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Bad dreams while using mirtazapine

Posted , 44 users are following.

Noddy
Noddy

Hi

I've been taking mirtazapine for a little over a week now and I am sleeping much better except that I have awful dreams. I used to take citalopram and had some weird dreams when I was taking them but it seems to be much worse since I changed to mirtazapine.

I wake up feeling terrible because the dreams have been so weird or frightening and it takes me a while to settle down again.

It's such a shame because before I started taking them I had difficulty sleeping, now that has improved but I'm nervous about falling asleep incase I have another horrible dream.

Does anyone else get horrible dreams while taking mirtazapine?

2 likes, 85 replies

85 Replies

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  • Ahlaura
    Ahlaura Noddy

    Posted

    Hi noddy

    ..I'm from Canada and have been taking mirtazapine for sleep disorder for a little more than a year now and the dreams are still coming and so surreal it's frightening ...I wake up crying and full of anxiety ...I planning on going to my doctor and discontinue mirtazapine and asking for a good old-fashioned sleeping pill that is not an antidepressant .....how are you doing on it to date

  • alan28395
    alan28395 Noddy

    Posted

    Yes, I would be woken by a smell of burning and despite none of the smoke alarms were going off I would search the house for signs of smoke.

    Afer trying to come off 15mg slowly, the withdarwal effects were so bad my GP put me back on them.

  • Guest
    Guest Noddy

    Posted

    My experience with Mirtazipine and dreams must be the exception. I have epic, multi-part fantastic dreams. I love them.

    I specifically requested Mirtazipine from my GP just for sleep and I combine it with Amitryptiline.

    I take a 45mg mitazi and 20-30mg amit's a night and sometimes I wake up feeling nostalgic and "remember the old days" kind of very real emotions about fictional events in my dreams.

    I don't know if this means anything but when I was a child about 6 or 7 I taught myself to wake up if I was having a bad dream, sometimes into another dream but always awoke.

    The other thing for me was my self confidence due to long term addiction issues (long before I started mitazis) and in my dreams "the gun would have no bullets, my punches would have no effect, etc etc" but this all changed after I got clean 11 years ago and grew a "I don't give a f*ck" kind of attitude towards things that previously

    • Guest
      Guest

      Posted

      Stupid phone..... previously I was fearful of. I also get telekinesis in my dreams but it's more like I'm controlling or asking an entity to do it for me.

      I've had very intense dreams as I've said but I'm always one step ahead of the person/monster/nuclear explosion/what ever the ever changing threat is at any point. To quote PWEI "I get the girl, kill the baddies, and save the entire planet".

      I also get a major appetite not long after taking the mitazi and I usually eat something sweet like peanut butter and honey on toast so this may well inform upon the context of my dreams.

      I'm really sorry to hear that so many of you have had such horrific experiences when I have the exact opposite and could even say I look forward to them.

  • johnd2000
    johnd2000 Noddy

    Posted

    OH MY GOD! I've never had such horrible livid dreams in my life.. i took mirtazapine 2 nights ago and had such a terrible nightmare that I didnt take it the following night and i was fine dream-wise. Tonight (last night- its 4am-ish) I really couldnt sleep so i took it again and it was horrific.  Its the first time in my life I've had a livid dream where I'm aware I'm dreaming and can control some aspects, but most was uncontrollable.. People and creatures kept coming at me, cutting my flesh off my bones, chasing me everywhere.. i looked at the ground and i was walking on human flesh and dead bodies.. There was so much more but it's just too weird and too much to explain.. i knew i was dreaming so I tried desperately to wake myself up and get out of it but I could not.  At one point i thought I'd woken up in my room but then it started all over again.  When i finally woke up at 3am I set phone alarms to go off every 15 minutes to make sure I didnt fall back asleep.. the dream seemed to go on forever, to the point that I started thinking maybe it wasnt a dream but that I was awake and hallucinating it all.. that i had just gone completely insane and doomed to live in this reality forever.. i feel like this drug should be banned so no one should ever have to go through that kind of psychological torture.. unbelievable!
    • johnd2000
      johnd2000

