Do most of you NOT dream?

I meant, I k now I definitely have Fibromyalgia. and i do wake up really groggy, like I didn't sleep much-- but at the same time, I only get about 6 or 7 hours of sleep.

I usually have nightmares or really weird dreams. I don't have them very often but they are the only ones I seem to remember. I heard that it was because of the Ambien but the occasional nightmare is not worth giving up the ambien and the sleep I get with it.

My sleeping issues started with not being able to shut my brain off. all kinds of things would just keep running thru - not stressful stuff, just stuff in general, over and over. Then when I would finally get to sleep, I would only sleep about an hour and it would start all over again.

After several months of this, I looked and felt awful. This is when and why I ended up on the ambien.

Trazadone helps me sleep all night and I always dream.

I dream every night! My dreams are so real, I have vivid and wild dreams. I think thats why Im so tired during the day cause Im so active in my dreams lol. I don't take any daily meds either. Just otc pain med when needed. Wanna know how crazy they are? One night I drempt I was sliding in a ditch full of skittles on my belly like a slide, and I kept thinking how beautiful all the colors were and I said to myself if it would only rain...so it rained, and it was so cool to slide down a big ditch in skittles while it was raining..LOL!!, felt like a refreshing ride, one night I drempt about losing my eyeball and I saved it so the doctor could put it back in, while I was standing in the hospital line people in front of me where complaining about minor stuff and I said well look what happened to me..I lost my eyeball! lol!, last year around feb I had a dream about all the fish in the ocean died and I saw  a man standing at the water and he said yep, thats a sign, that the world was gonna end...scary cause alot of fish are dying now..I could go on and on.

My dreams make me sound crazy, but I assure you Im not..LOL!!   (only in my dreams LOL)

Hugs

KL

Wow, I always thought I was some sort of freak because I only have nightmares. I only remember dreams about a third of the time, but they are 90% gruesome and terrifying. I have a terrible time falling and staying asleep, but I think a lot of that has to do with Tramadol because I was able to fall asleep even with the pain before I stared taking that. I've always had the nightmares, though.

Klamert, don't feel bad. I've had dreams about my father killing my mother and molesting me, though that never happened in real life. Then I had one where I stabbed my best friends to death and enjoyed it. They are all incredibly realistic to the point where I could feel the blood splashing on my face and remember thinking how difficult it was to get the knife past the ribcage while stabbing someone in the chest.

I'm a firm believer that our dreams are metaphors for something our brains are trying to sort out and they don't actually reflect our true desires. At least let's hope so, in my case.

I do dream now that I'm off Ambien, but it's usually right before I wake up. When I take a nap after taking Soma or Vicoden, I do dream then. Usually vivid dreams. I dreamt the other day that the guy who bought out last house had sectioned it into extra bedrooms and that didn't make any sense to me.

It's interesting hearing about all the dreams!

KL- don't worry, I have had strange dreams too- when I was a kid I dreamt that my mom was chasing me around holding a gun. It doesn't mean we are freaks- the brain is a fascinating thing, isn't it?

So, I guess the jury is out that it's all different with Fibromyalgia-- some people dream and some don't. I was beginning to question my diagnosis just because I do dream- since most articles say people with Fibro don't reach REM sleep. But, now they are saying it's mostly from the nervous system, so maybe as far as sleep issues go, maybe that doesn't happe to everyone.

thanks all for sharing!

Looks like a minor pattern here...many people don't dream and a large share have dreams that are near nightmares. I'm another one. I used to dream every night and most often there were disturbing but that was when I was married to 'the ex'. After I divorced and was single it was hard to sleep for fear of dreams. When hubby and I married a couple of years later I shocked him by the nightmares. I would wake up screaming about 5-6 nights/week...always the same thing. I couldn't get away from the ex, I would try to call for help and no one could hear me. It took several years before those totally went away. Now and then I get a small one.

But now I dream frequently but they also are weird, bazaar, strange and disturbing for the most part. Once in a while they're just goofy. For the past 20 years I pray just before I go to sleep and ask that I not dream because I don't want any more nightmares. It's hard enough fighting sleep and pain, who needs the dreams if they're no fun. ;-)

Chutz

Denita, I was like you for the longest time when my brain wouldn't shut down. I felt like it was spinning really fast like a hamster on one of those wheels in a hamster cage. It would race from one thought to the next to the next and at some point (many hours later) I would finally collapse -- only to wake up a short time later for round 2.

My chiropractor has done some pressurizing at the base of my skull to do what he calls "quiet that half of the brain" and wake up the calming side of the brain.

I am also now on generic Ambien (I tried Lunesta first, and while that worked and doesn't have some of the complex "issues" that sometimes accompany my generic Ambien, it was outrageous in price). Just recently I was contemplating whether I could get off the Ambien, but then my 24-hour hormone lab results came back and I was highly deficient in HGH hormone. The injections for that cost thousands a month, so that's out of the question. The only other recommendations were eat lots of protein, exercise daily, and practice good sleep hygiene, making sure I get plenty of rest. So Ambien it is.

(If anyone is wondering what I mean by "issues" with the Ambien, here is an example. I don't always remember things that take place after I take the med at night. A few weeks ago apparently I chatted with one of my son's friends on Facebook, but I have no recollection of typing and chatting with him, so that stuff scares me.) I feel like it's all a catch 22 and it is frustrating.

so does stage 4 sleep have nothing to do with dreams?

            Ever since they put me on lyrica and percocet i havent had a single nightmare.  Let me just say I am thrilled.  Before i was diagnosed.  i would have dreams of a chick that was a mix between the girl from the grudge and the girl from the ring (Movies).  What was strange is when the movies came out i like laughed them off and thought they were stupid.  Then about 8 months ago when i started to get sick,  I just started having these nightmares where she was chasing me.   i dont care if i ever dream.

    I know some one is laughing at me because of my crazy psycho dreams but if you had a dream where that crazy witch is chasing you you woiuld be singing a different tune :)

With Ambien you aren't supposed to eat anything when you take it, but at the same time I was also taking trazodone, and the instructions with it says to take it with a snack. So I think they were working against each other. Anyway, I'm glad I'm off it.

Hubby never got lucky like that, though. LOL