I had night terrors that were a side effect of a bipolar medication.... When I went off the medication the nightmares stopped

I think several of the meds have at least vivid dreams.... I would look up the meds you're on and see if nightmares are a side effect

I know that they're very disturbing.... Big hug..... xo

Thank you! They’re bad enough now haha but I haven’t switched from the antidepressants I was put on yet.
I’ve read that they’re a side effect, not excited about that

Here is one perspective. There are many other models and angles that could be applied by properly qualified people like OCP. Dreams were called by one guy "the royal road to the unconscious". What this usually means is that something in your environment has triggered a fight/flight/freeze/fawn style of reaction in the previous 24-48 hours to protect you from something hidden in a blind spot. That something is according to trauma therapists usually related to a childhood event too frightening or painful for you to face.

In your dream the barrier between subconscious and conscious becomes more "porous" and your very creative imagination "translates" the fear or shame into a fantasy. This is a way big oversimplification and I can't wait for my good friend OCP to set me right like I always appreciate her doing :-D

I have written this knowing that if it's wrong my friends will set me straight in the nicest possible way. That's what I used to love about coming here. Feeling safe while I learnt about beeper peeps and they taught me.

All the very best.

Moobs

Thank you for your response! My very first nightmare I can remember was when I was about 5. I still remember it clear as day. I plan on working with my therapist and psychiatrist to get to the route of it.

So your profile says your 29, which means you've been having these nightmares for most of your life, far longer than you've been diagnosed BiPolar.

Dreams/Nightmares are a very complicated science, and that's the only way I look at them, as a science. Everyone dreams differently and many different things can affect the process. Trauma, illness, medical and mental, medications, living situation, etc.

There's also a difference between Nightmares and Scary Dreams. Nightmares are intense, they wake you from sleep, if occurring frequently they disrupt your normal sleep pattern and cause impaired thinking and mood during the daytime. Where as Scary Dreams, while bothersome tend to be more benign, don't always wake you from sleep, don't cause sleep pattern disruption and rarely affect your daily moods.

On average, most people dream for about 2 hours a night. Dreaming can happen at any stage of sleep, but dreams are the most pronounced and intense during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage.

During the REM sleep stage, brain activity ramps up considerably which helps explain the distinct types of dreaming during these stages. Dreams during REM sleep are typically more vivid, fantastical, and/or bizarre even though they may involve pieces of your waking life. Non-REM dreams tend to involve more coherent thoughts or memories grounded to a specific time and place.

REM sleep does not occur in a steady stage through the night. The majority of REM sleep happens during the second half of a normal sleep period, which means that dreaming tends to be concentrated in the hours before waking up.

Dreams can be caused by the consolidation of memories, or processing a build up of emotions in the mind as its trying to find a method to learn to manage them, Dreams can be where your brain clears away partial, erroneous, or unnecessary information, while you sleep. They can also be a form of distorted instant replay in which recent events are reviewed and analyzed. And there is some scientific research that says dreaming is just incidental brain activity that has no essential purpose or meaning. The brain is a very mysterious, complicated organ, that we've yet to uncover even more than 25% of it's functions.

There have been studies regarding Dreams and how they relate to a patients Psychology and BiPolar Symptoms. One Study showed that in BiPolar Disorder, shifts from negative to bizarre dreams may reflect shifts from Depressive to Manic states, and can thus alert the patient and clinician to oncoming symptoms. It also showed that shifts towards more positive themes may be indicative of successful treatment.

While occasional nightmares are a common and normal responses to waking stress, more frequent disturbed dreams and nightmares may be indicative of underlying psychopathology. In the more benign cases, the frequency and intensity of disturbing dreams may show a progression and resolution over time, whereas chronic nightmares that are repetitive and persistent, are associated with lower psychological well-being,

And yes, some psychiatric medications can make you dream more or have nightmares. Chantix which is a "stop smoking" medication is famous for inducing nightmares in most patients. So you'll need to keep track of things when you start your new meds to see if things get worse. Keeping a medication diary when your starting new medications is always a good idea, so you can have good communication with your Pdoc.

But you can work with a Therapist and do targeted dream therapy to get to the center of what's causing the Nightmares and hopefully manage the stressors or trigger behind them. I'm assuming you don't know of any trauma you might have suffered as a very young child around 3 or 4, that might have started the Nightmares?

