Disturbing Dreams While in Coma

[RachelDemers]

I was wondering if anyone else has had extremely disturbing, violent and scary visions/dreams will in a coma? I have heard of people seeing visions or loved ones but my experience was nothing of the sort. Everything I saw was death, creatures from hell, my parents being killed so vividly and like a horror show. I was fighting and fighting to escape it all, but I couldn't. When I came out of the coma about a week later I remembered everything I 'saw' and was so traumatized. For months. I know this sounds crazy but I honestly believe I was shown my own personal hell. And I really think that if I had died I was going to hell. I am trying to be a better person now and I'm changing my life around. It was so scary. Has anyone experienced this?

[PMaz1970]

I have not had BM...my father suffered from it when he was 83. Too much for him.

I would go with what your heart says on this one.....scary stuff.

[ignoreit]

Very interesting Rachel. My experience was exactly the opposite! In the ER the drs told me to turn onto my stomach (I was in HORRIFIC leg pain at the time) so they could perform a spinal tap. The last thing I remember as I went into the induced coma was a WONDERFULLY euphoric feeling. I remember thinking, "Oh good, this is a drug to take away my pain." But soon thereafter, everything changed. Suddenly I somehow KNEW I was dying but I was HAPPY about it. "So THIS is what it feels like to die! It's wonderful!", I thought. It was more than pain relief...it was a definite euphoric state of mind that I had/have never felt before. Do recognize that I had previously undergone major surgeries that required strong anesthesia...and I NEVER before experienced that feeling of euphoria that was caused by my BM induced coma.

Isn't it interesting, as evidenced by this website, how differently all our BM experieces occurred!

[Glittergirl5299]

Again mine but different but I left hospital 10 days ago post VM and I've been on amilytriptiline for pain relief but I've just Experienced the most vivid often disturbing visual disturbances at nighttime which are making my recovery worse as I am afraid to sleep! They are so real I either shout at them or try and bat them away or grab them..sometimes my eyes are shut and I feel like something is watching me. Ice actually dramatically cut down the dose coz I was just too scared but I'm guessing I'm going to have to speak to GP ASAP? The headaches are under control with tramadol so maybe I don't need these as well plus I read they are an anti depressant..anyone had any experience of this drug or side effects?

Also big love to everyone who has had this,it's just been harrowing xxxxx

[MNClaireD Partner Meningitis Now]

It is quite common for people to experience strange dreams or nightmares following a stay in intensive care. Dreams about death, torture, being trapped etc are probably related to the drips and catheters inserted to support you during your illness, as well as the drug’s given. These nightmares general disappear over time.

Some people have found a visit back to the intensive care unit beneficial to see where they were care for. Others have benefited from counselling. It the problem continues, have a chat with your GP.

[HippyChick62]

In January 2013 my husband was admitted to hospital with streptococcal A meningitis and septicaemia.......we thought he had man flu and a migraine.

He was in a coma for a week, and nearly died. He was in ICU in Wexham, Park Hospiral, near Slough, who no doubt saved his life.

A week later he was transferred by ambulance to the JR in Oxford, as scans had shown he also had a brain tumour......this turned out to be a pituitary tumour, that was non cancerous.

After he came out of the coma in ICU in the JR, he was talking nonsense. He spoke of my sister's purple hair (!), she's blonde, he saw chickens walking around the ward, he saw a pelican (it was an oxygen cylinder), he saw a helicopter landing, he saw the nurses and doctors going disco dancing after hours.

He even mentioned the rum in a bottle on the side (it was anti bac hand gel)

They were the humorous things.

He told me a few days later of things he thought were really happening to him. Things that were so gruesome and upsetting, that even over a year later, he won't talk about it.

Drs trying to kill him. Drs trying to inject him with drugs to kill him. So often, that every time a dr came near him, he would grab the machines tubes behind him, ready to lash out at the drs who approached.

He spoke of climbing walls, jumping out of windows, and of images being floated around the ceiling.

