Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Do you have bad dreams?

Some drugs do cause disturbing or increased dreams. When my mom takes Melatonin (a natural hormone that brings on sleep-you can buy it in pharmacies off the shelf or in health food stores) to help her sleep, she can have disturbing dreams...

Hi Darla,
Your dreams sound like the ones I had during my childhood---hard to move, walk, or to get anywhere(including the bathroom) . Well, they WERE dreams until they came true . I guess I was seeing into the future ---I've been disabled and unable to work since August of this year .

Now, when I have bad dreams, they are probably due to pain .

Good luck, I wish you all the best!

Dear Darla, Ben and Sarah.

Thank you for replying to my post. I hate sounding whiney, and complaining about bad dreams seems such a silly thing to complain about. I DO try to remind myself that they're just dreams, but last night is a perfect example of a typical night for me. I had 5 different dreams (I was able to relay four of them this morning), all different themes. During one of them Loz was woken up by my crying , and when I woke up this morning, I wasn't sure if what I'd dreamed was just a dream or real. Ugh. Anyhow, I'm trying to think good thoughts before bed, and am trying to reestablish a way of stopping my dreams that I used when I was young. Might even throw in a mug of warm milk before bedtime if this keeps up. Like I said, dreading going to sleep and waking up exhausted is getting me down...

Thank you all for your kind words and warm replies. I hope that any bad dreams you're experiencing calm as well. Sarah, I do notice that I often have night sweats with the bad dreams, but I'm not sure if it's a response to the dream, or if it's a fever that causes the dream, that's certainly an interesting question. Ben, I love how not much phases you, you're an inspiration on so many levels. Darla, wonderful seeing you around too, it's been a while!

Hugs to you all,
Jeanna

I don't think I am afraid of water. I love the sea, the beach, and I swim everyday for the past 10 months.
Maybe it's something that happened when I was a child. I remember being on a beach and a big wave came that almost took me into the sea, but my parents pulled me off while I was still in the sand.
Any way, the dreams with the water appeared some 4-5 years ago, and they still pop in my dreams from time to time.

Zélia

i've had bad dreams too many times
to think that they don't mean much anymore...e. kaz

the summer had inhaled and held its breathe too long
the winter looked the same as if it never had gone
the shadow in the mist could have been anyone,
but i saw you, i saw you
comin' back to me...m. balin

it's like a wind from the other side of the world
like a far-off pack of hounds
sounds like the whole universe is throbbin' with life
i get so hypnotized by the light
just like the gaze of a mantis
why even atlantis sank neath the waves in a day and a night
Oh, in a day and a night i could write you a symphony
it would be like a bird and carry my love over the mountains...m. balin/p. kantner

the newspaper taxi appears on the shore
waiting to take you away...j. lennon

frothing dragons blow purple and orange smoke...aB

I used to have dreams in high school that the school was full of water and we had to swim to each class.. (I also had a class that we had to read 2 novels a week.. and I always felt like I was drowning.. correlation?) I was telling my boyfriend about this post and he said that lately, I've been tossing and turning, crying and talking in my sleep, I nearly push him off the bed every night, funny, because lately, I can't remember most of my dreams (very unusual for me). Aside from health issues, I've been under a lot of stress lately.. Who knows, I think my subconsious is taking advantage of my sleepy state to complain. I think he dreads my going to sleep more than I do because I'm such a pain in bed!

I love this question only because I am more courious about my subconscious mind than my conscious one. The fact is that I rarely dream. At least I rarely recall dreams.

My sleeping probably has something to do with this or lack thereof. WHen I do dream though they are almost never frightening or negative.

Sadly though I used to have this great refuge in my dreams. For years I would have the most realistic dreams of me being able to do physical things I cna no longer do. I'd go to sleep hoping it was night ot dream of a good run or swinging my golf club full throtle. SOme of those dreams were so vivd and real I was sure that I had escaped my limits.

THe most devastating day Ilve had as to my AS was the day I realized it had been years since I had such a dream. I can't run (and I loved to run) even in my dreams anymore. SOunds like a tiny thing to mourn but the day I recognized that loss I was sadder than any day I had brutal pain. Seems the ultimate robbery. I am so far removed in recllecton of the true snensations of running or being limber that I can't relive them even in a dream.

