Joaquín González is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at the University of the Republic (UdelaR) in Montevideo, Uruguay. In addition to teaching master’s students the neurobiological and neurochemical basis of sleep, he conducts research with his colleagues at the Laboratory of Sleep Neurobiology regarding ibogaine’s effects on sleep and wakefulness states. Considering iboga is an anti-fatigue agent, we must consider sleep or lack thereof if we are to understand what iboga does to the body. The focus of this episode revolves around his and his colleagues’ 2018 paper, “Ibogaine Acute Administration in Rats Promotes Wakefulness, Long-Lasting REM Sleep Suppression, and a Distinctive Motor Profile.” Topics of our discussion include: low doses of ibogaine produce states of stimulation while high doses produce visionary experiences; ibogaine’s “oneirogenic” or dream-like effects in contrast to classical psychedelics; how is it possible for a substance that suppresses REM sleep (which is when dreams occur) to produce dream-like experiences; at what point during the iboga experience do drug visions cease and sleep deprivation visions begin; tremors and seizures; the role of melatonin; speculating whether sleep deprivation slows down metabolization of ibogaine/noribogaine, therefore, potentially prolonging visionary effects; and my claim that while psychedelics generally are not claimed to be psychotomimetic anymore for the most part, iboga does indeed produce psychosis because of its inherent sleep deprivation properties. Also, visit my Podcast Supplements article regarding afterthoughts of Joaquín and I's conversation (https://amhouot.com/64-ep2-5_between-sleep-deprived-and-wakeful-dreaming_joaquin-gonzalez/).

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