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Posted 3/27/2009 1:39 PM (GMT 0)
Hi-may I ask a question-do you think chronic pain sufferers have more nightmares/night terrors than normal? Every since her injury my daughter has cried or talked a lot in her sleep, jerks and yells out. Since workers comp has been putting more pressure on her to do the suboxone treatment she has had repeated nightmares about getting sick again, falling and not being able to walk, this all happened to her last year. When she wakes up from these she stays up, just to make sure it is not happening all over again. Since her injury she had averaged about 3 hours, wakes up to adjust and if lucky may be able to get back to sleep or dose for another 2 hours. Now with these nightmares she is of course getting less and less sleep. Sleeping pills if they work(and they don't most of the time!), make her sleep too hard (for about 4 hrs straight) and she doesn't get up to adjust enough so her pain is worse when she wakes up. Her bipap/w oxygen was helping her with being so tired, but now she is not getting much benefit from it. She doesn't like to nap during the day because she's feels guilty and her doctors would rather she didn't saying she would sleep better at night if she didn't.  But she doesn't seem to be as frightened in the daylight and can relax more.   Seems like everything is different when its night.   Just asking, Momcares
Posted 3/27/2009 3:26 PM (GMT 0)
both pain & the opiates themselves can intrude and severely alter ones dreams. I know that certain meds cause nightmares(actually terrors...they're HORRIBLE) more often than others (ie. can't do lunesta, but ambien works great...actually have "feel good" type of dreams on ambien vs. extreme terror on lunesta). But it is based on a persons brain chemistry. Some people don't get nightmares at all...

BTW, my father just had surgery, and he got nightmares on the same stuff (I didn't tell him about my reactions). My sister had the same reaction...she tried them again hoping for better pain relief, but still got them...JMHO, a hypothesis actually, but there may be some family history as well... Oh I forgot, my paternal aunt hasn't been able to control her pain from RA & OA because everything gives her nightmares...something for the drug companies to look into...would make a good paper...

Has she told the doc about the night terrors? (cause I too, can be a bit afraid of the dark when waking from one of my terrors...). They might be able to change the meds (alter dosing, find a med that works better, more effectively control the pain,etc.)...It may not seem that important, but for docs who know their stuff, it can be an important indicator...

I'll be thinking of your daughter, and I hope she gets the rest she needs....
Posted 3/27/2009 7:26 PM (GMT 0)
I can so relate to the nightmares and also very realistic dreams, where I can feel things (including pain). 2 nights ago I had a dream my kids where being attacked by a bear and I couldnt save them. And last night I had a dream I was being stabbed and I could feel it, it's very scary. And to top things off I woke up this morning vomiting, and I guess I clenched my teeth so hard while I was sleeping that now my teeth and jaws hurt. I'm having a terrible morning today.

-hellokitty
Posted 3/27/2009 8:30 PM (GMT 0)
Aw Kitty I'm so sorry you are having a terrible morning today. Hope the day improves.

Mom, I don't know if chronic painers have more nightmares or not, but it might be a good question to add a poll to next time.

I have occasional nightmares and they are bad when I do, but for the most part, I think the medications I take before bedtime help me stay asleep and I don't usually have the nightmares, like I said. I would have the doctor re-evaluate her medications to see if changes might help her with her sleep patterns.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but I hope she gets some restful sleep soon.

Gentle hugs,

Lindaloo
Posted 3/27/2009 8:46 PM (GMT 0)
Mom,
Is your daughter seeing a psychologist? I'm not saying the problem is a mental illness, but the trauma from the injury as well as all the surgeries, etc. could be contributing. Like others have said, some of the pain meds we take can for some people contribute to nightmares. But she can start to develop a pattern that leads to a real anxiety disorder, or possibly some Post Traumatic Stress. I'd suggest if possible to have an evaluation with a pain psychologist who also understands trauma. A good psychiatrist who also understands trauma (someone who works a lot with PTSD) might be able to evaluate all the medication issues.

Just some thoughts. I hope you don't take them the wrong way.

PaLady
Posted 3/28/2009 7:34 AM (GMT 0)
I haven't noticed any difference in my dreaming while I'm on pain meds but sleeping pills make me hallucinate. I have tried 4 different ones and I swear the hallucinations are wild. I had little green men follow me around the house for 5 hours. One made me see Jerry Garcia wearing my father's fishing hat for a few hours. Maybe it is the sleeping pills effecting her instead of the pan meds or pain. Either way I wish you and her the best and hope she can get some relief and rest soon.
Posted 3/28/2009 8:11 AM (GMT 0)
Stillrecovering,
The Jerry Garcia hallucination at least made me laugh through my pain tonight! Please don't take that in the wrong way, but it is an unusual one that's for sure!

And Mom it's in no way meant to minimize what your daughter is going through. Troube is we all have so much going on with meds and chronic sleep deprivation and emotional stress it's hard to sort out what the cause(s) may be. I hope you can help your daughter find some answers, and some relief.

PaLady
Posted 3/28/2009 3:07 PM (GMT 0)
That's okay -just was wondering, I know from reading a lot about chronic pain-sometimes sleep is just not an option. Even though my daughter is 33 -I guess I'm still tuned into her during the night. At least there's not 2 now, she is a twin and I didn't get much sleep after they were born-would wait until one woke up and feed her/him, try to get back to sleep until the other woke up, finally the doctor said- why don't you wake the other one up after you feed the first one and feed that one too? DUH so obvious!! Wish the answers for you all and my daughter were so obvious now. They were such terrors when they were little, if one didn't think of something, the other one would, have you ever had two little kids in the bathtub, with baby powder and toilet paper, left them alone two minutes..............!! Pallady- Do you mean Jerry Garcia from the Dead?? Boy, that is strange--I think I would have picked someone a little cuter-maybe Jim Croce................Elvis (when he was young)..........whoops showing my age! Thanks for listening-Momcares
Posted 3/28/2009 8:00 PM (GMT 0)
Mom,
I took the Garcia thing from Stillrecovering's post. I'm assuming that was referring to THE Garcia, but I don't think Stillrecovering had a choice of who she picked in her hallucination!

I sure would pick someone else, too....and I do remember Croce and Elvis!!

PaLady :-)
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