A week ago I had a Scleral buckle done on my left eye to repair a retinal detachment. It was done as an outpatient procedure, and I trundled home afterward clutching an assortment of eye drops and a little bottle of percocet.
Anyway, the past few nights I've had really vivid nightmares, of the kind that I don't remember having since high school. For example, last night I dreamed that I was in an abandoned warehouse/office building that was just strewn with body parts. Also, something was chasing me. The night before that I dreamed I was on a tropical resort island, which was nice, except that every atttractive female employee was plotting to kill me.
Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else?
Posted by maui babe (Member # 1894) on :
I always have extremely vivid dreams when taking pain killers. I even have them when taking OTC sleep aids. I hate the way narcotics make me feel and don't really understand the appeal.
I hope you heal quickly and can stop taking them soon.
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
I forgot to mention that I went in for a follow up yesterday and the doc said I should move to taking extra-strength Tylenol every four hours and just using the percocet for above-and-beyond kinda stuff. It seems like the worst pain comes in the wee hours of the morning, thought, so we'll see how it goes.
Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :
Night terrors? Is that a side effect of percocet?
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
Not night terrors specifically (unless that's a colloquialism for "bad dreams" where you are) but yeah, seems to be. It started a couple of days after I started taking the drug, and has occurred every night since.
Posted by xnera (Member # 187) on :
I would not at all be surprised if the percocet is causing it. Some medications I've been on in the past have caused me to have nightmares or mild hallucinations. I have scars on my knee from one drug-induced nightmare. I dreamed that I was in a bedroom and there was a person pointing a gun at me through a window/hole in the wall, so in my dream I rolled underneath the bed. In real life I rolled right OFF the bed, and my knee landed right on the floor register. OUCHIE!!!
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
I have horrible vivid nightmares often. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any pattern.
Like last night I had terrible voices in my head coming from books, and my bathtub was filled with blood. Which is pretty tame compared to most of them. At least sometimes I have really wonderful dreams. *sigh*
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
I suppose I should be glad I don't have to deal with either of those things.
I know people can learn to cope with most things, but how do you ever get enough sleep, porcelain girl?
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
I have had bad dreams and strange dreams on prescription painkillers before, so I would not be surprised at all that it's causing it.
Nor is it unusual for your worst pain to be at night - I found that usually when I was post-surgical, that I could get by with Advil or Tylenol during the day, but would start needing prescription strength stuff in the evening. As soon as the sun went down, I would start needing more help with the pain.
I think this is physiological, in that our bodies production of endorphins slow down at night, or something like that.
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: I suppose I should be glad I don't have to deal with either of those things.
I know people can learn to cope with most things, but how do you ever get enough sleep, porcelain girl?
I usually don't feel rested at all. When you've spent all night running away from something terrible you wake up pretty exhausted.
But then again this is how I maintain my sultry haven't-slept-for-days image.
I really do have fabulous dreams, too, but it does seem that I have way more nightmares than the average human.