Mirtazapine Is a Dream

Living an Entire Adventure While You Sleep

People spend thousands of dollars chasing altered states of consciousness.

Retreats. Psychedelics. Breathwork workshops. Meditation intensives.

But some people may be surprised to realize that one of the most fascinating altered states available to humans happens every night… while we sleep.

And the cheapest, safest altered state might have been sitting under your pillow the whole time.

Dreams That Feel Like Real Life

After being prescribed mirtazapine to help with sleep, I started experiencing something I didn't expect: incredibly vivid dreams.

Not the vague, fleeting dreams that disappear the moment you wake up. These felt more like immersive experiences.

Entire environments would appear. Conversations with people who felt completely real. Adventures unfolding with their own logic and storylines.

While I was inside the dream, everything felt normal. My brain accepted the world completely. Only after waking up did it become clear that the entire experience had been constructed internally.

Visual Thinking

Over time I began to notice something interesting about these dreams.

They didn’t feel random.

Fragments of the day seemed to show up in strange new combinations — conversations, emotions, ideas, memories. But instead of appearing as thoughts or language, they appeared as environments, characters, and stories.

The closest way I can describe it is this: it felt like my brain was thinking visually.

Almost like a kind of overnight simulation where experiences from the day were being processed and reorganized.

The Brain's Overnight Processing Lab

Sleep researchers believe that REM sleep plays a major role in memory consolidation and emotional processing. During this stage of sleep, the brain actively sorts through experiences and builds connections between them.

Most people probably go through this process every night.

The difference is that many people simply don't remember it happening.

When dreams become vivid enough, you can sometimes watch the brain doing its work in real time.

Occasionally I'll even wake up briefly and then drift back into the same dream again, almost like the brain paused the story and hit play again when sleep resumed.

A Fair Trade

Some people pursue altered states through external substances or intense experiences, hoping to gain insight into how their mind works.

But sleep itself might already be providing one of the most fascinating altered states available to us.

Every night the brain quietly processes the day, rearranging memories and emotions into something new.

And sometimes, if you're lucky, you get to experience the adventure from the inside.