what exactly is nightmare disorder?

I have recently been diagnosed with nightmare disorder according to my p-doc and has put me on 4mg of nightly Prazosin to try and help but I am still having very vivid, colorful, and disturbing nightmares 6 weeks into the Prazosin therapy.

A note on that... I am taking Seroquel for sleep and yes I get a good 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep 90% of the time, and I am aware from reading many reports on Medscape and drugs.com and other forums about the vivid dream side effects of Seroquel. I will not stop taking it because I need rest I just need to learn some lucid dreaming techniques to be able to wake myself up (last time I woke myself out of a dream I shouted in my dream "I DON'T WANT THIS!" and woke up, but I don't think the Prazosin is working... I'll continue with this medication until my monthly prescription runs out but I don't think its helping any.

Please I need advice on what I can do!

~ dmhobbit ~

Hi Hobbit!

I have never heard of dream disorder. Most people that have these vivid, scary dreams are PTSD and the dreams themselves are called night terrors. That kind of sounds like what you are dealing with right now, especially if you are waking yourself up shouting as the result of a dream.

I used to do that. Also woke up crying or feeling as if I were being smothered or so wrapped up in the bedclothes that I knew my dreams had been very aggitated. Sometimes I just had to get up because I was afraid if I went back to sleep I would fall right back into that horrible place.

Sometimes it has taken me an hour or two to really come out of the dream and stop shaking and freaking out.

The main reason I wanted to post this is because they are giving me a drug (I am BP, anxiety and PTSD-post tramatic stress disorder) that works very effectively for me and I rarely have nightmares any more.

It is called CYPROHEPTADINE. You might want to ask your doc about it.

Hope this helps- T&S

Thanks for the reply,

I looked it up on webmd.com and found out that it is primarily an antihystamine (spelling) and I don't take them because they make me hyper. For example I can't take Benedryl because of the reaction I have to it. I'll ask my p-doc to increase the dose of Prazosin since I am not having any side effects from it, it just isn't working for me yet. I read the therapeutic range can go all the way up to 12mg so I might need a big increase to see results that I have read about in studies on medscape.com and it can take weeks for positive results.

TC,

~ dmhobbit ~

I have nightmares too from ptsd and I also take seroquel. At first it didnt help with my nightmares but now it is. It took awhile... I still have them just not every night.

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I take trazodone for sleep and it helps me sleep, doesn't really cause vivid dreams though it also doesn't entirely rid me of any bad dreams or unpleasantly weird dreams. But yeah I don't react well to anti-histamines or seroquel but the trazodone works ok.

I tried prazosin before and it didn't do anything for me, so not sure it really works for everyone.

I take Xanax XR and have about a seventh of the number of nightmares I had before taking it! I used to have them nightly (night terrors and such) and now I have maybe one or at the most, two a week. I take 1.5mg a day, and have the .5 regular Xanax (quick acting) for breakthru anxiety or panic attacks that must be dealt with NOW.