Extremely Vivid Dreams - Sleep Disorders Message Board

cinemachick · 04-18-2006, 12:01 PM

For the past couple years I have been having the most vivid dreams/nightmares. I feel like I have at least 2-5 dreams a night all of which I can recall the next day. I go into REM within minutes of falling asleep, and I swear I dream for hours and hours.

My dreams are usually either violent or absurd, but both feel so real to me that every morning I have to use logic to figure out if the events in my dreams really happened. I dream so vividly, that I can taste and feel. I hate it when I can feel pain in my dreams. For example, I dreamt a cat was attacking my legs and I can feel his claws digging into me. When I finally woke up, I was frantically checking my legs for scratch marks and blood. I can no longer wake up from my nightmares. I dream until there is a conclusion.

Because of this, I am chronically fatigued. I have no energy during the day. I sometimes refuse to sleep at night because I am terrified of my dreams. Doctors and psychiatrists have put me on sleep meds, but those only made the problem worse. Has anyone ever had this problem, and if you were able to get rid of your vivid dreams, what is your secret?

My doctors don't know what to do for me, so any help would be much appreciated.

seaecho · 04-19-2006, 03:31 PM

Are you taking beta blockers? Reason I ask is because beta blockers can cause very vivid dreams and/or nightmares in some people. My dreams are much more vivid since I started taking them. I also have nightmares like what you describe, where I feel pain, smell things, taste things, etc. Did you used to be able to wake yourself up from nightmares? Luckily, I am very good at doing that, most of the time. You can "train" yourself to realize you are dreaming, and wake yourself up if it becomes too scary. This is called "lucid dreaming," and you can certainly learn to have some level of control over your dreams and their outcome. I'm still working at it, with some success. I find it fascinating, but I abhor the nightmares.

cinemachick · 04-19-2006, 06:43 PM

Thanks for the replies. I have read about lucid dreaming and I think that may be the thing to fix this. I've realized that no medication is going to stop my nightmares. Where can I go to learn more about this? Are there any books that have helped you?

Thanks again!

seaecho · 04-20-2006, 02:20 PM

Jean, no. . .I'm not clairovoyant. I don't think I'd want to be either. Kinda scary. Are you? Cinemachick, there is loads and loads of info about dreams and lucid dreaming online. Just Google it, you'll get thousands of hits. I learned a lot about it in that way. Also, I'm sure Amazon has lots of books on dreams and dreaming. You can find some great deals on books there.