I personally do not dream, I have a Cyclic Rhythm Sleep Disorder that allows me only heavily medicated sleep coupled with a Seizure Disorder that has wiped out my brains capacity to dream. But I only sleep for 4 hours per night so its not like I have much time for it anyway! :0)

Nice to meet you and forgive me if I threw way more information at you than you wanted....its a thing I do when I get on a roll....and it's kind of Moobs fault! LOL

Take care,
Kat

Thank you so much! You’ve all been so wonderful.
I feel they are on the chronic nightmare side. I feel like they almost bleed into my waking life and can cause confusion with memories, feelings, thoughts etc. They tend to get worse if I’ve woken up and fall back asleep.
I’ve gotten pretty used to them now but when I was a teen I would wake up in the middle of the night crying and panicking because I convinced someone was going to come in my house and kill me.
I haven’t noticed a connection to my waking moods and my dreams/nightmares.
Thanks Kat!

Have you ever asked your parents if anything happened to you when you were a toddler or 3 or 4? It could have been something as innocent as playing chase in a park and falling into a dark ditch or something like that. Your brain could easily turn that into a traumatic event like the Nightmares you describe. Or even watching a Horror Movie at a very young age and falling asleep during it or being put to bed right after it, could cause them. And you would have been to young to process the feelings they caused or talk about them, so if an adult didn't ask you about or help you do that, it could easily have manifested into the Nightmares you have now over the years. Some people have more active imaginative brains than others. And the brain can do some pretty powerful freaky stuff.

I used cutting as a coping skill as a teenager and early 20's to deal with Abuse Trauma. Through Therapy I eventually learned safer behavioral skills to deal with my issues and thought I was good. Even though I don't "dream" in the last 15 years as my Seizure Disorder and some other Neurological issues have gotten worse I began having "Amnesiac Dream States w/Self Harm Behavior" in plain speak, I have severe Nightmares about my abuser, that my brain does not allow me to wake up from, and my brain adopts an amnesiac effect, I remember nothing of what I dream about or what happens during the real time I'm having these Nightmares. Unfortunately my brain also thanks I need to defend myself during these "Dream States" so in my sleep I"d grab whatever was sharp on my nightstand and slash at my attacker....problem with that was...I was the only 1 in my bed, nobody else there. The 1rst time it happened I woke up in bloody pools in my bed with slashes all over both arms and a small knife sticking out of my leg. 48 stitches later I was still trying to convince a Dr. that someone had came in my room and attacked me because I didn't know what the hell had happened. Eventually after the 3rd time and more stitches, from scissors and a pen, I had to spend a month in the Neuroscience Hospital wired up for Sleep Studies every night, and they caught it on camera. So now every night I have to search my room before I go to bed to make sure there is nothing sharp within 50 feet of my bed. I went though several tests to determine that I can move or walk 50 feet before I wake up. Since I have concurrent Neurological Issues my brain does some pretty freaky things.

I started having terrible vivid dreams/nightmares as a child. I can remember one I had at 5, that was so bad I had severe anxiety for months after.

I continued to have these wrenching nightmares, until a doctor put me on Trazadone, which I continue to take, 30 years later. It stops the dreams.

I am convinced I have PTSD from nightmares, insomnia and other issues.

I would advise you to get a prescription for Trazadone. I need at least 150 mg a night to block out the dreams. I hope you find something that helps.

I had them in my early teens..Same dream every night freaky but in time they went away good luck

*weg

I love it when you are in the flow too Kat :-D

Thanks for the OP newhere13!

I have been hearing life-threatening voices, too. They are probably linked to my BP. So, I can relate to your situation.

I have reoccurring nightmares as well I think it could be linked to BP or my childhood trauma/ptsd. I’m sorry to hear you are going through it! Have you spoke to your doctor? Is there any sleeping medication they can proscribe?

-kayla

@CRT101, have you talked to your Pdoc about the voices you hear? Verbal hallucinations can be a symptom of some types of BiPolar and can often be helped with a medication tweak or some learned behavioral coping skills.

Its important to let your Pdoc know about those types of symptoms.

dreammoods.com has helped me interpret my dreams many times.