How Long Do Shrooms Stay In Your System?
Psilocybin is the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms. It’s first broken down into psilocin before being eliminated from the body. This process can take up to 24 hours to complete.
This article will discuss everything you need to know about psilocybin metabolism and how long the drug will be active and detectable in your body.
How Long Do Shrooms Stay In Your System?
Psilocybin, the primary psychedelic chemical in magic mushrooms, really only stays in your system for a very short amount of time.
It’s rare for psilocybin to remain detectable in the blood or urine beyond the 24-hour mark.
Psilocybin is first converted to psilocin. Psilocin is the chemical that interacts with your brain to produce the trip. It remains in your body for about 6 to 10 hours after consumption until it’s eventually broken down further and excreted via the urine.
Because psilocin is eliminated through the kidneys, it will remain detectable in the urine for longer periods of time than it will in the blood.
There’s one exception where magic mushrooms can remain in the body for much longer.
Trace amounts of psilocybin may be excreted via the hair, and some of it will remain detectable in hair strands for up to 3 months.
Will Shrooms Show Up On a Drug Test?
Magic mushrooms are unlikely to show up on a drug test as long as your last dose was more than 24-hours prior to taking the test.
Generally speaking, most traces of psilocybin will be out of your system by the time your trip is over, which is typically within 8 to 10 hours. Even with more conservative estimates, there should be no detectable levels of psilocybin or psilocin by the 24-hour mark.
Small amounts of psilocybin may remain in your hair follicles for about 90 days [1]. This is why a hair sample drug test is the most efficient for detecting psilocybin in a person’s system.
However, these types of drug tests are very uncommon, given the cost and high margin of error.
How To Get Psilocybin Out of Your System Faster
If you’re concerned about the detection of psilocybin in your body, you may be wondering if there is a way to speed up metabolism and get the shrooms out of your system more quickly.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any surefire way to get rid of psilocybin from your body more rapidly than just waiting out the trip. The same concepts apply for eliminating any substance faster — drink plenty of water, consume electrolytes and diuretic teas, and get plenty of sleep.
These techniques only serve to optimize the body’s natural elimination and metabolism.
How Long Do Shrooms Take to Kick In?
Generally speaking, shrooms kick in within about 30–60 minutes. However, there are several factors that can alter the amount of time you need to wait for shrooms to kick in.
The amount of food you have in your stomach when you consume the mushrooms will play a role in how quickly the psilocybin gets absorbed and metabolized — thus affecting the amount of time it takes for the effects to kick in.
If you’ve eaten shortly before consuming mushrooms, you likely won’t feel the effects for about an hour. If you take them on an empty stomach, you might notice your trip starting within just 20 or 30 minutes.
The method of consumption will also play a role in how quickly the shrooms will kick in. Since liquids are processed by your digestive system more rapidly than solids, liquid shrooms or psilocybin mushrooms soaked in citrus juice (lemon tek) or hot water will tend to kick in much more quickly.
You may notice the effects of liquid shrooms within as little as 20 minutes, especially if you take them on an empty stomach.
How Long Do the Effects of Psilocybin Last?
There are a few factors that can alter the duration of effects after taking psychedelic mushrooms. However, most people report experiences last somewhere between 4 and 6 hours.
The after-effects of magic mushrooms can extend for several hours after the trip. This involves an altered mood, fatigue, laughter, and feeling “off”.
The dose that you take will play a significant role in how long the effects last. Typically, smaller doses will be metabolized much more rapidly (closer to 4 hours). Larger doses will take longer to metabolize, so you’ll feel the effects for longer (closer to 6 hours).
The species of magic mushrooms you take will also influence how long you feel the effects.
Some species have higher concentrations of psilocybin than others, and these tend to produce longer-lasting trips than species highest in psilocin (which skips one of the stages of metabolism once ingested).
Overall, the dose of psilocybin is the primary factor for how long you’ll feel the effects with different species.
