Halucinations - REM sleep

[Ann]

For 3+ years now when awakening I have seen spiders, bugs, words, etc. on my bedroom walls that I know are not real, but are very vivid. I've also seen them on my pillow, drapes, lampshade. I only see these things upon awakening in the very early morning before my bedroom gets bright from daylight. I have not been afraid of these things and my doctor put me on a sleeping pill. (Which I seldom take because I don't want to be addicted.) He says I am not coming out of REM sleep. I don't have any trouble sleeping. Anyone ever experience anything like this? It started all at once in March 2002 and is almost a daily happening. I KNOW the things I see are not real, but they seem so because of the detail. It is not like a dream because I am awake.

I've never posted anything to the Internet, so I hope I'm doing this right.

[Ernie]

Hi,

I don't have your symptoms but I have a REM sleep disorder. I act out my dreams and I often don't have REM sleep. My sleep specialist does not know the cause.

Ernie

[morgan617]

Welcome Ann! I'm sorry, I have no idea why you are doing this. MY dreams are very very vivid and I wake up feeling like that's all I did, but that is not what you are doing. When I am awake, however, I often seem to catch things in the corner of my eyes and think it's a spider or something, but realize it's not. At least your occurs while you are partially asleep. I'm wide awake, now that's scary!!! morgan

[Sue]

Morgan!!

I too do the same thing only have been too embaressed to even mention this to my doctor!!! I don't do it all the time but once in a while I will catch something out of the corner of my eye always seem to be dark like a spider or something. HMMMMMM

Sue

[corina]

Hi Ann,

I'm sorry I'm a little late with my answer, but wanted to write you. I have hallucinations as well. Mostly during the night. I wake up (as I usually do) around 1AM or 3AM and see "movies" on my television. I know that I'm awake and I know my television isn't on (I checked that) and I know that there's no such movie (they're usually very dark movies but I can recognize things as trains, people etc.). I discussed this with my neuro and he asked me if I could see well enough. It seems that people who need glasses can have this. Since this has nothing to do with my halucinations he advised me to put on the light as soon as I see something that I know can't be there. And guess what: that really works. I was sooo amazed!!!! It wasn't really scary, and I didn't see any spiders or what (that would have been scary for me!!!) but I felt oppressed, you know what I mean? Well, I hope this helps for you as well. I'm not sure where the hallucinations come from (people have different opinions about it) but I'm glad to be able to do something against it!!!

Take care,

Corina

[morgan617]

Sue, thanks for your reply. I feel better knowing I'm not alone in this. I haven't told anyone before this post either, so thanks Ann for starting it! morgan

[shelley]

Hi Ann

I've also never posted anything before so I hope this works.

I've been visiting here for about the the last year. Great place.

I've had pots for about 6 years now, was diagnosed about a year ago.

As for your question about hallucinations, 3years ago I went through

a 6 to 8 month period where I was seeing spiders very clearly, crawling

on the wall or ceiling. It would only happen just the first second or two

after opening my eyes. I also saw a red shoe lace unwinding off the ceiling

but that was only twice. It was usually just spiders. Anyway it hasn't happend

in the last 3 years. I never did find out what was going on. This only happened

upon waking in the morning.

I've read that vitamin B 12 deficiency can cause hallucinations and

pots symptoms.

shelley

[DancingLight]

morgan,

you're not alone silly goose! i'm here! and in the wee hours of my morning too.

i'm not seeing spiders at the moment...

but, i do sometimes see stuff out of the corner of my eys and think it is a bug or something and well, it isn't!

heck, i've swatted at things that are not there!

emily

[Guest Julia59]

I'll get floaters in my eye's that sometimes look like small spiders.

Sometimes I feel like bugs are crawling on my arm---i'll swear that there is one on my arm and i'll go to brush it off only to find that nothing is there.

WOW---THAT SHOULD HELP MY SSDI CASE----LOL----IF YOUR NUTS YOU'LL GET IT AUTOMATICALLY.....i'll just tell them I feel bugs crawling on me----but they aren't really there.

With SSDI they do everything in their power to prove your not nuts, and a lot of the Docs we see try to tell us we ARE nuts. Isn't it odd that that is the only time anxiety/depression is disregarded----is by SSDI.

KEEP IN MIND THAT I DON'T THINK ANY OF US HERE ARE NUTS------although I can't say we don't feel like it from time to time when dealing with some of the stuff we have to deal with.

Julie :0)

[Eillyre]

Hi Ann! Sorry to hear about the creepy crawlies trouble.

Have you ever tried taking Melatonin for improving the REM cycles? It's supposed to be quite safe and is not habit-forming. Some people take it for a couple of weeks after a very sleep disturbing event (death in the family, wedding, child in the hospital, academic exams, etc.) just to "reset the sleep clock", and can then discontinue its use without any difficulty. A friend of our is a world traveller by profession and takes Melatonin to survive all of the time zone changes. I was have abyssmal sleep cycles until Dr. Low prescribed it for me. A word of warning -- some people experience very vivid dreams on higher doses of it, but all you need to do in that case is to decrease the dose.

Just a thought. Sorry if you've already tried it!

