Attention: possible side effects and careless dosing!
Good morning fellow Nexians,
I have not slept this night. I was distracted the whole night by almost any inner and outer stimulus. I heared the wind in the trees and other nightly noises outside, saw light from technical equipment in the room, and from streetlights and passing cars and was constantly engaged in my stream of conciousness and could not find a comfortable position. I was just not able to shut of my daily functioning and go over to sleep. Also I felt a little sick. Cold feet, a little headache and generally a feeling like a starting cold. But all in all I am not feeling to bad about it. I had some great ideas and insights into things that were on my mind lately. Maybe a bit of a "forced meditation" could be a valid description. Overall I am feeling a little exhausted now, but should be capable of managing my day.
On the other hand, I have to say that I was too careless and I also underestimated the orchid.
Here are the things that could have contributed to this nights' experience.
I had a little Cannabis after I was back to baseline and I also drank some mate
Both substances did by themselves never effect my ability to go to sleep before. Therefore there could be some interaction there.
Also I did a drastical increase in the dose. From "half a flower" to a pretty big part of the stem (1,7g fresh/ ~180mg dry). I never tested something before that had so little information about effects, sideeffects, neuronal background, dose... damn, even the active compound is unknown! With everything else, I was always more careful than necessary, always testing recommened small doses and always on the safe side. Now I wanted the test the full effects (I was excited testing something almost unknown) and also did not want to take any more material from my plant. Therefore I took a big leap from a known active dose, to maybe two or three times that much. I just
did not expect this at all! Stupid! Lesson learned

Sashas protocol for such experiments is really practical and does a lot for harm reduction: start with a dose you would not expect effects from, then
gradually increase until full effects are met or sideeffects are noticable.
I was also feeling not completely well the last few days, so illness symtoms could just be coincidental or in some kind triggered by the consumption.
Also I have a pretty unhealthy sleep rythm, staying up late, sleeping only very short and catching up on sleep later. But there are usually no problems going to sleep, when I'm in bed. So again, the consumption might just have triggered something.
All in all there were too many influences to decide where these effects came from.
To all of you who want to experiment: Be carefull! Try small doses. Only increase gradually. Don't mix with anything.
@ Mr.Peabody: I would be surprised about that. At least about THC. There have been after all chemical studies on this species. On the other hand, cannabinoids and their action in the body are still not very well understood and there is always the possibility of unknown compounds. My guess would be that there is some action on the endocannabinoid system, but not necessarily from cannabinoids. After all, we have evidence for a lot of different alkaloids and other compounds, bot none for any cannabinoids. Of cause, the reason might be that nobody looked yet.
@ Aftermath: Yes it did. Not as intense as on classic psychedelics, but way deeper than normal. I was able to fully focus on every instrument.
@sleepy: What kind of extract? Knowing this gives us information about the solubility of the active compound!
If someone has the interest, equipment and time, it would be very interesting to try to isolate compounds, bioassay for activity and feed the samples to a gas chromotograph!
Be safe!
Love and peace to the world!