Why do we take psychedelics during the night?
Thinking back on my past experiences with psychedelics and studying various psychedelic ceremonies, I noted something so small yet could be something far more interesting than what we may fathom.
Many of my experiences and traditional ceremonies take place at night.
Even outside party scenarios, many people typically take their psychedelic compounds during this time.
At first, I thought this could be some twisted coincidence, but the more I thought about this, the more I thought there could be a reason why we naturally pick such times of the day to explore more about ourselves and our souls.
We all are aware that we typically take psychedelics to find peace of mind outside of our routines, but we can consume these compounds at any point of the day and have the same effect, or wouldn’t we?
Over the years, we have become excessively dependent on auditory stimulation.
Constantly, we are hearing music, our upstairs neighbors walking above our heads, a TV in the background, the dogs barking, a YouTube or a Twitch stream while we are working or reading a book.
Sound became the human number one companion, whether we like it or not.
Even if we don’t agree with such a statement or believe that music and auditory stimuli are a big part of us, our subconsciousness pulls us toward silence. When we go on vacations, we usually choose isolated locations, such as a serene beach or, at least, somewhere more peaceful than our usual routine.
With evolution as a society, we’ve created jobs that have us stuck in an office, a store, a cafe, you name it. Separating us from what we are to be— a part of nature.
If we picture a scenario of nature, the first word that comes to our mind instantly is peaceful.
I believe this is not a coincidence in any shape or form. The more we disconnect with nature, the more we look for alternatives to relieve stress, and one of them is the big M word shared by pretty much every health-tip influencer.
Meditation.
If we were to do a survey, meditation isn’t for everyone, and if you ask them why, the answer would likely be that they become bored, are used to city life, or the constant stimuli from social media or noise. The same happens when we consider hobbies, such as literature, which are slowly becoming lost with the evolution of what we once sought as leisure time and a way to become alone in silence with our thoughts.
Grabbing the words from the general community, ‘being alone in our thoughts can be scary’ or ‘being alone sitting in silence is creepy,’ the picture of just being sat alone in your room absorbing silence has become a portrayal of a plot for a possession ritual in a horror movie. Yet curiously, one of the solutions to the stress and anxiety that has been haunting (no pun intended) generations is just that, sitting alone, in silence, facing our thoughts.
But what does this have to do with taking psychedelics at night, you may ask?
Generalizing, most of us likely have neighbors (mine are pretty noisy, for a change) or live in a street that has movement by the day, making it impossible for us to face silence due to outside stimuli. After all, we are a diurnal species. So, even the big healing M word mentioned above can be pretty much impossible to do during the day. For this reason, we adapt our schedules to waking up at 5 am to meditate or wait for the night to be able to meditate.
Without a shadow of a doubt, many of us, at some point, have become night owls, whether it was during college to study for a final exam or even to party, enjoy the calm of the night, or wait to have a psychedelic experience!
As stated at the beginning of this article, many of my psychedelic experiences were subconsciously during the night. As we all know, even if we are in control of part of our brain and part of how we conduct our day, there is always a hint of the magic of the subconscious controlling ourselves. I believe this to be one of these cases. Subconsciously, we have selected what our brains are secretly seeking and what we run away from.
Silence.
At first, I thought this could be a byproduct of my personality traits and relationship with the night, but the more I got educated about various ceremonies and overall reported experiences, there was a pattern.
In the depths of the Amazon rainforest, numerous retreat centers hold Ayahuasca ceremonies by Indigenous; in the depths of Gabon, several days of ceremony using Iboga by the Bwiti; in the backyards of concrete jungles, Tipi (or Teepees) rise to hold sacred Peyote ceremonies by Native Americans, despite the geographical and cultural differences and beliefs between these cultures, there is a common trait in these ceremonies. They all hold significant and traditional music, vestiary, and beliefs. However, there is always a time to remain silent and enjoy the eternal gift of peace of mind— Silence.
During the given time, we should hold in everything and decompress what was given to us throughout the experience, from the effects of the compounds to being thankful for the presence of those surrounding us, the slow dance of the night surrounding our mind, the sweet musical notes of mother nature typically hidden in the noise of the city or the sound of people. Often, these moments are the ones that stick to us, and we mention them as a deeper meaning. Maybe it’s when your brain enters a state of bliss or the peak transcendence point, but we find it when isolated from external stimuli. And the same happens when we start reading reports on platforms like Erowid or BlueLight. Many of the reports subconsciously take place during the night, or at least the peak message of the reports.
The reason this might happen is simpler than you may think.
In reality, as a species, we experience an overload in our sensory inputs daily, whether we are talking in our overconsumption of social media that alters our dopamine reward system, the different emotions modulated by music, or even the simple overconsumption of substances as alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine. Such behavioral patterns ended up altering our biochemistry, increasing the levels of stress that brought light to conditions such as burnout that often lead to a broad spectrum of other mental illnesses.
Subconsciously, our brains are sending us inputs to stop, rest, and stop overstimulating our senses. Our behavioral patterns of when we consume substances to break a circadian rhythm are simply an observation that our subconsciousness is communicating with us and trying to cross the bridges of the mind to deliver a psychedelic message that can alter our lives, what surrounds us, and our behaviors.
I hope this article sticks with you and helps you connect more deeply with your true purpose as humans — to be a part of nature. Enjoying human nature and understanding that silence is an essential part of finding equilibrium in our busy lives, and by mastering both scenarios, we can find a deeper meaning of the potential of the human brain.
