Mr Sandman can do one

September 11, 2018 1:40 AM

I've started having really vivid dreams, after an (adult) life of not having them, and it's kind of upsetting.

I've had no lifestyle changes over the last few months - same vitamins that I've been taking for two years (a multivit, an iron supplement), no diet changes, no exercise changes, no behaviour-around-sleep changes. If anything, I've been getting into bed a hair earlier - like, 10 instead of 10.30 - but I still go to sleep at the same time (11.30ish). I listen to ASMR videos to get to sleep, but again, I've done that for 3 years.

These dreams are so vivid I think they're real life. They're very tactile - one involved a cat crawling on top of my bed, and I could feel it in such detail, I had to check my bedding for cat hair in the morning. I'm not waking up feeling very refreshed, instead I feel unmoored and unsettled, but usually not totally knackered either. I also had a couple of nights where I couldn't sleep at all and felt like utter trash the next day.

I've had a few interpersonal dramas lately, and have felt stressed/overwhelmed with social and studying obligations, but that's not particularly new. I know asking about one's dreams is the height of boredom, but is this just a phase I should wait out or could it be a sign of another health (physical/mental) issue I should take note of?

There's no particular theme to them, they're standard dream nonsense, and they're not night terrors (which I had chronically until I was 8 or 9 years old).

posted by Gin and Broadband to Health & Fitness (15 answers total)

Best answer: Your very normal brain is working out anxiety during REM. I get super vivid dreams when drama is manifesting in my life, too. What has helped me is writing down or even recording stream of consciousness reflections about all the nonesense before bed so that my mind has an outlet to put stuff rather than save it all in my subconscious. It'll pass.
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:54 AM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

As someone who presumably has dreams, but would never really know because he almost never remembers so much as an inkling of them upon waking, I personally would welcome this change. I've always felt like I'm kinda missing out, not having dreams. Barring any other new weirdness and assuming that the dreams aren't unpleasant in and of themselves, I'd just chalk it up to "brains are weird" and enjoy the silly things that my brain wanted to show me while I was sleeping.

Also, I've always thought that if I dreamed reliably every night, I would try to learn lucid dreaming. Could be fun!
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:26 AM on September 11, 2018

I sometimes have this, most recently the past week. My understanding is that, since I'm much more restless and waking up more frequently, I am more likely to wake up and remember the dreams I have.

I would bet that you also are waking up briefly during the night. Once whatever drama stops, or you get used to it, the dreams should taper off.

The intensity is just something that varies for me with little rhyme or reason.
posted by Trifling at 2:51 AM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Are you an estrogen/progesterone producing person? Because I get the WORST nightmares and vivid dreams when I'm dealing with PMS hormone symptoms. Sleep disturbances, night sweats, and vivid dreams can be triggered as hormone levels change due to age/cycles. (Mine got worse after having endometriosis surgery and my hormones have felt funky - I just started on the mini pill to try to help all the symptoms.)

If you're not an estrogen/progesterone person then it can still be hormones - for example thyroid levels - causing sleep issues. A regular checkup and standard blood work would be an okay place to start if they don't subside.
posted by Crystalinne at 3:34 AM on September 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

I absolutely have way more vivid dreams when I'm stressed. This has been consistent throughout my life. (Benadryl also has an effect, but that doesn't sound like your situation.)
posted by restless_nomad at 6:29 AM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Was just going to say what Crystalinne did. Thanks to the wonders of PMS, I just woke up from a nightmare where I accidentally left my cat shut in the bathroom while I was at work and he clawed open a portal to an evil dimension. If anything is changing with you hormonally that could trigger this sort of thing.
posted by whistle pig at 6:38 AM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have always had very vivid dreams, and worse so when I am stressed. One thing that I know makes things worse is waking up in the middle of one (which makes sense, because you're at the bottom of a REM cycle and in super deep sleep). I now use the Sleep Cycle alarm app, which tries to wake you up when you're in a lighter sleep phase. I feel much better in the morning.
posted by radioamy at 6:38 AM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thirding the hormones. I am normally not a big dreamer, and the dreams I do have usually fall neatly into a couple of mundane buckets. But I had the wildest, most vivid dreams of my life early in my pregnancy. I woke up in tears a couple of times. If that's a possibility for you, check for that. It was a powerful cocktail of swirling hormones and waking up more frequently to pee (and probably some stress too, in all honesty). Once those things settled down in the 2nd trimester, the dreams mostly went away. Now that I'm in the 3rd trimester and waking up a lot again, I've started remembering more dreams, but they are nowhere near as wackadoo as the 1st trimester ones.
posted by natabat at 7:36 AM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Might mention it to your doc at your next visit. Nightmares can be indicative of sleep apnea.
posted by bunderful at 7:48 AM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is a completely wild guess, but is a sleeping partner trying to quit smoking? I've been dream-free for my entire life, but whenever my husband makes a go at quitting smoking, his nicotine patch makes me dream so vividly I wake up terrified every night. It happens even when he takes the patch off a few hours before we go to sleep.
posted by little king trashmouth at 8:06 AM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The: there are techniques for remembering your dreams. And then you can start on the techniques for lucid dreaming. You can literally achieve your dreams!
posted by nosila at 10:31 AM on September 11, 2018

Yeah, it sounds like your sleep has gone screwy during REM for some reason (maybe because of stress or yes sleep apnea).
posted by cotton dress sock at 10:47 AM on September 11, 2018

I also have very vivid dreams when I'm stressed, especially if I'm too busy to productively deal with the issue in my waking life. I either have to resolve the issue so the dreams stop or really focus on my lucid dreaming techniques so I can soften the unpleasantness of a stress dream -- Nosila's link is a good one to try. Honestly, the relief I get when I successfully realize I'm just dreaming is amazing.
posted by ananci at 11:13 AM on September 11, 2018

Any chance the air quality in your space has decreased? Maybe a tiny carbon monoxide leak? Vivid nightmares always make me wonder if my brain is getting enough oxygen... same general idea as those guessing apnea.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 11:39 AM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

A friend had this when his propane stove was leaking gas. He started draining and disconnecting the line every night, and they stopped immediately.
posted by slidell at 12:29 PM on September 11, 2018 [1 favorite]