Marijuana and super duper reaction time.

Marijuana and super duper human reaction time

So I have been a regular smoker since college and I am now 31. About a year ago while hanging out with a few friends one of them mentioned that she believed that because she smoked a lot of pot that she swears this has made her reaction time quicker. I immediately was surprised that she said this, It had confirmed what I thought was true about myself for many years. I had been noticing that over the years my eye hand reaction time was phenomenal and wondered if my smoking had anything to do with it. Others had seen some of my reflexes and commented on it as well. I still do things that amaze me after I actually realize what happened. Me and this friend talked about it quite a bit and she also stated that she noticed a huge decline in her reaction time when she stopped smoking for 6 months because of some stupid boy she was dating. After resuming smoking her reaction time increased.

Has anyone else noticed an increase in their reflex/reaction time to unexpected occurrences? Here are a few recent examples. Maybe they donâ??t sound remarkable unless witnessed.

The other day I was walking down the street and a lady was approaching me from the opposite direction. She was carrying numerous objects in her hands. Right about as she was to pass me she lost grip of an item. I stepped forward reached out and grabbed it before it hit the ground. She was pretty shocked.

A few weeks ago I was at a youth sporting event. There were several other teams practicing near the seating areas we were in. My friend was next to me on my left and we were intently watching the rug rats scramble around. While both of us were looking straight ahead, I caught a glimpse of a rapidly approaching object coming from behind and just to the left of us. I managed to lean back, reach around behind the back of her, and block a tennis ball that had been thrown with quite a bit of force from only about 20 feet away. She had never even seen it coming.

Driving down the freeway at 80mph in southern California, I am in the passenger seat of a small 2 door sedan. We are just about two car lengths behind a construction workers truck. Traffic is moderate to heavy on the 5 north. Me and the driver are both looking forward and chatting. In just a split second I notice a metal ladder tied to the top of the truck directly in front of us fall off. While it was in the air I managed to look to the left lane to make sure it is open, grab the steering wheel and swerve halfway over to the left lane. As the ladder hit the ground right we passed by. Missing it by only a few inches (cars behind us were not so lucky and quite a pile up ensued). My reaction was so quick, that right when I noticed it happening I tried to say â??watch outâ?�, but my grabbing the wheel and swerving all took place before I even finished the first word. The driver never would have been able to respond in time to just a verbal warning from me. While discussing the event afterwards the driver and I concluded that I may have noticed the ladder just a split second sooner than her. But, she thinks that as my brain processed what was happening and told my body to respond. She was still processing the event of the ladder falling and had not processed an adequate response yet. In fact she said that as I grabbed the wheel it kind of confused her, because even though she was seeing this ladder falling in front of us, she did not realize that is why I grabbing the wheel.. At first she thought I was grabbing the wheel for another reason and not because I was reacting to the ladder. My reaction was more like a reflex. It was not a totally concious decision to grab the wheel, I beleive my brain calculated what was occuring and concluded that the only way to avoid the collision with the ladder was to respond the way i did. Does this make sense? I hope so. My friend was quite impressed by my ability, I gave credit to the bowl of Trainwreck i had when i got in the car 15 minutes previous.

Sometimes when i react in this way. I feel like my brain is playing real time in slow motion but allowing me to respond in real time. Like i can see the events unfolding before it is finished. Giving me a jumpstart on it. Maybe i am just babbling from the "green crack" i just smoked. I really think my smoking has increased this effect.

Please share your thoughts. I am not sure if this is the most appropriate forum for this. Anyone have a better suggestion?

I'm tempted to say yes, I know exactly what you mean. There's definately a saturation point for me, where couchlock is prone to occur, but theres a definite zone where I can rock a good body high and have a heightened awareness of my own body and its position in space.

I've done a lot of kendo with friends high. It becomes very fluid and effortless. I've always considered that I just thought it was more fluid, and in truth, I was high. But you also can't argue with results.

Science will choose to never back us up on this. But I wouldn't be surprised if you're right. Somehow.

there was a study done a year or 2 ago about weed and reaction time for drivers ..if i recall correctly it was done in some where in europe they found that MODERATE doses of cannibis in regular smokers did increase reaction time in most cases but that was with people who were daily smokers and it only increased the reaction time when used in small to moderate doses

I'm not sure if that was the same study, rowjimy, but...

they proved that more information can enter your head, at one time, upon activation of the cannabinoid receptors.

our bodies naturally use the cannabinoid system, so it is to no supprise to me that this could be correct.

i can also say that ive noticed a faster reaction time with my smoking for a while now.

a bunch of us were sittin on the ground talkin while others were throwing a frisbee back and forth. i was looking at the ground and then looked up to see the disc about a few feet away from hittin my friends head, i sprung up and caught it with lightning fast reaction and incredible accuracy.. which definitly suprised me. also i feel that my skateboarding reactions have GREATLY increased.

I think I'm the other way around. I'd probably still have sat there thinking about how heavy such a dish is and take it to the head. If I were stoned, I mean.

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Originally Posted by justinsane

i can also say that ive noticed a faster reaction time with my smoking for a while now.

a bunch of us were sittin on the ground talkin while others were throwing a frisbee back and forth. i was looking at the ground and then looked up to see the disc about a few feet away from hittin my friends head, i sprung up and caught it with lightning fast reaction and incredible accuracy.. which definitly suprised me. also i feel that my skateboarding reactions have GREATLY increased.

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yeah i can skate a lot better when im high

Fuckin funny that you post this because just today i was walking with my friend and someone threw a backpack at her from the side and somehow i managed to reach around her head and catch it with one hand before it hit her head all in a split second. So im going to agree with you on this one.

i have noticed that too. when something is thrown at me or dropped by surprise i always manage to catch it with fast reflexes.

I've noticed this also, I also have noticed it while playing video games while high, I find that it increases your awareness and concentration also while increasing your reaction time. I play all games better while lightly stoned expecially first person shooters and poker :D .

yeah i've noticed cat-like reflexes. for instance.

When my glasses would fall off my head i'd catch them.

But,there was this one time when i was pretty high it was the most crazy thing that's happened to me. my friend threw a starbusts pack from the top of his stairs, they slid down the handrail and i sorted jumped back(since i was at the bottom of the handrailing) and guessed in a split second where it would land, and that it would bounce after it hit the carpet. I was right and it bounced about a foot off the ground and when it did bounce i caught it in midair, lightning fast. All of this happened in about a secnod or two.