Taking medication to help you sleep

[Ronnie83]

I have insomnia and will take either a Xanax or a sleeping pill to sleep and then the dreams I have of people or events do not make sense or happen put or order. Does taking these kinds of drugs have an affect on deraming?

[eye_of_tiger]

Hi Ronnie,

Firstly I want to say that I am neither a qualified doctor nor a trained pharmacist, but I do have a lot of first hand experience with antidepressants and sedatives of various different chemical classes. I also therefore have a lot of empathy for and feel I have a lot in common with you, as I am also a chronic insomniac.

According to the following website with which I have no association whatsoever some possible psychiatric effects of Xanax are:

Mental confusion, depression, irritability, nervousness, sleep disturbances, euphoria, lethargy, stupor.

Also relevant to your experience of disrupted sleep and vivid dreams:

Sleep apnoea (temporary suspension of breathing during sleep) - Xanax may worsen this condition. Individuals with sleep apnoea should not generally use sedatives as sleep aids.

This means that although Xanax is not believed to cause sleep apnoea, if you are already unfortunate enough to suffer with this condition, Xanax is likely to make things even worse. When the brain is temporarily deprived of it's supply of oxygen, visual waking or dream hallucinations are evidently relatively common.

http://www.alprazolam.cc/alprazolam-side-effects.htm

My own medical condition which involves multiple allergies requires me to take a large daily dosage of antihistamines for the rest of my life (I am 55). I have learnt from times when I accidentally forgot my evening tablet that antihistamines like many sedatives and sleeping drugs actively suppress the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phase of sleep where it is believed that we dream. On those nights where I missed my medication it is as though my mind attempted to make up for all the dreams I should have had over the previous few years all in a relatively short period of time of 6 - 8 hours. Very weird and frightening nightmares, and feelings of unreality and/or of temporarily leaving my body, then coming back into it with a resounding thud and a rapidly racing heartbeat.

No it is not all in your imagination, but do not either change the dosages or withdraw your prescribed medications without first consulting your doctor. Sometimes the many benefits of it greatly outweigh these troubling dream disturbances you have just described. Discuss this with your doctor if you feel that it is preventing you from getting your healing sleep, or even worse that the sedatives are unintentionally causing increased feelings of depression and of suicidal thoughts (fortunately a fairly rare side effect, but certainly a potentially serious one).

Cheers,

eye_of_tiger