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).

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

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


  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.