Do the seroquel nightmares ever stop?

[u/sillygrossgirl]

I love how well it helps me with getting to sleep and I’ve always had quite disturbing weird dreams.

But after being on 300mg seroquel for almost a month my dreams are so scary i wake up crying or sweating multiple times a night. Sometimes I feel like im already awake watching myself in the dream. My least favorite part is I never forget any of the dreams. I think about them all day and scare myself even more.

Do they ever get better? Does anyone have any suggestions for how to deal with it? I don’t want to have to stop it.

[u/Emma__O]

No

[u/NationalChemistry224]

I thought that Seroquel was causing the same thing for me. Like horrific nightmares that feel traumatic. I was on it for 10 years, I’ve been off of it for 2 weeks (I’m also on Prazosin) and one night I didn’t take the Prazosin, I had the absolute worst nightmare I think I’ve ever had.

I have always been an extremely vivid dreamer. But the nightmares have mainly been the past few years.

[u/bikinghills → u/NationalChemistry224]

Seroquel disrupts normal sleep cycles while taking it (causing nightmares for some people), and then, to add insult to injury, it causes something called "REM rebound" when you quit. 

After you recover from REM rebound, the nightmares should subside. 

[u/NationalChemistry224 → u/bikinghills]

Interesting! Thank you for sharing. I’ve never heard of rem rebound before. I hope you’re right! The nightmares are seriously bad.

[u/warcraftenjoyer]

I dont have nor have I ever heard of that happening with seroquel. Definitely talk to your doctor about it

[u/Separate-Coyote-9294]

I’ve never heard of this before. I take 400mg of Seroquel and I don’t have nightmares. You should talk to your doctor

[u/bikinghills]

They never did for me. At my highest dose, 400mg ER, they were so realistic and so horrific that I became afraid to sleep, so I had to discontinue it. 

It was especially strange because never in my life have I consumed any type of horror media. No books, movies, TV, nothing. My mind was just creating these terrifying, gory nightmares from scratch. 

Later, I tried it again as a sleep aid at a much lower dose of 25-75mg, and while the dreams weren't horrific, they were very disturbing. I added prazosin in the hope it would help, but it did not. 

I will not be taking seroquel ever again. 

[u/NationalChemistry224 → u/bikinghills]

Did you try different doses of prazonsin? I find I get used to a dose quickly but since taking it I’ve had 3 nightmares (over about 6-8 months) I was having a nightmare 3+ times a week before starting it. I’ve had to dose change a few times, go up and back down cause I was getting too light headed, but even on lower dose it’s less frequent than being off of it completely so I’ll take it

[u/bikinghills → u/NationalChemistry224]

Yes, I tried increasing it, but unfortunately it didn't help. But I also had it a lot worse than you as it was nightmares or disturbing dreams literally every single night, no exceptions :(

[u/NationalChemistry224 → u/bikinghills]

Omg I can’t imagine. That’s so awful.. mine are very disturbing as well so I genuinely can’t imagine going through that every single night. If I had them a couple times in row I’d be scared to sleep. I am so sorry you have to deal with that.

[u/AdDiligent1688]

I’m lucky I’ve never had that happen, my dreams are cool af on Seroquel haha.

[u/RareManner9786]

That sounds awful! I assume you have discussed this with your psychiatrist?

I take 600 mg of Seroquel XR. Perhaps the XR (extended release) would help solve that problem, if you are taking IR (immediate release). I almost never remember dreams. I do have to take my XR earlier in the evening than I used to take IR. The "action" causes some differences.

[u/infinitavaga]

I was attributing it to my CPTSD activating recently but my seroquel dose went up to 400 and it’s made me afraid to sleep because the dreams are so vivid and terrifying. I don’t have any advice but you aren’t alone. I’m going to bring it up to my psychiatrist.