No idea the mechanism, but I was once given a megadose* of steroids in an attempt to cure a hearing loss. WILD dreams, as well as exaggerated temper. ('roid rage)
*IIRC it was 10 pills the first dose, tapering off to one pill over about three days. Didn’t fix my hearing BTW.
I take Effexor for depression. When changing doses or getting used to a new dosage I get the vivid dreams. I wake up exhausted, as if I had done everything I dreamed. If I forget a dose, I have a night of super-vivid dreams, TONS of them, and the next day I am all out of sorts. It doesn’t sound like a bad side-effect, but the dreams can be quite disturbing and you can forget for a moment now and then that they weren’t real.
Not a medication per se, but Melatonin (dietary supplement/sleep aid) gives me vivid and mainly enjoyable dreams. I seem able to sleep for less time and feel refreshed as well. My guess is it sends me into REM sleep quicker.
Melatonin made me dream vividly, too, but not pleasant dreams. I was going through a bad time (my mom had Alzheimer’s), and the melatonin gave me horrific nightmares. That’s when the doc prescribed Ambien, which gives me dreamless sleep.
I’ve also experienced vivid dreams/nightmares from melatonin. Another OTC (here in the U.S., anyway) supplement purported to cause vivid dreams is 5-HTP.
I’m sure Ambien gets the job done…but do you feel more dopey in the morning? I imagine is has more sedative effects than milder sleep aids.
I’ve experienced vivid dreams with melatonin as well as hydrocodone (and, like many other say about opioids, it’s the few times I’ve dreamed in color, which is the biggest difference between melatonin and hydrocodone for me.)
Also I’d like to add when you stop taking alcohol. But it isn’t so much more vivid dreams as it is an increase in dreams (and a bigger increase than for melatonin or hydrocodone, just not as vivid. I’d hate to stop drinking and also take opioids and melatonin at the same time.)
Nope, I actually feel quite wide-awake and rested. The only side effect is I feel a bit wobbly and uncoordinated upon first getting up. Therefore, I plan no weight-lifting or other hazardous activities the morning after.
So, does alcohol, like other sedatives/depressants, reduce quality of sleep by blunting the REM phase of the cycle? That seems to have been my experience.
Though sometimes in life, any sleep is better than no sleep.
I take Buspirone, or Buspar, for anxiety. They let you have very vivid dreams.
Any kind of anti-depressent I’ve ever taken has cause vivid dreams for me, for a few days when I went on it, or came off of it.
I guess it’s just your brain adjusting, but I’ve never had the effect go beyond a few days coming on or off of it
Interesting. I ought to take some today for the same reason (I forget to 90% of the time, so I couldn’t say if it does anything for pms), so maybe I’ll wait until just before bed…
If I take a Claritin during the day nothing untoward happens, but taken just before bedtime it gave me the scariest, most violent, and disturbing dreams I have ever had. If I could remember them and write them down, Stephen King would cry and ask what’s wrong with me.
It took two nights to figure that out and I haven’t done it since.
Thanks for the many responses folks.
I’d never heard of that, but after a web search it appears to be true. I checked my multi-vitamin and found the amount of B6 is minuscule compared to the amount available in straight tablet form. I bought some this afternoon and am going to give it a try. It’s actually quite inexpensive ($5 for 120 200mg tablets).
Bought some of this today, too. $3 for 60 5mg tablets. I love a bargain!
Now, does anyone know what the mechanics are that certain drugs/supplements cause funky dreams?
IT WORKS!!!
On Tuesday night I took 100mg of B6 with no effect. Last night I took 300mg and had an extremely vivid and f*cked up dream! A huge aircraft of some sort was flying low to the ground sucking people up and grinding them up in it’s jet engines. People were running in a panic towards the woods as this thing was chasing us. I ran into the woods and crawled under some rocks but I got stuck. The roar of that thing flying over me was deafening. I woke up shaking like a leaf. It seemed so real I had to think for a while if that actually happened or if I’d just been dreaming.
Far out!
Lamictal. I’ve been known to wake up and yell something from my dream. (A few times my mother got pissed at me for screaming at her).
Weird dreams don’t really bother me. If anything, they’re kind of entertaining. And one nice thing about nightmares is you always feel better when you wake up and realize it was just a dream!
I recently took two Narco 10/325 (Hydrocodone/Acedemediphine) and had 2 vivid and disturbing dreams during the night. The first involved the Devil, acid dripping from the ceiling and other disturbing imagery. The second was a movie length visit to NYC that ended with my being assaulted in a bar by bat-wielding thugs! Yow! I’ll take the pain! The thing that got me was the detail and length of the dreams. They seemed to go on and on and I can still (2 days later) recall details that usually escape me. Not all of the dream sequences were terrifying but still, VERY VIVID!
I used to smoke marijuana every day and when I stopped I dreamed vividly for about a week afterwards (not about zombies).
Same happens if I’ve been drinking for several days in a row then stop, usually nightmares. To address a question by someone who may no longer post here:
Yes it does, and that in turn has knock-on effect on other cognitive functions:
(Can’t find the original article unfortunately but it’s referenced all over the place.)
And despite people saying cheese before bedtime is a myth, I find it really does bring the weirdness on.
I think I’ve had weird dreams in reaction to certain meds; I just don’t remember any of them. 
You can overdose on B-6.