I was taking some antihistamine-with-codeine for my cold, as prescribed by a doctor, and I think I set a new standard of oddity by which my future dreams will be judged.
I was back home at my parents’ place. It was winter. The schoolbus had become stuck in my neighbor’s yard, because of all the ice and snow. The kids were waiting on their parents with four-wheel drive vehicles to come and pick them up there.
I happened to be walking by the neighbor’s house, rolling a large (3-4 foot diameter) ball of meat - raw hamburger type - and decided the kids needed something to do while they were waiting, so I gave them the ball to tear apart so they could have a meat fight.
It must be something with opiates. I recently was given a prescription for hydrocodeine (the narcotic part of Vicodin), and did get some very weird dreams while I was using it. Not disturbing or wonderful, just weird.
I, too, get very odd dreams with opiates. My WAG would be that it has something to do with not getting enough deep sleep while I’m taking those things. Maybe the dreams aren’t any weirder than the ones I usually have, but because I get less deep sleep, I’m just more apt to remember them.
The weirdest dreams I ever had were from falling asleep with a nicotime patch on. We’re talking seriously screwed up. Like dreaming of barricading a door against a horde of 8 year old me’s with rusty knives trying to break in and kill me.
After a few days on Codeine, I have trouble discerning dreams from reality. I will sleep, wake up for awhile, doze, get up and watch tv for awhile, sleep again, and so on. Pretty soon I’m not sure if I am awake or just dreaming I am awake. I have pretty much decided a Morphine overdose would be the way to go.
Not for me, thanks. I had a morpine overdose once, and couldn’t breathe. Even through the drug haze, it was damned scary! OTOH, a blood infection almost killed me once and I didn’t even care. So that would be my preference.
I take Codeine/Ibuprofen tablets for my period pain. They have 12.8mg codien/200mg Ibuprofen in each tablet. I take two tablets every 4-6 hours (the pain usually wakes me during the night) for 5 days.
I don’t get dopey or stoned or weird dreams, generally I just manage to function normally. Opiates are my friends and without them I would be confined to my bed, in a curled up ball of agony every month.
Oddly, my weird nightmares start 2 days before my period, usually with some sort of blood/red colured theme. It’s like my subconscious is making extra sure I know what I’m in for.
“vivid dreams” can be a side effect of some narcotics. That does mean that the dreams/reality can be messed up.
I had oxycodone after my knee surgery (basically it turns into morphine in your body). It’s the immediate release version of the time-release drug oxycontin (hillbilly heroin).
After a couple days on that stuff, I started having bad, scary “Naked Lunch” type dreams.
Well, I had one where I was on a playground and all these large cats were trying to kill me.
Then, I had one where I was in a basement and killed a spider. Then, a bigger spider came running down the stairs, so I killed it. Then a bigger spider, so I killed it. Then, a “spider” with a puppy’s body but 8 legs came after me. I knew in the dream that it was “conscious” of what I was doing. I was trying to kill it even though it was huge.
Anyway, a description doesn’t do it justice, but I woke up in such a fright I didn’t want to go back to sleep. After that, I just started taking motrin which was completely ineffective against the pain, but I just couldn’t go back to sleep after that.
The knee surgery was like 3 years ago and I still remember those dreams like I had them yesterday.
I normally don’t either. That’s what freaked me out so bad.
The stuff you’re taking is nowhere NEAR what I was taking. I was in such pain, I was taking the maximum dose with the minimum time between doses. 20 mg every four hours. My brother and old man are pharmacists. They both told me they’d never heard of a prescription that strong.
That shit was great for pain though.
You’re probably getting far fewer mgs than that over a much longer time period. I think my instructions were “up to 4 pills (5 mg each) with at least four hours in between”. From the start I was taking 4 pills exactly every 4 hours.
Googling “oxycodone dreams” turns up a bit of info about it.
I can’t handle codeine. One dose is okay, but on the second or third, I freak. My skin starts crawling and I feel like the walls are closing in on me.
I found this out on about the second day home from my nose surgery (corrected deviated septum). I woke in the middle of the night because my nose was dripping, and when I realized I was so bandaged and splinted up I couldn’t even wipe it, I began yelling like a scalded cat, waking up the whole family.
My MIL had back surgery a few months ago, and the morphine (I think it was that) made her weird even when she was awake. She doesn’t remember details, but she was gone. On the other hand, I’ve had opiates a couple of times with no ill effect, as far as I can remember. I just get all warm and fuzzy and drift away; I can see addicts’ motivation.
I don’t normally remember my dreams, and for me this is healthy. When my dreams pervade into my waking consciousness, I know I’m stressed about something.
When I took codeine the one time, I dreamt:
That I was flying around the room
That there were two of me, one flying over the top of the bed, one under…then we merged.
I was glowing.
And a bunch of other weird stuff. Nope nope nope. Not gonna take it again.
