Vitamin B & Dream Recall: How It Works

[stochastic]

years ago i was told that vitamin b helps you remember dreams. since then whenever i want to remember my dreams more i take b complex, and it works every time. why does this work, what is it doing to help you remember dreams? links to effects of b vitamins are not welcome, I am looking for something more in depth.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Not much on PubMed, only 1 relevant paper and it's highly preliminary, which means the conclusions are not yet validated:

1: Percept Mot Skills. 2002 Feb;94(1):135-40.Links
Effects of pyridoxine on dreaming: a preliminary study.
Ebben M, Lequerica A, Spielman A.

City College of New York, USA.

The effect of pyridoxine (Vitamin B-6) on dreaming was investigated in a placebo, double-blind study to examine various claims that Vitamin B-6 increases dream vividness or the ability to recall dreams. 12 college students participated in all three treatment conditions, each of which involved ingesting either 100 mg B-6, 250 mg B-6, or a placebo prior to bedtime for a period of five consecutive days. The treatment conditions were completely counterbalanced and a two-day wash-out period occurred between the three five-day treatment blocks. Morning self-reports indicated a significant difference in dream-salience scores (this is a composite score containing measures on vividness, bizarreness, emotionality, and color) between the 250-mg condition and placebo over the first three days of each treatment. The data for dream salience suggests that Vitamin B-6 may act by increasing cortical arousal during periods of rapid eve movement (REM) sleep. An hypothesis is presented involving the role of B-6 in the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin. However, this first study needs to be replicated using the same procedures and also demonstrated in a sleep laboratory before the results can be considered certain.