I strongly agree with Sigrid on this one. My "bad dream" drug of choice is Ambien. When I first started taking it, it worked wonders for my sleep habits, but then the nightmares started, once in a while at first, then almost every night. I had read that one of the main side effects of Ambien was nightmares, and sure enough, as soon as I stopped taking it, I was back to normal dreams.

The worst part about the Ambien nightmares is that they were what are called "waking dreams;" I've also heard them called "night terrors." In these nasty little items, the entire dream feels very, very real, and you become convinced that you are awake. Because they are were so real, they never featured far-out monsters or other bizarre elements. Instead, they usually found me asleep in my bed, where I am suddenly woken up by a noise coming from either in the house or outside my window. It is usually dawn in my dream, or rather, the sky outside is a kind of sickly, pale light that just doesn't look right. As I "wake up" in the dream, there is a growing sense of dread, as I'm sure there is someone right outside my door or window and they are about to break in. Loud thumping noises usually started then, and my bed would even start to shake the noises were so loud. By this time, I was always completely terrified and I would try to scream--well, of course no sound comes out. At this point I am cowering in bed, sweating, and I start to tell myself (still in the dream, mind you) that this is only a dream and that it will go away if I can just wake up. So, with superhuman effort, I force myself to wake up, and it works...kind of. There is a moment of calm and peace as I realize I am awake, but then I look around and the fear rises in my throat...the noises start pounding again, and I experience a huge shock as I realize that I am STILL asleep and right back in the same situation--in my bed experiencing a nightmare.

This cycle repeats itself over and over. Sometimes I am lucky and I manage to REALLY wake up after just one or two trips into the dream. Most often, however, absolute terror would set in as I would "wake up" six or seven times, only to have the horror repeat. Each time this happens, it ends the exact same way--after repeated attempts to wake all the way up out of the dream, I am finally able to scream while in the dream, and as soon as I do, I feel my wife shaking me and calling my name, waking me up. That was it--I was finally awake for real, but usually I really WAS screaming, or at least moaning, as I woke up (this is what prompted her to start shaking me and calling my name, because she could finally tell I was having a nightmare that was bad enough to wake her up!). When she finally wakes me, it always takes a couple minutes to get my bearings, a couple minutes in which I am still incredibly scared, although I am starting to come down. Sometimes I would even be sobbing as I awoke, because in the dream I was pretty convinced I was about to die.

I can't even begin to explain how REAL these dreams were (I'm switching to past tense now, because I haven't had one in ages, knock wood). Each one was in my real bedroom, and as I awoke out of each "layer," I would briefly be convinced that I was really awake finally, only to be jolted back into the terror when I realized I wasn't. Each time that happened, it would trigger more attempts to yell in the next layer, more thrashing around, more fear. By the final layer, I swear I thought my heart was going to bust out of my chest, I would be drenched in sweat, my mouth would be like paste (always fun screaming like that), and, as I said, often I would be in tears. I have never experienced a sense of relief like I did when I woke up out of these horrible, horrible dreams.

I have since heard these dreams called night terrors or waking dreams, and I think there was one other name I heard too that I can't recall right now. When I told my dad about these, he said he used to experience these all the time too, even though he never used Ambien (he did use some other pain or sleep drugs though). He agreed with me wholeheartedly that they are the most terrifying thing he has ever experienced, either awake or asleep.

Anyone else get these "real" dreams that just scare the bejesus out of you? I'll take a good old "vampire or werewolf chasing me" dream ANYTIME over one of these nasty things.

Brad

hi
i am so sorry to hear u have been havin these really bad dreams. (i am touching wood) u never have anymore, these sound as terrifying as the ones that made me too scared to sleep.
i am sorry ambien seemed to b the cause, when i was on ambien there was no differemce to the patterns in my dreams that i can put down to it. i did have some bad dreams on it, but i am sure thats down to the fact that at the time i was in a womens refuge and i was scared witless day and nite my ex would find me.
heres to pleasant dreams from here on.
take care
heather

My dreams have been quite different. I dream that I'm showing my friends that I can turn my neck and I'm saying "Watch this, watch this". I can actually look behind me and everyone's amazed including me. Talk about happy....
Then I wake up.

sigh...