No you are not the only one. But I'm on so many other meds that could cause nightmares...I'm getting really sick of it though...night after night of this is robbing me of good sleep.

I take Effexor XR at night when I take all my other meds. I have never been a dreamer so it doesn't surprise me that I don't have vivid dreams with it. I have heard it can and does cause some people very bad vivid dreams. I assume you aren't taking it at bed like I do. If you are you might consider taking it in the morning.

After typing that it made me think. I wonder if the Effexor at night is why I'm not sleeping as good as I had been. I've had two different sleep meds quit working for me recently. I may have to get my act together and start taking it in the morning again. I hate trusting myself to do that. I always forget to do it. At night my DH is here and reminds to me.

I take it in the morning...but I've had the side effects of vivid dreams and night sweats for years. The FM only started five years after I started the Effexor.

I'm going to talk to a neuro-psychiatrist on wednesday and see about switching. I DREAD the withdrawal - scuse me, the "discontinuation syndrome" even overlapping I bet it will be rough.

I take Efexor, although I am finally tapering off. I didn't have problems with the vivid dreams, but I did have problems with other anti depressants with that type of problem. The only thing I've found with Efexor is that if I miss a dose.... look out, I feel like crap for days, it's like I'm in some sort of vacuum.
I took some valium the other night to relax my muscles and ended up having horrid dreams, bloody meds - they cause all sorts of nightmares.

Have you been taking Efexor for long? Sometimes it takes a few weeks to settle if it's a new med, and sometimes, if you've been taking it for a while, it can start to have those sort of side effects.
I would also suggest taking it in the morning if you can.

i just started 5mg low dose in the mornw/wellbutrin low dose w/ deseryle @ night.
If i get to sleep in day doc told me to cut in half take in morn & night. I started having very vivid dreams of conversation w/ people & wake myself up talking into the pillows! In depth conversations! I started laughing the other night after i caught myself the third night!
i have always had bad"NO" sleep so i think iam getting some form of rest "Maybe its talking to the night!
Iam all by myself w/no car! So there ya go!
thats my excuse! I'm thinking of taping my conversations! LOL

oh boy do I ever have vivid horrid dreams... I take valium usually at night to calm me down and calm muscles down.. and I have some real dozers of nightmares.. some I wake up very sudden and just cant shake the dream for a while.. I have been to websites that study dreams and usually vivid dreaming and bad dreams are the cause of exhaustion.... which I can beleive.. for nights I only get like 2 to 3 hrs of sleep.. our bodies and minds are exhausted.. so they run on a rampage.. makes sense to me anyhow.. some nights Im even afraid to go to sleep .. for fear of a bad or horrid dream...

I take it twice a day and have for 3 years. I have never had a problem with it.

I take 150 mg of EffexorER in the mornings. It gives me a little energy, so Dr said take it in the a.m. The only thing I take that gives me very vivid dreams/nightmares is trazadone, so I only take it after a few days of no sleep.

lol are bodys are so different yet we all have most of the same problems
iam on low dosage of almost everything, all these meds seem to screw me up almost worse then the fibro!

but also taking Vicodines750 5x plus Fentanyl patch every 78hrs & valuims as needed! for 5yrs
my x boyfriend use to say i talked in my sleep long conversation can you imgine that! He said i never made sense so hed just turn over & i'd stop talking! they never listen to us, when they are awake! I remember waking up & just telling him i was dreaming & not to carry on with me, just tell me to go to sleep! So maybe i have being doing it awhile =it just really bothers me cause i wake up & asking, if anyone is in the house!
Really kinda scary even thro the dreams are not!

i take 300mg in the morning for depression prophylaxis - i get night sweats but i have since learned that is a symptom of sleep apnea. another one is NOT dreaming, which is true of me. since treating my apnea with CPAP i am starting to dream again.

a sleep disorder could be to blame for the nightmares, and it may have worsened coincidentally with starting efexor. sleep disorders (like sleeptalking that is significant/major) tend to run in families and be there from childhood. i recommend anyone with fibro have an overnight sleep clinic study to check for apnea... it also picks up most sleep disorders. gold luck

Thanks to everyone for weighing in. I went to a neuro-psychiatrist this morning and she is adding Trazodone for bedtime when I need help sleeping. You don't get tolerant to it and it's not habit forming. That's good.

She also is adding to twice weekly B12 a new form of folic acid called Deplin that is supposed to improve the effectiveness of antidepressants. Check in if you want to see what happens. Deplin is a "medical food" not a drug - but it still requires a prescription. Info below:

Deplin works through a natural process in the brain to regulate all three monoamine neurotransmitters associated with mood by providing the increased dietary requirements for folate. L-methylfolate is needed by depressed patients with suboptimal folate to regulate the synthesis of monoamines (serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine) and known as a trimonoamine modulator

hmm... i don't get nightmares from the effexor but as soon as i started taking neurontin with it, i had really gory ones. after talking to several people who told me neurontin does this, i accepted it and said "oh well, better than being in pain...". and then to my amazement they stopped. i don't know if it's because i've adjusted to the stuff or maybe they just stopped on their own. either way, i tend to think happy thoughts before going to bed.

Heya all,I don't take Effexor but I am taking 150mg of Amitriptyline and having some very vivid dreams/nightmares.Is this part of the Fibro or the meds? xx

i'm probably going to stay on efexor and trial neurontin... will watch for bad dreams (and hope they go away).

hey thanks for the info on deplin! what a breakthrough treatment. i am definitely going to hand the info to my dr. and see if i can try it. efexor is my 4th antidepressant - i keep having to switch when they stop working. i saw my pain consultant recently and he said the only other drug similar to efexor and close to it in effectiveness is cymbalta. his view was why switch when i'm likely to get similar or worse side effects.