Finally, your age, overall health, and metabolism speed will affect how long the effects of shrooms last. Generally speaking, the younger you are and the faster your metabolism is, the shorter your trip will be, and the sooner psilocybin will be out of your body.
What Factors Affect How Long Shrooms Stay in the Body
The three most important factors determining how long shrooms last in your body are your metabolism, weight, and dosage. Only dosage is controllable in the short term, but it may be possible to (slightly) increase your metabolism by changing your diet and exercise regimen long-term.
Metabolism
People with faster metabolisms will excrete psilocybin more quickly than people with sluggish metabolisms. Many factors determine a person’s metabolism, including activity level and genetics. Even if you aren’t blessed with a genetically turbocharged metabolism, increasing your activity level can make dramatic changes to your metabolism.
Even so, increasing your metabolism via exercise is only going to make a small difference in how long psilocybin lasts in your body. At best, becoming more active will only reduce the duration by about an hour, negligible compared to the 15 hours psilocybin takes to leave your blood, saliva, and urine.
Bodyweight
Your weight also plays an important role in psilocybin metabolism. People with higher BMIs tend to eliminate psilocybin more quickly than those who weigh less. However, the effect is exceedingly small, and gaining weight to excrete psilocybin more quickly is not recommended.
Dosage
The easiest way to change how long psilocybin stays in your system is to adjust your dosage. Taking more psilocybin produces a more intense experience but also extends the time it spends in your body. The effect may not be linear, meaning a double dose may last more than twice as long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the most common questions we get asked on this topic. If this post still hasn’t answered your question, feel free to reach out to high@tripsitter.com.
What’s the Half-Life of Psilocybin?
Psilocybin has a biological half-life of approximately 165 minutes, meaning it takes that long for your body to metabolize 50% of the psilocybin in your system.
How Long Does Psilocybin Stay In Your Blood?
Psilocybin spends the least amount of time in your blood, only about 4 to 5 hours at high concentrations. Users experience the psychoactive effects of psilocybin when it is circulating in their bloodstream, so once the effects stop, you know there are only trace amounts of it left in your blood. However, trace amounts may remain for up to 15 hours.
How Long Does Psilocybin Stay In Your Saliva?
Psilocybin isn’t detectable in saliva for long, about 15 hours. Your liver metabolizes psilocybin quickly, removing it from your saliva at the same rate it removes it from your blood.
How Long Does Psilocybin Stay In Your Urine?
Urine also contains psilocybin in significant amounts up to 15 hours after a trip. After 24 hours, only trace amounts of psilocybin remain in urine, although it may be enough to detect on specialized drug tests.
How Long Does Psilocybin Stay In Your Hair?
Unlike blood, saliva, and urine, psilocybin stays in hair follicles for up to 90 days. Hair follicle tests are by far the most reliable way to detect psilocybin use.
Wrapping Up: How Long Do Shrooms Stay In Your System?
The psychedelic effects of psilocybin mushrooms typically kick in within 30 minutes to one hour after consumption. Several factors will affect this timeline and can shorten or lengthen the delay before your trip begins.
These factors include the dose, the species of mushrooms you consume, your age, the method of consumption, and whether you’ve eaten shortly before or after taking the mushrooms.
You can expect the trip from consuming psilocybin mushrooms to last between 6 and 10 hours. Again, this timeline depends on several factors, including age, general metabolism speed, dose size, and consumption method.
Psilocybin will remain in the blood and urine for up to 24 hours — but levels may drop below detection limits much sooner than this.
Hair follicle drug tests might identify psilocybin in your system for up to 90 days, but these tests are not commonly used.
References
- Martin, R., Schürenkamp, J., Gasse, A., Pfeiffer, H., & Köhler, H. (2015). Analysis of psilocin, bufotenine and LSD in hair. Journal of analytical toxicology, 39(2), 126-129.
- Dinis-Oliveira, R. J. (2017). Metabolism of psilocybin and psilocin: clinical and forensic toxicological relevance. Drug metabolism reviews, 49(1), 84-91.
