Hey people,

Ive been taking painkillers for 6 months, and all my dreams have been really negative during this time (well the one's i remember, it is a rare thing).

Is there anyway painkillers can affect dreams? This is especially aimed at DocM (since he may have some knowledge regarding this).

Hi Craig - hope you well  :) although on painkillers for six months sounds like you are in pain - are you ok?
Well one thing to get to remember your dreams hey !  when I was on a series of painkillers last year I also had some dreams which I would call nightmares - writing this now brings bits of these dreams back to me.  I do think anything which goes through our nervous system situated in our brain does cause an altered perception.

Maybe Matthew might have more to add though.

At least being aware of possibly being in an altered perception may help centre your dreaming onto being aware.
Does that make sense?!

Keep well mate.

I don't know if it is the painkillers, Spitfire. I have used them in the past for serious back and leg problems which I was able to entrain my body out of with therapy.  They did not affect my dreams.

However, I do believe that traumatic circumstances can resurface in our dreams as our mind begins to process more fully what has happened to us.  I suppose it is a way of reliving and re-understanding our relationship to the pain we have experienced.

So, yes, it may be an opportunity for you to examine yourself within the dreams, notice the roles you are playing, how you are reacting, and to notice if you are on a "healing" path, which to me means becoming stronger and able to control the circumstances, initially, and then calmer and able to transform the experiences at a later stage.

This is my limited understanding of the nature of such dreams, if they are personal.

If they are impersonal, and you feel no emotion from them, just images you remember which are disturbing....then this also could be the result of trauma, I believe. I would suggest surrounding yourself in your daily life with very positive images.  Look at them daily. This will seep into your subconscious mind and help you.  Feed your mind also with words and books which are healing.

Just a suggestion.

much love, blink :)

Greetings,

As your body is forced to re-form, it may be 'complaining,' and these complaints may come through in your dreams. Fighting, anger, any theme of force against force, resistance, etc might be your body's way of telling what is happening to it through these dreams. As you know, I'm no doc, but dreams are a deep interest of mine, especially when dreamt by people I like and admire.

At my house we've amazingly eased some of our aches and pains by eating a combination Doc M mentionned once --bananas with strawberries yum, and we cut back on meat.  Were you taught any diet changes to use during this period?

I just checked with my husband who's had several painful back surgeries. He said the painkillers with steroids in them gave him terrific nightmares. I still wonder if the dreams are reporting the physical/neural changes being forced upon them.

Be well soon, Craig!

Bets

SpitfireReturns wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2007 at 7:39am:

Hey people, Ive been taking painkillers for 6 months, and all my dreams have been really negative during this time (well the one's i remember, it is a rare thing). Is there anyway painkillers can affect dreams? This is especially aimed at DocM (since he may have some knowledge regarding this).

 Just chiming in real quick.  

Hi Craig, this is not an area that is well explored by medical 'science'.   But it is and long has been my belief and understanding both based on theory and experience that oft times both nightmare type and completely nonsensical dreams happen purely from body reactions, particularly when the body is temporarily imbalanced beyond its norm or average.  

We tend to think of dreams as purely connected to emotional, mental, and/or spiritual causes, but sometimes the body (remember its a consciousness and energy level too), has its own reactions, there are differences between all the different energy systems or what some call the various bodies.

Painkillers are as toxins to the body (no human body evolved to take these into their system and not suffer on some level for it), and yes i would say that sustained use of them could cause nightmare type dreams--heck even one dose could potentially have this effect.    It may even take awhile after stopping the use of them, for these to fully get out of your system and for your body to rebalance and rebound from the long term use.