Opioids Nightmares when taking (Excessive) Codeine

[Melfice]

Hi there,

I have taken dihydrocodeine for about 2 years now (for chronic pain), and I've grown used to it. Sometimes when I take too much (over 10 tablets in a day or more), and specially when taking close to going to bed, I have some seriously terrifying nightmares that I can't put into words. It lasts for about 15 seconds, and it's a feeling of total chaos, where nothing makes sense and my brain is in chaos. I think it's impossible to explain what happens because it's a feeling of chaos, as if my mind is totally confused, and there is something kind of gripping into my face. Sometimes there is a kind of black shadow and looks like it is moving very quickly in front of me. There is also a feeling of something evil in the air. As if the air is permeated with an "evil" thing. One night the black shadow showed itself and it was a kind of demon that was trying to grab me, and it was extremely evil intended but didn't do anything once I looked at it.

This was so terrifying that I would wake up screaming in terror. My brain realised this was too much, and so whenever it happens, now instead of waking up, I just wake up inside another dream, so it doesn't feel as real, and then I wake up again after a while.

Please only rational answers, as I don't believe in "real demons"or that kind of thing. I know this has a purely psychological explanation.

I know this is totally psychological, and I want to know if anyone else has had this? It must be common for people who take too much codeine, because it's only when I take too much that it happens.

After having these episodes many times (10 minutes ago), I decided to give up on codeine and I will be slowly quitting it now because this is too much to bear. I fear that I might end up locked into that state some night if things go wrong.

On a slightly lighter note, most nights this doesn't happen. Also, when it doesn't happen, I usually have extremely long dreams, of extremely spatial worlds. It's like living another life in a small time. The dreams go on and on and never seem to end. I like that but it is very tiring. Everyday I wake up very tired as well.

Thanks a lot everyone.

 

[Scrofula]

When I was in the hospital, getting heavy painkillers, at night I would have disturbing waking-dreams or hallucinations. Not quite as scary as yours, but I did get repeat visits from a phantom cat. I only ever saw its tail, but it would walk around the edge of the bed, swishing slowly, on most nights.

I had plenty of weird sensations, like being on the ceiling looking down, or being gigantic in a tiny room. And there was an enormous face that would take up the entire room sometimes. So my guess is you're just taking waaaay too much codeine. Try backing off a bit or switching to some other sleep aid for a while.

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

Sounds like morphine dreams. Don’t take so much codeine or switch to another opioid

 

[Backfromthebrink]

I used to get these all the time when on opiods...

Wierd thing is thst even now I've been off them for years, I still get them only not as bad....

"morphine dreams" can be reslly scary and they seem real at the time. My gf used to say thst I'd be crying in my sleep and it looked like I was battling the devil....which I suppose I was in a way..

 

[Kaden_Nite]

Hypnagogic hallucinations. Codeine can cause some strange psychological occurrences while asleep or while falling asleep. It happens with other opioids too, but codeine seemed to precipitate some especially, dark, confusing and sometimes disturbing nocturnal mirages.

I would sometimes have these recollections of events and have to question whether or not they were dreams.. or I'd be falling asleep and my mind would just drift off and create this interactive piece of cinema only for me to me snap out of it all of a sudden thinking "what the fuck was that?"

I don't mind the odd hallucination, but the type I would experience with codeine were just too real. I haven't experienced such things with opioids for years though, only when it was all kind of new to me. Ibuprofen and paracetamol can affect dreams too IME so if your tablets contain other pain relievers that may be contributing.

 

[Backfromthebrink]

Hypnagogic hallucinations. Codeine can cause some strange psychological occurrences while asleep or while falling asleep. It happens with other opioids too, but codeine seemed to precipitate some especially, dark, confusing and sometimes disturbing nocturnal mirages.

I would sometimes have these recollections of events and have to question whether or not they were dreams.. or I'd be falling asleep and my mind would just drift off and create this interactive piece of cinema only for me to me snap out of it all of a sudden thinking "what the fuck was that?"

I don't mind the odd hallucination, but the type I would experience with codeine were just too real. I haven't experienced such things with opioids for years though, only when it was all kind of new to me. Ibuprofen and paracetamol can affect dreams too IME so if your tablets contain other pain relievers that may be contributing.

They are really scary and often bring out trauma that your conscious mind block out....like I would relive the night my mom died and she'd be there in the dream...Id say, "how are you here...you died" and I couldn't understand it...it was like she was really there with me..other things a well....

It can really freak you out as it doesn't seem like a dream...it seems like it is really happening and can make going to sleep a scary time and quite traumatic

 

[Melfice]

They are really scary and often bring out trauma that your conscious mind block out....like I would relive the night my mom died and she'd be there in the dream...Id say, "how are you here...you died" and I couldn't understand it...it was like she was really there with me..other things a well....

It can really freak you out as it doesn't seem like a dream...it seems like it is really happening and can make going to sleep a scary time and quite traumatic

Now that is really weird. I also frequently dream about my great-grandmother who died, and she was with me alive in the dream, and I also asked her the exact same question: "How come are you here, but you died!".

That's really odd that we said the same things in our dreams.

 

[Melfice]

I used to get these all the time when on opiods...

Wierd thing is thst even now I've been off them for years, I still get them only not as bad....

"morphine dreams" can be reslly scary and they seem real at the time. My gf used to say thst I'd be crying in my sleep and it looked like I was battling the devil....which I suppose I was in a way..

It's a scary prospect that they might continue even after getting off of them. For how long did you take opioids and which ones did you take if I may ask ?

 

[Tubbs]

I have nightmares anyways but opiates definitely helped create some of the worst ones.

 

[Backfromthebrink]

It's a scary prospect that they might continue even after getting off of them. For how long did you take opioids and which ones did you take if I may ask ?

I was on pain management for several years on and off for a combinition of wounds and a medicsl condition I was prescribed a few different kinds, oxy, mophine, fentanyl, tramadol, codeine, DHC etc. But the nightmares didn't really start until about 2013 when I was prescribed methadone tablets by the pain clinic. I stayed on thst for about 2-3 years then came off everything...don't know why but it was just something about the methadone that triggered it...well maybe it wasn't the drug itself but some traumatic things I've witnessed that came to the forefront of my mind at that time that id been blocking out until then. Ive got some nasty baggage floating around in my brain that seemed to be released at that time.

After I've been clean (2 years bar the odd period when surgery forces me to need them again temporarily) they haven't been too bad. It's maybe more to do with my mind being so fucked up from shit overseas than anything....like it doesn't happen every night anymore just sometimes...it's caused lots of conflict with my girlfriend who just doesn't understand and doesn't want to understand. Strangely, itsvworse if I sleep in during the day..like on a day off when I'm tired and i lie in until 10 or 11 o'clock...then it's bad

It should hopefully stop when you stop the drugs. For me it's always eityer my mom dieing or I'm in Afghanistan..always those two things I'm just a mess lol