Anyone else experiencing very bad dreams or nightmares? Very graphic and scary? Disturbing sleep? Any help or comments very much appreciated xx
I took this for three days, it made sleep impossible between stressful dreaming and the inability to stop moving or get comfortable. It also made me clinch my jaws and grind my teeth. I felt sick to my stomach most of the time. The third day included a mortality vision. I stopped taking the medication immediately. The day I stopped taking them I slept all day then felt extremely depressed when I woke up. This particular drug was not for me.
hello,
ive been on ven for almost a year now on 37.5mg and my dreams are life like and extreamly vivid. i have had some thankfully rare grusome dreams too. im sorry i dont have any suggestions on what could help. i think this is one of those side effects they never tell you about.
moo
Yes definitely, I had WW3 starting last night. Some dreams are disturbing, some are just plain weird and sometimes they're quite funny when I remember them. They become more frequent when I'm anxious about something, though the dreams don't relate to whatever I'm anxious about. This week I'm going on holiday and though I'm not worried the dreams are back. To reassure I've been on this drug for 15 yrs + and though I still have the dreams they are not a constant issue. In the end they are not real and, like this morning, I awoke and heaved a sigh of relief that it was only a dream.
I have ever since i started a higher mg it's gotten worse. The Dr told me this is not a side effect, but since I've been taking it, I've had them. Plus I've had to take sleep meds because my sleep is so interrupted and I can't sleep. I'm a lightweight when it comes to meds anyways, so idk of its too high or just in general. I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing this.
i have more vivid than normal dreams also but what i do is simply dont see it as a big deal or issue. sometimes they are bad dreams such as being in a war. when i wake up i dont lie there thinking about the dreams but instead just think about other stuff. for me a worse side effect would be something like constant headaches, or constant upset stomach, or gaining a huge amount of weight. i think vivid dreams are not such a bad side effect when you compare it to some of the other ones you could have..
on a side note, when i had my last breakdown (i wasn't taking any meds for about 8 months and then crashed really hard), it was absolutely horrendous and i almost had to go into hospital, well during that time, at night i would have a completely dreamless sleep for 7-8 hours. this might sound like a good thing, but it was when i was absolutely devastated by depression and anxiety. it's like my brain at night just shut down and didn't do anything at all. no 'movement' (or 'activity' going on in there at all, like it had shut down and 'gave up'. trust me it did not feel good, and it did not feel 'right'. now that i am well again and taking 150mg of venlafaxine, my dreams are back, a little more vivid than they might be, but to me it tells me now that i am well again. the vivid dreams just mean to me my head is working ok again, thoughts are moving around in there at night when i sleep, doing their thing, housekeeping, playing out stories, excited electricity dancing around happily.. or however you want to see it - as far as i am concerned it means things are fine, and im doing well, my depression and anxiety at almost zero. if i stopped having the dreams, i'd actually worry
Thank you for your input, I appreciate it. I HATE that others are going through this too, but glad I'm not the only one and I'm not crazy. I hate dreaming, I really never did until recently. It seems as though it's a restless sleep for me because I wake up tired, well more tired than usual. Thanks again, and may your dreams be peaceful.
for anyone feeling like they are not getting enough restful/deep sleep or the dreams are mostly negative dreams, you could try taking pregabalin at night as this is known to increase deep sleep (so decrease REM sleep), and also, pregabalin is an anti-anxiety med so it can make your dreams less 'anxiety' (fear, etc) related
150mg to 300mg taken before bed is a typical usual dose