I really hate it but what is very weird is that i only need 2-3 hours sleep a night. but the dreams do haunt me through the days and makes me more depressed!
So i know the feeling.

Roxanne

I understand your frustration. Waking up tired or with a headache (or both!) is no way to start your day!

Take Care,
Kaley

I have yet to figure out a solution to this problem. I tried taking Xanax at night to sleep but it did not help the problem at all.

i just woke up for the fourth time this week dazed and confused, feeling exactly the same as you described in your post. i too am currently on lamictal (lamotrigine) for bipolar type 2 disorder and like you i can not shake this horrible dreams. its taken me about a month to be able to be lucid while dreaming but i dont know if it makes it any better or not. it would be wonderful to be able to control my dreams if they were pleasant like flying or being with a beautiful woman but it only seems worse when under the influence of this medication. every single dream is of a horrible situation, more often dealing with family but sometimes with friends or acquaintances. just this not i dreamt that my sister and i had to take my mother to the doctor, when we got home the house was rearranged with the bedrooms being changed for everyone except my sister, my father terrorized me by wrestling me to the ground and not letting me up, and when i later asked him why my mother was acting so strangely he said that we dont want another ike johnson. having read about lucid dreaming earlier in the week (needless to say brought there by the realistic nature of my dreams) i slapped myself and pinched myself iIN THE DREAM thinking it was happening in real life but nothing happened furthering the illusion that i was AWAKE rather than dreaming. i only seem to awake from these dreams after or while i am saying something or yelling. this is what finally woke me tonight. as a matter of face, it is 5:10 in the morning after another one of these dreams and i was so scared by it the first thing i did was look up ike johnson and then the side effects of lamictal (which by the way did NOT list this as a side effect). this is what brought me to your blog / site.

i cant get any restful sleep since it is so fitful and wonder if these dreams are leading to or feeding off of inner feelings of inadequacy. i did not have a very enjoyable childhood with my parents constant belittling and disappointment with me and my constant and consistent efforts to make them happy (often resulting in a loss of self and efforts to be my OWN person). this is the most consistent recurring theme of my dreams. for some reason i always am turning to my sister for help in these dreams as well.

please let me know if the specifics i included in this letter to you ring any bells and feel free to write back with your thoughts and insights.

scrap-iron

I don’t regularly follow your blog but came across this article and thought I might throw out a suggestion if you had interest. It isn’t a very well received suggestion by many, but I am bipolar and out of fear of playing the drug game have been using cannabis to treat the disorder. It works incredibly well for me (however you do have to either build a tolerance or limit your usage before the sensation becomes manageable).

Many bipolar individuals seems to suffer from troubled dreams of some sort, and I have found that when under the effects of cannabis, the brain doesn’t drop into REM sleep as easily. Admittedly, the effects only last for around 4 hours with a tolerance like mine, which only provides me with a half-night of dreamless sleep, but its enough to keep me from being completely swept away into the reality of the dream state.

I recognize that REM sleep is important, but I know firsthand how terrifying uncontrolled dreams can be and it may be something to look into.

If you are trying to get real sleep, you need to be cautious with the Xanax. It can interrupt your sleep pattern and actually decrease the amount of time you spend in REM. You can use certain SSRI’s to get some REALLY good sleep.

PM me if you would like to talk

rodr0069@hotmail.com