Epilepsy and Nightmares!!!

[homemom360]

vivid dreams

I am on An quite high dose of Tegretal daily (1000 ml) and I don't seem to have night mares or at least no more often than I did before I was on it, but I have very vivid dreams. I mean wake up and wonder if the dream has stopped vivid.
I have dreams about food and wake up with the taste in my mouth and a full stomach. I have dreams about the water and wake convinced I am still wet. My husband finds this quite amusing and loves to hear about all the strange stuff I dream about, but I find it disturbing most of the time. I have always been a consistent dreamer since I was a toddler but to have a movie theater in you head every night wears a person out. These dreams are so vivid and in gross my body so fully into them that it takes away from all the rest I should be receiving in REM sleep.

 

[Endless]

I never used to have nightmares. On Trileptal 1200mg & 100mg Lamictal I have extremely vivid dreams, sometimes nightmares. I have to stop and think when I wake up and figure out if it really happened or not. Sometimes I'm shaken for a whole day. If I can't remember the content I have a hard time figuring out whether it was a fear seizure and I just woke up at the end, or a nightmare. I finally decided to look for how I usually feel AFTER a seizure to know if I just had one or not.

 

[xenome]

I take Depakote, Keppra and Zarontin for my seizures. I never have nightmares, but alot of times I have very vivid dreams. Sometimes they are really strange. Sometimes I know that I am dreaming, sometimes I feel like days or even a week has passed in my dream and I am aware of the passing of time. Then when I wake up I remember how much time has passed, alot of details of the dream, though not enough to take up days or a week. I am often told by everyone I know how unusual it is to remember so much. I can talk for 10 mins describing the previous nights dream. Weird.

Also, I want to say I feel for your friend. When I started having tonic clonic seizures, I too lost my job, my wife and my drivers license. I was really depressed and suicidal. I am so glad you are there to help him, if I didnt have friends to help me through it, I am sure I would be dead. So thanks for helping him through a difficult time.

 

[fungirl28]

New here

:wave:

I hope that your hand gets better soon. I know how things like that feel. I had a walking seizure one day and ended up falling into my mom's entertainment center and had glass go into my arm and my head. So its not fun.

I do understand where this young man is coming from. I was in more ways than one feeling the way he is. I have lost friends, was told I might not ever be able to drive, and have people look down on me because I have epilepsy. Its hard dealing with this. My family doesn't even understand what I'm going through. My fiance is wanting to know more about epilepsy.

I was told that I was born with epilepsy and that I inherited epilepsy when there is nothing on either sides of my family that has ever had epilepsy. No one in my family has ever had epilepsy.

I was 16 then I had my first seizure. I was told that I was out for over 20 hrs while having this seizure. I was told that they thought it was drug overdose at first. But when they done a drug test all they found in my system was Tylenol that my gave me for a headache. So I was sent to Rochester to see if they could figure out what was going on. Rochester didn't know what was going on so they done a lot of tests. I had MRI's a spinal tap done to see what was going on. The MRI at the time didn't show anything because they had to sedate me in order to get me on my back. Yeah it wasn't much fun. Rochester finally figured out what was going when I had a second seizure. They then done and EEG and while having the EEG done I was having a seizure but they said that since it was a stress seizure that the seizure didn't show up on the EEG. I thought a seizure was a seizure. But I guess I was wrong.

About a year I started taking Tegretol because it was cheaper than Lamictal. I was then put on both Tegretol and Lamictal. They were working together great till I started have really bad seizures again. In one month I had 5 4 grand mals and 1 walking. My Tegretol levels were not where my Dr wanted it to be at. Then my Lamictal levels went down. So they upped both.

Then I went to Rochester to see what was going on and I was told that my Left Frontal Lope was enlarged and they asked if there was anyone in my family that had epilepsy or if I had a convulsion due to a fever and said no. They asked if had any head trauma and we told them that when I was 9 I was in a snowmobile accident. Had a concussion from it and that is when I would loss concentration in school and I would have a blank star on my face. But wasn't told if it was enlarged before or if it is something new. So they are taking me off of Tegretol and keeping me on my Lamictal. But I'm still taking both of them since they are kinda working together it would be better to keep taking both of them.

When they upped both I started having really really horrible nightmares. I mean I don't even know where I am getting these from. The craziest one that I had was last night. I was living in a trailer park had a kitten and a little girl. The kitten got out of the house and was running around the yard. My little girl was crying because she loved her little kitten. Then out of no where came this evil looking dog. But the dog was all bones (it looked as if it had been dead for a long like type of bones) coming at me. I heard someone calling my name and turned around and there was this person who was also all bones just like the dog. I turned to run away but the dog came at me and started to eat my face. I got back into the house and wasn't myself. I didn't want anything to do with anyone. I was avoiding my daughter and my husband when he came home. I wasn't taking care of my daughter. I was leaving her in her room and was just not myself.
Then I started having dreams that my fiance was dying in different ways. I don't know if it is because of my meds or if it is because I am taking IBU and Tylenol PM together or what it is. But I do know that when I start having these nightmares I am not myself in the morning. I keep going over and over them again and again in my head trying to figure out what they are trying to tell me.

I have a hard time letting things go as well and my fiance thinks that, that has something to do with my nightmares as well. I was told it could just be stress but we will see. I have found an Epilepsy Clinic in Minnesota and made an appointment with them to see if they can help me. Lets hope they can figure this out.

 

[Nakamova]

Hi fungirl28 --

Lamictal can cause very vivid nightmares, especially after changes in dosage -- that might be what's going on.

Also, feel free to post in "The Foyer", and introduce yourself to everyone!

Best,
Nakamova

 

[jimmy voice]

nightmares

Hi. I have nocturnal seizures which are always coupled with the same weird nightmare. I'm taking a range of anti-epileptic medication including gabapentin, phenytoin and oxycarbazipine and I'm not sure if these are connected to the nightmares (just had a seizure so spelling might be terrible)). With the young guy you are helping let him know that in our community we love our fellow sufferers and he is not alone. I was upset to here that he lost his job due to epilepsy as I have found my employers to be supportive. I send him my best wishes.

 

[masterjen]

Hi, jimmy voice and welcome to CWE!
I also have nocturnal seizures, and before I was on medication that helped them I had the same sort of dream/nightmare every time before a seizure: I was swimming and my arms and legs would get caught in the lane ropes. In my dream I would be kicking and yanking my arms and legs to get them free, while feeling like water was entering my lungs. Once medicated for seizures, I quit having seizures (or what were to me dreams) like this. Do your nightmares involve physical movement that could be seizure-related?