Plaquenil Dream Ideas?

Newbie here and was recently started on Plaquenil by my very conservative Rheumatologist (took 2 years to get to this point as I only have moderately elevated ANA, RF, Anti-Sm, and Anti-dsDNA).

So I really, really need this to work as my fatigue levels are unreal. Pre-Plaquenil I was sleeping more than 12 hours a day. I've been on it just a little over a week.

My side effect: I have extremely vivid dreams all night long. These dreams are so real/intense I can remember all of them since I started this medicine as if they were real events, and they usually don't fall on the pleasant-side. An added bonus is that I wake up from them several times a night, heart pounding fast, only to fall asleep and start a new one. Repeat until time to go to work.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to minimize this side effect? Anyone that had this care to share how long it stayed around - or did it never go away?

Sleep was my one relaxing escape from miserable waking hours and now it's just as frustrating. My dosage is 200mg x 2, and in the past few days I've self-adjusted to just taking one pill a day in the AM to see if easing into Plaquenil will help. My dreams are less intense but I'm still waking up lots and am sleeping lightly (versus my prior state of being out solid until someone woke me 12 hours later).

Any comments appreciated!

Just posting an update in case it may help others in the future..

Backing off to 200mg x 1 of Plaquenil did reduce the severity/intensity of my dreams. After about 5 days of the 1 dose, I went to the prescribed 200mg x 2. Good news - the ultra vivid dreams didn't come back! Maybe for some, easing into it a bit helps with the troublesome dreams.

Don't get me wrong, I still dream a lot more than normal, but they aren't the "wake up 10x per night, heart pounding" dreams, they're normal dreams but seem to be more frequent. I also don't remember them as if they were real events anymore (whew! sanity intact!)

Now, just waiting patiently for this medicine to help some. Only three weeks in but really hopeful it'll do some good.

For what it's worth, I haven't been explicitly told "Your diagnosis is SLE", but the Rheumatologist hinted that's the direction he was leaning given the Anti-DSDNA, ANA results, and other weirdness. Just hoping this gives me a little of my brain back and lessens the fatigue - I can take the pain.

Maybe adding a question to this: Do any of you with an SLE diagnosis have a Nucleolar pattern? Google says that's more in the sarcoidosis category - Dr says I read too much.

Good luck to all!

I remember doing the research when I was first diagnosed (2002), and I think I had the same pattern. But the info I found said a different pattern was more correlated to sarcoidosis.

At this point, I take the web very lightly -- remember it's more a compilation of peoples ideas and impressions than it is facts! Unless the CDC or the Sarcoidosis society says that, I'd not worry about it.

Glad you got rid of the nasty nightmares -- I very seldom dream, and none of the lupus meds have changed that....sometimes I'd like to have a dream for a change! lol