Excessive Dreaming in People with Tinnitus?

[Sevv]

Hello everyone

I'm trying to get an estimation how common excessive dreaming is in people with tinnitus. In my case, excessive dreaming means that every night I have vivid dreams, usually about 2-3 of them. They are a weird mumbo-jumbo of topics, unpleasant mainly because they feel intrusive. They are not nightmares, just weird. I also get bombarded by images, thoughts and sounds as soon as I close my eyes while I'm still awake before falling asleep. Maybe this is a form of excessive distraction from my sound.

When I had still very mild/mild tinnitus and mild visual snow, I only had excessive dreaming when I was anxious (period of about two weeks).

I'm not really sure what is the main culprit: tinnitus, visual snow or "just" the resulting anxiety that I haven't managed to deal with.

I think @Tweedleman and @GoatSheep have reported similar experiences.

 

[Tweedleman]

Yep. I get some outright nightmares but mostly it's the wierd dreams. It'll be bizzare arrangements of people and events from my life in fluctuating contexts that make no sense. It's all wierdly cinematic and I'll be totally absorbed within the dream, living it. The experience in the dream can even be stressful. So you're right about it being unpleasent and intrusive. I don't want to be in a David Lynch movie about my own life every time I sleep. Not really the escape I'm looking for in sleep.

For me I'd say the culprit is major depression and anxiety, stemming from my hearing damage. When I was happy in life I never dreampt at all. Although pot had a lot to do with that.

 

[Tybs]

Same here. I did dream sometimes before T onset as well, but the dreams are off the chart since this thing started. I'll sleep four to six hours, then I wake up at least once, and all the sleep after is a non-stop wild bandwagon of dream jargon. No real nightmares, just random and bizarre events all the time. Even though I'm doing quite well these days, getting through a night still take three times as long as before: or at least it feels that way. Still not sure if it is because of having my T around, or because of the bad sleep rhythm my T made me develop in the past year.

I'm used to now, so I don't mind it too much, it's just annoying if I happen to have a really bad night.

 

[ASilverLight]

I've had insomnia for most of my life, but I've had periods of intense and strange dreams followed by the complete absence of them. The few months I've had tinnitus, I've only had a few strange dreams, no more than usual. So it hasn't made a difference for me.

 

[jacob256]

I had 2-3 dreams a year before T and since I've developed it I've dreamt every night. There is definitely something there lol. I also noticed Klonopin made it where I didn't dream anymore but that stuff isn't good long term so I stopped it very quickly.

 

[aot]

Rarely remembered my dreams before my tinnitus worsened. Now it's like a weird trip every night. I don't really mind, though.

 

[Mister Muso]

I'm the same. Strangely they often involve family members, which hardly ever happened before. Especially since we went into lockdown, which makes sense.

I first remember noticing this when taking amitriptyline around last September. I stopped taking it after a few weeks due to the dreams and other side effects. However the dreams have continued, just not on quite such a manic level. I asked someone who is well acquainted with such medication whether it's possible they could change the brain permanently, but they didn't think so.

 

[Sevv]

So far no change for me, though I got used to it somewhat. Taking valerian seems to improve it a bit for me.

 

[Steph1710]

@Sevv My dreams have always been incredibly vivid and bazaar. However, the two weeks before my onset of T, I had extremely intrusive and uncomfortable dreams/nightmares and they have stayed ever since. I definitely think T had/has an impact.

 

[GlennS]

I treat it as a feature not a bug.

I think it's a combination of the sleep deprivation and the supplements I've been taking. I take them twice a day and oftentimes right before bed.

I think my mind treats the sleep state as sort of a Disneyland playground as it's the one mental state that is free of the tinnitus sensation. It takes a lot of effort to make that transition and once I'm in there I think there's a sense that I have to make the most of it, so everything gets time-compressed. This is especially true in the early morning when my circadian clock kind of knows I'm running out of sleep time. I often wake up, realize I have like an hour left, and have a really vivid experience that feels much longer over the course of even only 20-30 minutes.

 

[Nav J]

I'm the same. Strangely they often involve family members, which hardly ever happened before. Especially since we went into lockdown, which makes sense.

I first remember noticing this when taking amitriptyline around last September. I stopped taking it after a few weeks due to the dreams and other side effects. However the dreams have continued, just not on quite such a manic level. I asked someone who is well acquainted with such medication whether it's possible they could change the brain permanently, but they didn't think so.

We all have 4- 8 dreams throughout the night, however, most of times we don't remember it. I have figured out NR supplement causes excessive dreaming for me.

 

[GlennS]

For most of my life I only ever really saw and heard my dreams (like a movie or TV) but a big component of my dreams now involve other sensations like touch and even taste. The other night I had a dream where I opened a bag of Reese's Pieces and I could actually taste them when I was chewing. It was amazing. Maybe I should be treating this as a warning sign or something. I know it's kind of on the hallucinatory spectrum. It may be a symptom of something I'm doing wrong but I see this as a whole new frontier in which to explore.

 

[Mister Muso]

We all have 4- 8 dreams throughout the night, however, most of times we don't remember it. I have figured out NR supplement causes excessive dreaming for me.

I've been taking Neurozan during this period which contained Gingko Biloba and various other supplements plus high quantities of vitamins. Think I'll take a break from that, and see if any change.

 

[aot]

Anyone here ever experiment with Lucid Dreaming? I've been thinking about maybe trying to give it a shot. Do you still hear your tinnitus during it?

 

[Mister Muso]

Anyone had success with calming the crazy dreams? I don't know if there is a treatment for it, or if the best remedies are natural ones i.e. avoid anything too stimulating in the hour or two before bedtime, practice meditation etc. Does that really help?

I had a really disturbing nightmare this morning. I could have got up when I woke around 6 but I chose to go back to sleep and that's when the nightmare happened. It was violent and disturbing. After a run of these, it makes me scared to go to bed at night. I realised it was probably influenced by a violent TV series I've been watching lately. So I'm going to take a break from it for while. One of the few pleasures I had left. Oh well. All things are temporary.

 

[KMc24]

At the onset of my tinnitus just over 2 years ago I experienced many night terrors. This continued until several months ago. My tinnitus and hyperacusis have improved quite a bit since onset. I still wake up a couple times a night, but not with a lingering nightmare on my mind. Often, if my dreams weren't downright terrifying they were very vivid and bizarre. I recently had a vivid disturbing dream, but it's only one in a rather long time. I believe that since my tinnitus has calmed down my nervous system has settled to certain extent which has alleviated some of my anxiety. I was taking trazodone for sleep, but discontinued that many months ago. I recently came across a post about a Chinese study investigating night terrors in tinnitus sufferers.

 

[GlennS]

Anyone here ever experiment with Lucid Dreaming? I've been thinking about maybe trying to give it a shot. Do you still hear your tinnitus during it?

I don't know where "vivid" ends and "lucid" begins. I treat what I've been having as lucid, at least lucid enough that it's fun, and no, I don't hear my tinnitus during it (which is part of the appeal).