Dreams

[Lynn1966]

Hi I was just wondering if anyone has very weird dreams due to there medication. I have some very strange dreams. Sometimes I can’t remember them but I do sometimes remember and none off them makes sense.. lol like I’m making no sense now 😂😂

[Sunnie2day]

What medication(s) are you on and what time of day do you take them?

I've heard some meds like Bisoprolol can cause odd dreams if taken at night . I'm on it (1.25mg), take it in the morning and haven't had any side effects after the first few weeks falling asleep by 9pm.

[Calliope153]

Yes for me it was the higher the dose of Bisoporol the weirder the dreams...... some of them I couldn;t remember but knew they were off the wall. I woke my husband up one night to tell him that grey garden gnomes were walking up the bed between us - it seemed logical in the dream....... now i am on 1.25 dose it doesn;t happen too often.... more worrying was dreaming about people in Renaissance outfits coming through the bedroom window.... dreams were much more vivid than usual dreams.

[VelvetSky]

Hi Lynn, I had to stop taking Avabradine as I had waking hallucinations, I couldn’t walk across my hall because the walls were black bars and floor was full of snakes. Recently the Cardiologist has suggested I try Avabradine, obviously didn’t read my notes.

I also get weird disjointed thoughts just as I’m dozing off, this is only since the HA.

I’ve had several dreams lately where I dream entirely in French, my dreaming French is much better than my waking French.

Of course I may just be going mad.

[invictaAlec]

Hi Lynn,

Yep, I had a reasonably long period of having weird dreams. They didn't start for a good few months after my surgery and maybe that's because it took a while for the drug to build up a bit in my system. Bisoprolol I've read, is a candidate for causing them!

They seem to have disappeared of late. Maybe I've become resistant to its effects now. I kind of miss waking up thinking "Boy, that was WEIRD". LOL.

Alec.

[stillaboveground]

Hi I had hallucinations while awake, scary, wore of after a few weeks.

[Hidden]

The trick is to read the leaflet that comes with any medication, especially strong drugs. After a heart op I had a bout of atrial fibrillation whilst still in hospital. To prevent a recurrence I was put on a drug called Amiodarone. Like most strong drugs when you read the leaflet you feel you are doomed as they have to include every possible side effect from very common to very rare. Mine actually mentioned the possibility of 'nightmares' so I was to some degree prepared but never having had this problem it was still a surprise when I found I was having really weird dreams (as you describe). So it seems that some heart related drugs do have this side effect. It did make me wonder how my brain could conjure up such strange events which all involved me. None were violent or frightening but I could not relate any of the 'narrative' to real experiences. I stopped taking the drug after three weeks as one of the other 'side effects' was that it can remain in your system for up to six months afterwards and I did have a few weird dreams more than two months after I stopped taking it.

[Hidden]

I take Flecainide for AF & have joked on here before that I now have the content for several mini-series! I take care not to take them after 6pm or dreams can turn to nightmares - usually they are just interesting, adventurous & odd.

Pat x

[Dickyticker26]

Just 7 weeks ago after a quadruple bypass I came to in intensive care in a weird parallel world where reality and fantasy were confused-rather like that Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Total Recall"

The first night we were under the Royal Festival Hall the beds balanced on wide steps just above the river It was cold and damp but the nurses said we had to stay the night and in the morning the beds were pushed up a ramp back into the hospital

That at the time was complete reality

On the other hand the nurses would stand at the bedside like statues I asked one if she was real and was assured that she was but when I touched her on the arm to make sure I found that she was made of marble

At times the furniture in the ward was moving round to form a film set like the Admiral Benbow Inn in "Treasure Island" with shady characters sitting round

More and more the scenarios were of entrapment-by African terrorists in reprisal for the wrongs they had suffered

I could hear doctors talking quite close by, people laughing and crying and shouting and being led away and there seemed to be a lot of school children being shown round

I was asking the nurses to be allowed to return into the real world and they were saying that it was all controlled by machines which they could not operate, but there was a time lock and if I waited another 30 mins it would come to an end

I was told later that I was in intensive care for a day then in the High Dependency Unit for a week-which I remember and then the open ward for 3 days till I was discharged

To the end I could never remember the name of the hospital though I could give my name and date of birth

Apparently I was telling visitors that I was in USA or France or other places

I was being told by nurses to go back to sleep as it was 2 am when I thought it was the middle of the day and I thought that another day had gone by when only 20 minutes had elapsed

I was told that the condition I had was "Delirium" and it affects as many as 1 in 4 patients

It is thought to be caused by morphine pain killers though apparently I had a synthetic equivalent called Fentanyl

Fortunately the delusional episodes wore off as promised but the memory of them is still very strong and it is very difficult to talk about them-a number were about unresolved grief or guilt concerning deceased family members which came out of the blue from long ago

I now recognise the one about the furniture moving round from a tv advert, the surgical wounds are well healed and Epsom hospital told me yesterday that I am doing enough with walking and household chores to make rehabilitation unnecessary

Next Monday I go back to London for the post op check up

My medication seems to be sorted out-Apixaban, Bisoprolol, Clopidogrel, Rosuvastatin, Lansoprosol-without any delusional episodes

The last I can remember was in the open ward looking down at the Thames at night with the Houses of Parliament opposite and being told that the whole of central London was in lock down-that the prime minister had the key and no one could find him

That I think emanated from an incident at church where the key to the tabernacle went missing and a member of the congregation had it in her handbag for safekeeping!

[Gowers in reply to Dickyticker26]

Your description has made me chuckle especially the missing key. After ablation & Flec meds I dreamt I was talking face to face to Duchess of Sussex & Cambridge🤣

[Dickyticker26 in reply to Gowers]

Thanks for the response-nice to know you are being read it makes it worth the effort!

[Qualipop]

Bisopralol not only gave me odd dreams but also hallucinations when I woke up. I had 3 foot by 10 inch huge black worms all over the walls and ceilings.

[Handel]

Ants and cockroaches were the insects of hubby's hallucinations!! The cause was codeine and morphine. touch wood, he hasn't had any problems with bisoprolol!

Hope you get sorted out xxx

[Gladwyn in reply to Handel]

I've taken 7.5 mg of Bisoprolol for almost 4 years and touch wood haven't had any problem ..... That I know about!! 😀

[Pippa1234]

I had Technicolor vivid dreams on beta blockers. Quite nice really lol

[Debee28]

Hi, I am so glad that you put your message on here! I'm 6 weeks post HA and for the last week or two I've been having really bad dreams, nightmares etc. A lot of them relating to when my children were young. I too am on bisoprolol so going to call my cardio nurse today and see if I can move to the morning.

Hope you are sleeping better