Posted by halcyondaze on February 19, 2007, at 14:40:23
Currently, I take Seroquel (50 mg) every night. Four nights out of the week, I take Halcion (0.5 mg) and the remaining three nights I take Ambien (10 mg). This is so I do not develop a tolerance to Halcion, which I was already beginning to see after about a month of taking it. Thankfully, 0.5 now works like it did in the beginning, and 10 mg Ambien (though not nearly as good for sleep) works on the nights when I do not have to be at work or class early the next morning.
However, I've been having disturbing dreams for a while now. They happen on both Ambien and Halcion, so it may be the Seroquel being combined with both - when I was just taking Seroquel, I didn't really dream, just slept this black sleep, after the first few days, so I'm thinking that Ambien and Halcion are creating some kind of lucid dreaming situation.
The dreams always seem to be negative, for the most part. The sensory information is the most clear when I wake up - bright colors, smells, sounds of voices, even emotions - but their content is what stays with me. Oddly, if I wake up (as I do throughout the night, to go to the bathroom or get some water to drink), the dreams resume where they left off. Even this morning, when I was up for about thirty minutes before deciding to go back to bed, my dream resumed from approximately where it had ended. They have plots, subplots, storylines ... it's like going to a movie for eight hours. The scary thing is, I'm the star and I never know what's going to happen next.
I often wake up talking out loud or crying as I emerge from sleep. In my dreams, I am frequently physically paralyzed, which is usually a sign I am about to wake up. However, it lasts for an uncomfortable period of time and I usually wake up crying when it happens - literally, with tears streaming down my face. I have even had an orgasm in my dreams recently (obviously this dream was not so bad)!
The disturbing content is what bothers me. Has anyone experienced anything similar and found either a pharmacological or behavioral solution to such "lucid" nightmares? Or should I just be thankful that I've finally been insomnia-free for a month now?
poster:halcyondaze
thread:734169
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070219/msgs/734169.html