Deficiency and dreams

[topazrat]

Years ago, before I developed symptoms of P.A. I was aware of dreaming and often remembered them clearly when I awoke.

Over time, I gradually remembered less and eventually couldn't remember dreaming at all.

Since starting B12 jabs, I have noticed that I have started to dream and remember again.

Looking back, my dreams faded when my P.A. symptoms started. Which begs the question, does being B12 deficient actually decrease dreaming? I suppose if it can affect the brain enough to cause neurological symptoms, it is possible that it can disrupt the process of dreaming.

Has anybody else noticed a decrease in remembering dreams as their symptoms worsened?

[Foggyme Administrator]

Interesting Topazrat. I never dream...or at least I never remember dreaming. Not for years. Yikes!

[pugdogs10]

I never even thought about it before but I never ever remember dreams. Could this be because I have been on B12 injectionsfor 11 years? Sadly I can t remember its so long ago.

[Sleepybunny]

Yes I had a very similar experience to yours...years without dreams.

Once I got b12 I started to remember them ..was so excited when I started to dream again.

I wonder if people with severe b12 deficiency actually stop dreaming? I wonder if there have ever been sleep studies about this?

[topazrat in reply to Sleepybunny]

Ooo I'm glad I'm not the only one - last night I dreamt that we had a pet Komodo dragon who wanted to lick us all lol.

I did do a quick internet search, but couldn't find much about a link. Maybe we've found a new symptom

[Singoutloud]

Funny enough a friend threw out this question on Facebook and couple of weeks ago.

I haven't dreamed or remembered dreaming for a few years. Not sure if its hashimotos or pernicious anaemia or maybe it's the antibodies. Prior to that I had to have quite vivid dreams and could remember lots of detail.

[kirsten555]

I've always dreamed very vividly and always remembered my dreams in quite some detail. But for the past six months, since I've been really ill with PA and sleeping 9 - 10 hours a night, I noticed that I either wasn't dreaming, or if I was, I couldn't recall any details at all. It was like I went into complete limbo whilst asleep, as if in a coma almost (I've always been a fairly light sleeper in the past). But now, after my loading dose and two weeks of self injecting, I've noticed that my dreams have begun to return!

I'm no psychologist, but I've read that we all dream every night during one of the stages of sleep, and it's crucial to our psychological wellbeing that we do, as issues, fears and problems are dealt with by the subconscious at this point. But some people just don't remember their dreams, so they think it doesn't happen.

I do wonder whether when we're really ill with PA, perhaps our quality of sleep is different and we spend a lot more time in the really deep sleep where dreaming (and REM) doesn't happen? Maybe this is also part of the brain fog, or perhaps the brain fog is exacerbated by the fact that our dreaming time is impaired?

It was really good to see your post, topazrat, as I did wonder if it was just me whose dreams were affected by PA!

[supersezzie]

I'm messaging this having just woken up from an array of absolutely crazy and amazingly vivid nightmares, to the point where I'm a little anxious to go back to sleep. I won't go into them, they're messed up! I do wonder if the brain is starting to work again, and also if this relates to the memory loss since they say sleep consolidates memories. I used to be known for my vivid dreams and I can't remember when I stopped having them but it's been at least a year that I've hardly remembered any anymore. What a fascinating thing to look at, but in the meantime, I don't know how I'm going to sleep!