Angela

[Eli6596]

Hi

Wow, this is so interesting. I am not alone! I have had visual hallucinations associated with sleep too!!! I talked with a colleague who is a sleep specialist, and with Dr. Low. Dr. Low said that sleep disorders are well known in POTS. The sleep specialist said that my alpha agonist, midodrine, can disrupt my REM sleep.

I have awoken in the middle of the night and thought that I saw my baby son suffocating underneath clothes on my bed. The clothes were really there, but his arm or leg sticking out from the clothes were not. After frantically trying to dig him out with my hands, I realize after less that a minute that it is not real. After I started removing any extra items from my bed before going to sleep, the hallucinations resolved.

I have used melatonin on occasion too and it works. Dr. Low suggested it for me too. I also awaken from sleep less with the head of my bed elevated with bricks under the front legs.

I have a question. For the others who have had similair experiences, are you taking midodrine? Dr. Low thought it was the disease itself, but the sleep specialist thought it was the medicine.

Karyn

[Ernie]

Hi,

I am taking Midodrine but I has sleep problems way before. When I stopped the Midodrine for studies I still had sleep problems. So, in my case it is not related to the medication.

Ernie

[corina]

For me it wasn't the midodrine. I was trying midodrine last year when I was on holidays (so I remember that very well) and it didn't make me hallucinate. What I did notice when starting mestinon, was that I slept much better (meaning that I slept all through the night without waking up). And every time the mestinon "looses power" I'm starting to wake up at night again. I think I do have some sleepdisorder. My neuro couldn't explain me why I slept all through the night with mestinon, I was just glad .

Corina

[Eli6596]

I started sleeping better after starting mestinon too. I did not know if it was mestinon or because I was able to concurrently go down by 5mg on the midodrine. I bet we feel better on mestinon because the POTS is better controlled. It would make since that if our POTS is better controlled, the other "side" symptoms associated with POTS such as sleep disruption might be better too. I take the timespan version so I have more smooth coverage all day without the ups and downs of the immediate release.

Karyn

[kristinp29]

Hi Angela,

You mentioned Melatonin...that was a lifesaver for me. I went through a period in which I could not fall asleep or stay asleep. I tried Melatonin and it made all the difference. I took it about an hour before I wanted to go to sleep and it worked really well. You can buy it in health food stores as well (probably in lower doses than prescription, but it works, too!) and I've seen it in capsule form and in a type that dissolves under your tongue and tastes like a mint.

~Kristin

[shelby]

I have that same problem you do. I see things. Not spiders or bugs, but things out of the corner of my eye that I swear are there, but they are not. It gets scarry because when I am going to bed I think that there are things outside, but it is my imagination at work, or something.

Shelby

[persephone]

I don't know if it's a hallucinaiton so much as a sensation but sometimes it's as if I'm on a catherine wheel and it wakes me up out of my sleep. I feel so ill when it happens. Certain codeine based painkillers can provoke it. I got a minister to pray with me about it once- I thought it was a demon trying to possess me, I was so terrified!

horrible, horrible feeling!

Anyone else ever get anything like that? Or have any idea what causes it?

[meesh]

For 3+ years now when awakening I have seen spiders, bugs, words, etc. on my bedroom walls that I know are not real, but are very vivid.  I've also seen them on my pillow, drapes, lampshade.  I only see these things upon awakening in the very early morning before my bedroom gets bright from daylight.  I have not been afraid of these things and my doctor put me on a sleeping pill.  (Which I seldom take because I don't want to be addicted.)  He says I am not coming out of REM sleep.  I don't have any trouble sleeping.  Anyone ever experience anything like this?  It started all at once in March 2002 and is almost a daily happening.  I KNOW the things I see are not real, but they seem so because of the detail.  It is not like a dream because I am awake.

I've never posted anything to the Internet, so I hope I'm doing this right.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For the past 8 months my mother has been having an almost identical experience as you have described. In the beginning I would dismiss her "stories" as fanciful or tell her she needed to have her eyes tested. But she continued to have these hallucinations, mostly spiders of various sizes. They seem to her to be very vivid and very real. They crawl along the walls, the bed, the pillow and most recently she has seen some that have floated towards her.

She feels as though she is "losing it" and has even visited a psychiatrist about the problem. My mother has also been on and off of medication for depression which started with the onset of menopause a few years ago. She has told me that she also feels like ants are crawling on her face, arms and legs. Both she and her doctor have been exploring the possibilty that her various medications for depression and hypertension may be reacting negatively to each other. But quite frankly, I don't think that is the cause because it would have started years ago. She has been sent for an MRI scan of her brain and is awaiting the results of this test.

She has been very scared of what she has been seeing even though she knows that they are not real. She does not even want to go to sleep at night fearing what she would see when she wakes up. Yesterday, she told me that she has now started seeing stuff that looks like words or numbers on the wall similar to urdu writing and she was almost embarrassed to tell anyone as they would think that she has really flipped now. This is when I thought I would see if I could get any info for her. When I came across your message, your description and those of the other people on this site sounded exactly like she was describing. I showed it to her and she was in tears because she realized that she was not alone and possibly not going crazy.

There are not very medical resources here in Trinidad and if this is a sleep disorder, I certainly doubt that there are any facilities here that deal with this kind of thing. As a family we do not know where to turn for answers on what could be causing it and what can be done to stop it.

I would be very interested in finding any information on this or any links where I could research it for her and possibly know how to progress.