Microdosing: Apps To Help You Track Your Dosage
Microdosing is now a popular way of using psychedelics. This practice involves taking sub-perceptual doses of a psychedelic like psilocybin mushrooms or LSD. Microdosages are doses so low that no changes in perception occur. The effects that do occur from microdosing can include improvements in focus, creativity, mood, motivation, energy, and productivity. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions about these effects based on existing evidence. This includes to what extent the benefits depend on the placebo effect.
Despite the limited research we have on microdosing, many psychedelic users find it helpful to regularly take tiny doses of psychedelics. But there are those who have never microdosed before who are interested in trying it out. Perhaps microdosing can be an alternative way to treat their mental health.
Whether you’re experienced or not, we help you understand how to microdose the right way. This means having a microdosing regimen and sticking to it. This article will describe what a microdosing regimen might look like. It will also describe how you can keep track of your dosage using a drug dose tracking app. There are different drug dose tracking apps to choose from, so we’ll highlight the best ones available.
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Microdosing Regimens
A microdosing regimen involves choosing a drug dosage, firstly. Secondly, you need to choose what days to take your microdose on. A microdosing regimen allows you to microdose in a structured way. Many people believe they get the most out of the practice by microdosing in this way. After all, finding the proper shrooms dosage, or any other psychedelic dose, varies by person. This course from our partner Double Blind is helpful for finding the right dose, the right protocol, and to track your results and optimize your routine.
James Fadiman, a psychedelic researcher and pioneer of microdosing, has developed a regimen that is quite standard now among microdosers. The Fadiman approach involves microdosing once every three days. Patients follow a ‘one day on, two days off’ regime for about a month. Patients maintain this two-day gap between microdosing days for two reasons:
- Many people report feeling benefits of the microdose in the following two days after the dosing day.
- Psychedelics can cause a tolerance to build. If you took them every day, you would need to take a higher dose each time to achieve the same effects. A two-day break gives you enough time for your tolerance to disappear. It’s important to note that just because you can build a tolerance to psychedelics doesn’t mean they’re addictive. You won’t experience cravings for them or withdrawals upon cessation of use.
Fadiman also recommends taking your microdose before 10 a.m. This avoids the issue of the microdose making it hard to sleep at night. He also says you should go about your normal day after your microdose. After the month is up, Fadiman found most people only microdosed occasionally. Many people also like to take a break and return to their microdosing regimen at a later date.
You may find it better to have just a one-day break between microdosing days. Or you might benefit from even longer ones. Whatever regimen you choose, it can be helpful to keep track of it (and your dosage) with a drug dose tracking app.
RELATED: How To Start Microdosing Psychedelics: A Beginner’s Guide
Finding The Right Microdosage
Before delving into drug dose tracking apps, it’s important for you to figure out your dosage.
A microdose is generally considered to be one-tenth or one-twentieth of a normal, recreational dose. For LSD, if the normal dose is 100 micrograms (mcg), then a microdose will fall between 5mcg and 10mcg. And if a recreational dose of psilocybin mushrooms is 2g, then a microdose would be between 0.1g and 0.2g.
However, many users take less than the low end and higher than the high end of dosages. People differ in what they feel their ideal dosage is. In microdosing studies, the microdose of LSD has been as high as 13mg, 20mg, and even 26mcg. Many users might feel 20+ mcg to no longer be suitable, with perceptual effects occurring.
RELATED: Is Ibogaine Legal In The United States?
The Best Drug Dose Tracking Apps for Microdosing
A useful way to discover your ideal dosage is to use a drug dose tracking app. With these apps, you can track what dosage you take on your microdosing days and the effects that follow.
To make use of these apps, ensure you can accurately measure your dose. For compounds such as psilocybin mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, ketamine, MDMA, and cannabis, you should invest in high-quality scales that can make very small measurements.
For microdosing LSD, however, the most accurate way to track your dosage is to use volumetric dosing. This involves putting a 100mcg tab of LSD into a small bottle containing 100ml of solution. This could be distilled water and/or distilled alcohol, but never tap water. Tap water will degrade your LSD. You can then take out your preferred dosage from the solution using a syringe. For example, 1ml will equal roughly 1mcg.
Once you can dose accurately, you can begin using a drug dose tracking app. Here are some ones worth checking out:
MicroTracker
With MicroTracker, you can enter the substance and dosage you take and then track relevant information such as:
- Your microdosing schedule (e.g. 1 day on and 2 days off)
- Whether it’s a microdosing day or not
- Your intentions for the day and whether you made progress towards those aims
- The amount of sleep you had the night before
- Your mood, energy, clarity, focus, motivation, and self-esteem
MicroTracker is available on both Android and iOS.
RELATED: The Conundrum Of Microdosing
Tune In Psychedelics
With Tune In Psychedelics, you can select your compound of choice from an extensive list of psychedelics. These include psychedelic research chemicals (or RCs), which many users take. These are analogs of more well-known psychedelics. A common psychedelic RC used for microdosing is 1P-LSD, for example.
Tune In Psychedelics also provides detailed analytics. These analytics track how you’ve progressed with your microdosing regimen. This app allows you to track information such as:
- What happens to you during your microdosing day
- Your mood before and after you dose
- The date you dose
- The time of dose
- The type of dose
- The dosage amount
Tune In Psychedelics is available on both Android and iOS (although only as a web app for the latter).
Out of the two apps, MicroTracker seems to have more favorable reviews. But it may be worth trying both out to see which one you prefer.
RELATED: Macrodosing vs. Microdosing: Understanding What Makes Them Different
Other Dosage Tracking Apps
There are also drug dose tracking apps designed for prescription medications. Much of the time, these can equally be used for a microdosing regimen. They can provide alerts, reminding you when to take your microdose. These apps include:
Whichever app you choose, a drug dose tracking app is a crucial part of your microdosing routine. It will help you figure out your optimal dosage and track how your regimen is impacting your mood and thoughts.
RELATED: Are There Benefits Of Microdosing Mushrooms? And What Are The Risks And Legalities
Faith Mitchell
September 25, 2021 at 1:44 pmGreat article