He said the minute I left his side to go home, the drs would try to get him into a coffin at the end of his bed. He would kick and scream not to be pushed into this coffin as he knew that once he was in it, he was dead. He told me he was so scared of me leaving him every night as he knew his nightmare would start.

He is an intelligent grown man aged now 55. He runs his own business and has (still) a very sharp mind, however these things to him were real.

[RachelDemers in reply to HippyChick62]

Wow, a lot of those things you just described sound pretty familiar, that is spooky. I too dreamt of coffins and a helicopter. I am so glad to hear your husband is doing well and is back to work, his mind being sharp. I hope my mind regains its memory in time! I would live to feel sharp, instead of so slow and forgetting thing s so easily lol!

[mikeybo54]

After a liver transplant and a year of brutal immuno-chemo therapy, I had to have another surgery. During the surgery I developed ARDS and was put into a coma for 49 days. I was not expected to live and every day there was a new crisis. My family was told to expect the worse. I had dreams. Not ordinary dreams, but the most vivid, surreal and bizarre dreams that I had ever experienced. In one dream "episode" for lack of a better word, I was sitting somewhere and suddenly I could feel myself dying, slipping into the darkness. I was terrified at first but then I realized there was nothing I could do, and just go with it and see where it went.

And then I was in a hospital after what seemed like weeks. Not the actual hospital I was really in but a bizarre, wonderfully strange hospital where strange things were going on and I was restrained. Then I started to hear the voices of nurses and family around me while putting them into a strange context. That was the beginning of me coming out of the coma, although I was incredibly delusional for the next 11 days, I was somewhat awake even though I thought the nurses, doctors and family were different people and I talked to them as such. Finally, after 61 days, my daughter and mother came in to see me and I knew who they were.

Other than the dream in which I died? the dreams were not scary or frightening, just very, very strange. No white light, no god, no gramma waiting for me, just surreal and strange. I guess I'm very lucky to be alive

[gcarter2908]

I'm on amitriptyline since my almost fatal accident back in april, and I have nightmares commonly with it too, and they are seriously graphic, so don't worry you're not alone

[Mrs_Cooper]

Would you like to share your dream for a book I'm putting together? Please visit facebook.com/killingmarmalade 

Or email me at [e-mail] 

Fondest regards

Charlotte Cooper

Killing Marmalade and other coma dreams 

[Stace30]

Hi guys

Just to add ... I also had these weird dreams/nightmares being in hospital i didnt dare tell anyone until i confided in a nurse as i barely got sleep and as soon as i shut my eyes creatures/people things in you nightmares/hell with there hands out clawing out to get you; it was vile, id literally shut my eyes to go to sleep and the second i shut them id have to open them again just to check there was nothing in my room and it wasnt real!!

The Nurse i spoke to said its a common thing and they call it hospital syndrome because of all the people coming in and out and because of the multitude of drugs

🤗

[Luciddream]

I was in a coma for 22 days and I feel like it was my hell I went threw things I can't forget every one I loved killing me over and over some times I have trubbleforgeting it didn't happen

[KimberlyOdom]

I had vivid dreams while in my coma but they were good and i was ay peace and joy. I wanted to go back

[Vmzoster]

Sorry for your on that and others who experience it too. I wasn't in a coma but close and perhaps it would have been better if they induced one since I was almost there from the pain anyway and not completely coherent the whole time. So, I guess this won't apply to coma specifically and I am sure some element of the dreams are due to coma but another part is likely just due to the extreme pain and swelling of the brain regardless of whether in coma. As such, while I had meningitis, I had horrible nightmares too. I also feared going to sleep because I was worried I wouldn't wake up. Every single day seems touch and go so hard to tell if it is your last. I am now almost 8 months past but I still have more vivid dreams and occassionally they are terrible nightmares, far more and worse than prior to meningitis. With meningitis, you basically have stuff trying to kill your brain which makes sense that there would be terrible dreams

[K24a2]

Hi idk if this thread is still active. I was in the hospital for 2 months seat belt almost cut me in half. I had similar dreams of my fate. Which is super close to my reality now which is terrifying..