Some thoughts on reliever side effects

[Wheezycat]

Hi all, In the early morning between sleep and wakefulness, I had a thought or two: I have noticed I now dream so much more than I used to. It all feels quite lively, but not uncomfortable or difficult, and certainly not unpleasant, and generally I would say I sleep well, on the whole. However, it occurred to me that perhaps the steroids have affected my type of sleep, so I have more dream sleep than before. I wonder in part as I tend to get so much more sleepy than I used to. Not fatigued, or feeling unwell, just straight forward more often feeling sleepy. I am getting older, so that could be it in part, but I do wonder about those steroids. When I am on prednisolone my normal sleep deserts me nearly completely.Inhaled is so much smaller quantity, so I certainly sleep, but just seem to need a lot of it. Has anyone else had this dreamy experience?

[emmasue]

I am not sure. I do know that for me, I have struggled with fatigue quite a bit over the last few years. I have always had dream sleep though. I think this is because I have sleep apnoea (untreated). I sleep all night but I always wake up sleepy I usually need an afternoon nap. I am only in my early 40's and shouldn't feel like this. Not sure if it is the steroids or something else. I am on so much at the moment. I just wish I felt more alert.

[Minushabens]

I'm currently about 10 weeks into a 24-week course of pred & it's driving me crackers (yes indeed, more crackers than I was to start with).

I haven't noticed anything much with dreams, but I'd be glad on a Saturday morning not to have been up since before 6am. I feel a bit like I've run a marathon as well - really badly aching bones. I am very grateful for the fact they keep us breathing, but crikey I wish they'd discover something that doesn't come with an encyclopedia of side effects.

Anyway, I hope the dreams are good ones. Mine today is Huddersfield winning away at Manchester United. However, I'm planning to go for a big fry-up & several pints with my son to lessen the effect of sitting with 75000 people celebrating us getting hammered.

[Wheezycat in reply to Minushabens]

Prednisolone really stops me sleeping. May I never need it all the time! All the best to get through it.

[Superzob]

All 5 of the corticosteroid inhalers which I've tried have given me more dream sleep. Your brain is more active in dream sleep, so the overall quality of sleep may be reduced; hence, like you, I can feel more tired during the day, but it's variable and tolerable. I guess it's a balance between having some discomfort and controlling what can be a very serious illness for some.

[Wheezycat]

Hi all three! Thank you for your responses. Truth is that I sleep well enough, but dream a lot, seemingly lively, jolly dreams, no bad stuff that I am aware of. But I think like Superzob that it reduces my quality of sleep to make it less ‘efficient’. But I don’t suffer,except getting noticeably more tired, which can be tedious. I want at times to fall asleep in sofa corners, and I do. If I don’t have access to a sofa corner at such times that can be hard, but mostly I do. So no deep suffering, just a conundrum.