      Posted

      I mean Lucid dreams, not livid
    • dawn70425
      dawn70425 johnd2000

      Posted

      Hi there, I know what u are saying as my nitemares are the same, I went on mirt 18mth ago and even tho I had dreams I stayed a sleep, but now the dreams are waking me up, I total understand how you feel, well Iv had enough and have started coming of mirt, and the nitemare are slowly going now, my sleep mite not be as good, but I couldn't stand the alful nitemares any longer, I was dreading going to bed in the end, as couldn't stand the dreams any more, so I'm now glad I'm coming of them once and for all, I do hope your feeling some what better, take care x

    • Guest
      Guest dawn70425

      Posted

      Hi dawn

      have you managed to get off the mirtazapine? Have you managed to come off mirtazapine now?what dose were you on? and how did you taper down? or did you just stop?did you get withdrawels?my only reason for wanting off this med is the awful nightmares,I would even put up with weight gain,but the nightmares are never ending.

    • dawn70425
      dawn70425 Guest

      Posted

      Hi chrisy..ow yes I came of them about 9 mth s ago as they were driving me mad, to the stage I dreaded going to sleep.. I started off on 15mg, then doc said to go up to 30mg after 4 weeks, so the first month was ok with sleep, then I went up to the 30 and slowly the nitemares started, so I came back down to 15 my own chiose I didn’t ask doc, and the nitemares stayed with me, just got worse, but wanted to see if it would settle back down, after 5mth I’d had enough of the bad dreams, some people say they have good dreams.. but me they were alfull so real and scary as tho I was living them.. so I brock the 15 mg in half (7.5) and for one week had that, and then just tuk half every 3 days, for a week, and I stopped then, as the dreams were still coming, I didn’t have side effect from this med, other the weight gaine, and coming off it for ME was easy, it tuk around 7 days after stopping for the dreams to stop yeah, I’m now on Prozac for depression, and after 7+ months and I’m on 60 mg it is working for me, think we all have to try different meds till we find one that suits us...

      If trazadone has not stopped working for me I would of stayed on that med, as I had no trouble at all, and would sleep great every nite without nitemares lol, it’s only the mirt one that coursed me the problems so just glad to be rid of mirt and on some thing that suits me x

    • wendy51844
      wendy51844 Guest

      Posted

      Hi Dawn

      ?I was only on it for one week and that was enough for me. It was bad enough having the bowels frozen, ha, but having nightmares and waking up crying hysterically was just too munch. The nightmares increased the anxiety and so was not doing any good. Plus of course we are totally zonked out and nobody wants that do they.

      ?So having only took it for seven days I didn't get any withdrawing problems at alll

    • dawn70425
      dawn70425 wendy51844

      Posted

      Hi Wendy... ow yes I know what you mean with nitemares, I stuck it out in the hope it would get better in time, but nooooo they like you just got worse, and worse, others have said they have good dreams which is fine, but not these one, I was also told by my doc that it could make you sleep walk, and some people don’t know they’ve done that, can you image sleep walking and doing some thing mad, like if you dreamed some one was after you, and you got to escape out the house lol... I live on my own, so no one stop me, Iv never sleeped walk in my life so don’t know what you would do,...

      Horrid sleep were, and like you your anxiety gets worse as you start to dread sleep... no sorry gave them my best try but never worked, are you on any other meds now then? Or does it put you off? 🤗x

    • Guest
      Guest dawn70425

      Posted

      Dawn,did you have any withdrawel effects? and how long did they last?after your last mirtazapine,how long was it before you felt completley well? Did you go straight over to Prozac,or did you wait a while?
    • dawn70425
      dawn70425 Guest

      Posted

      Hi chrisy .. I just went down to 7.5 mg for a week, then just once aver 3 days for a week and just stopped then, with no side effects for me at all... think I just left it for about 4 weeks b4 going back to docs as my depression was really bad by then, and he put me on Prozac and Iv never looked bk as works for ME 🤗x

  • forrest
    forrest Noddy

    Posted

    I also have strange dreams, more like lucid dreams. I often wake up with the dream still fresh in my mind and often feel relieved that it was not real.

     

  • sylvia2224
    sylvia2224 Noddy

    Posted

    Yes I too have weird dreams along with other side effects. Don't know how to stop them.

    Sylvia

    • wendy51844
      wendy51844 sylvia2224

      Posted

      Hi Sylvia,

      No joke is it. I do believe the only way to stop them is to stop the medication altogether. I guess we just have to keep working on the causes of our problem 

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