I've been experiencing a reoccurring nightmare on a nighty basis. I often wake up extremely distressed and confused and struggle to tell what is real and what is not. It started a while ago but it has been progressively getting more realistic and more frequent. I suffer from anxiety and depression which I have read is ofter connected and I am on antidepressants. In the nightmare I am fully aware of the fact I am dreaming and am unsuccessfully trying to wake up, I am also dreaming that I am dreaming and trying to wake up, sometimes I do wake up in my dream but then it just repeats. I am normally just dreaming of everyday things such as walking my dog or something simple like that but there is a lack of control and I'll often end up in an uncomfortable situation and be confused as to whether or not it really happened when I wake up. The nightmares are disturbing my sleep quite severely so I really need to find some way to stop or atleast control them so I was wondering how to do this?
I have these every night. I am on mirtazapine and i think that is what is causing it as i never had this before. I have an active mind so maybe that doesnt help. Have you checked your meds for rhese effects
You need to google the name of your medication and check for side-effects. You can also try googling "nightmares" or "weird dreams" with the name of your medication.
Many of the newer antidepressants - especially mirtazapine, as ann55375 rightly says - are notorious for causing strange dreams as well as confusion as to whether events really happened or were just dreamt. I think you should discuss this with the doctor who prescribed the medication.
If dreams are a problem in general, the older tricyclic group of antidepressants are sometimes prescribed, as these actually suppress REM sleep, which is where dreams arise.
I'm on sertraline at the moment, I looked at the side effects but as far as I know from what I read it's not a side effect, I have mentioned it to my doctor but they were not much help and are reluctant to make any changes to my medication.
Try googling sertraline and dreams. I just did it and found 300,000 entries! Interestingly, almost all were from patient experience forums. I could only find one medical site reporting this - the drugs(dot)com site. It appears in the For Medical Professionals section, under the subheading Psychiatric, and is given as "uncommon", with 0.1-1% of patients reporting this side-effect.
I'm afraid it's all too common for medical professionals and drug companies to refuse to admit to side-effects which patients know all about.
Here's just one example, which was posted on this site on 17/05/09:
Quote:
I've been on sertraline for a couple of months and its working great most of the time.
Unfortunately though when I go to bed I get really long, involved - usually bad - dreams.
I've tried hot milk with cinamon and sugar, baileys, and even taken calms or nytol if my brain won't stop whirling, but nothing will make them go away.
Unquote.
There are many more similar stories out there.