEIGHT in the article overall.

Partial list of oneirogenic substances==

• Artemisia douglasiana (mugwort) can be used as a scent, tea, or smoke to trigger vivid and lucid dreams.
• Binaural beats can be used to stimulate or trigger dream states, like hypnagogia or rapid eye movement sleep.
• Calea zacatechichi can promote dreams vivid to the senses, sight, scent, hearing, touch, and taste. May be taken as a tea or smoked.
• Dextromethorphan (the main ingredient in many cough syrups)
• Dimethyltryptamine can trigger intensely vivid and surreal spiritually charged dream states.
• Diphenhydramine ("Benadryl") can invoke an intense hypnagogic REM-like microsleep often indifferentiable from reality. It accomplishes this by blocking various acetylcholine receptors in the brain.
• Entada rheedii ("African dream bean")
• Galanthus (genus) – An alkaloid in the plant is believed to increase the concentration of acetylcholine – a neurotransmitter that plays a very active role in dreaming
• Harmaline (found in Peganum harmala)
• Ibogaine (found in Tabernanthe iboga)
• Ilex guayusa can promote vivid dreams and aids in dream recollection.
• MMDA
• Atropine (via blockade of acetylcholine receptors)
• Amanita muscaria and other GABA receptor agonists like Zolpidem
• Salvia divinorum and other Kappa receptor agonists
• Silene undulata ("African dream root") is used by the Xhosa people of South Africa for oneiromancy.
• A large variety of nightshades can produce microsleep and intense hypnagogic imagery.
• Many opioids may produce a euphoric dream-like state with microsleep, known colloquially as "nodding".
• Paroxetine, mirtazapine and varenicline often cause vivid dreams.
• Amphetamines and other stimulants can create psychotic episodes which may be defined as bursts of dream activity erupting spontaneously into waking states; this is not due to the substance itself but rather a result of the prolonged suppression of cholinergic activity and REM sleep due to amphetamine or stimulant abuse.
• Melatonin and Ramelteon may cause vivid dreams as a side effect
• Nutmeg in large amounts, due to the chemicals myristicin and elemicin, which produce a strong drunken dreamlike state
• Valerian (herb) – A study conducted in the UK in 2001 showed that valerian root significantly improved stress induced insomnia, but as a side effect greatly increased the vividness of dreams. This study concluded that valerian root affects REM due to natural chemicals and essential oils that stimulate serotonin and opioid receptors.
• Water lily dried flowers may be smoked, or the rhizomes eaten, to promote vivid dreams.
• Wild red asparagus root may promote dreams that involve flying.

References

-- Jytdog (talk) 03:21, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

Poison

I understand “oneirogen” is a pretty vague term (it was coined by new-age groups rather than pharmacology sources) and there are very few studies on any substances as dream enhancers. But my main concern is that amanita muscaria is listed here without ANY indication that it’s pretty poisonous. Should probably be removed from the list. 2601:204:DE00:7350:D130:D66:A43C:A6F6 (talk) 05:38, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

Alcohol

As is well known from classical descriptions of alcohol use disorder, individuals with this condition often experience extremely vivid dreams.
Could this suggest that alcohol functions as an oneirogen?
Have you come across any scientific sources on the subject? PsyWoman (talk) 13:34, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Edit Request to Modify First Paragraph

Hi, I'm the first author on the paper cited in the introductory paragraph ("The oneirogen hypothesis: modeling the hallucinatory effects of classical psychedelics in terms of replay-dependent plasticity mechanisms"), and I don't think that our paper is an appropriate reference for any of the cited claims. As per the Ethics Declarations section of that paper, we recommend that readers "Do Not Report our results as scientific fact. We have outlined a hypothesis, which is designed to be tested by the experimental neuroscience community."

We do not discuss the Greek origins of the phrase "Oneirogen," and the oneirogenic mechanism of action that we propose for classical psychedelics is hypothetical: it has not yet been accepted by the general neuroscience community, nor has it been tested experimentally. I would recommend either modifying the text to clarify that our proposed mechanism is hypothetical, or reverting the introductory paragraph to its previous form before the reference to our paper and accompanying text were added. Colin Bredenberg (talk) 21:46, 12 July 2025 (UTC)

Done Removed all references to the paper as requested. AlphaBetaGamma (Talk/report any mistakes here) 05:41, 13 July 2025 (UTC)