Why I was glad last night that I live with my parents

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s been a rough week sleep-wise. I was stressed because my dog was dying; I got called into work on what was supposed to be a day off 12 hours before a project began, which meant I’d slept in the day before thinking I had the next off; I have a cold… so in 60 hours I’d gotten about 7 hours sleep. So taking one of my prescription sleeping pill for the first time seemed like a good idea. It was not.

I took the pill, read for 15 minutes, then turned off the lights and got into bed. I don’t sleep on my back, but I usually start off on it when I go to bed. About 5 minutes after I got into bed, I noticed that there was something wrong with the ceiling. It seemed to be moving. At first I dismissed the idea as the glow in the dark stars fading, but it moved purposefully. Oh, it was a giant spider, about 5 feet across; good thing I’m not really afraid of them. I looked at the window, and there were several wooden marrionettes hanging in it, which is odd, since I don’t own any. The spider wasn’t really bothering me, but there was also something wrong with my clock, which seemed to have blue numbers spinning under it below the normal gold ones. And, as I glanced to my right, I noticed that the room was a. bigger b. full of people. The people looked very much like those in the Muppets Christmas Carol - which made sense since the spider looked like a muppet too- but they weren’t supposed to be there, and they were crowding my bed, which was beginning to upset me. Especially when a really big (3’ wide) gray hand reached across my bed above me. So I began to call for my parents. After a little while I realized that they couldn’t hear me from the oposite end of the house, so I was going to have to go wake one of them up. On some level I knew the muppet people weren’t really there, but I was still worried that they’d try to keep me in the room. Fortunately they didn’t do anything as I left the room. I kept tripping over things because I was dizzy, though.

I woke up Dad and explained to him that it seemed that the sleeping pill I took was causing massive hallucinations, so he had me sit on the couch and watch 24 with him. The show was a little hard to follow because everyone had 4 eyes and 2 noses, but it wasn’t bad. There were no muppets in the livingroom, but my grandfather’s picture was moving, the headphones near the computer were wandering around, it was snowing inside the windowsill near the couch, and there was a face in the door to the entertainment system. Besides worrying that the picture of my (dead) grandfather was going to wave at me -since it was his hands that were moving- it wasn’t as bad as being alone in my room.

An hour or so after I’d taken the sleeping pill I threw up a few times and the hallucinations called it a night. I looked it up this morning, and learned that the rarer side-effects are indeed hallucinations, dizziness, and vomiting. I think this is a big lesson for me: avoid sedative-hypnotic class prescriptions in the future!

Something like this makes me glad I don’t live alone.

2

A lot of people pay good money for those effects you know.

3

Eek. Glad there was someone around-muppets are scary things in the dark! (Actually, they’re kinda scary in the light too…) :slight_smile:

4

Do you mind if I ask what the medication was?

I also used to have hallucinations from prescribed meds. These hallucinations usually involved animals. A bear sat on the bed. Bees flew at me. A crow was on the bed. (Three different occasions.)

The strange thing is that I too was aware that they were hallucinations. But even knowing that, I was terribly frightened – especially by the crow. I told my husband that I knew it was just “chemistry” but I begged him not to make me look at it.

5

Zoe it was Ambien. You’re right, knowing that it isn’t real doesn’t make it much less scary. The reason I was sure everything was in my mind was because I’ve hallucinated before with high fevers(although they were much less severe), and had people point out that things weren’t real, so I already knew my mind was capable of this sort of trickery- I can’t imagine how I would have reacted otherwise. It makes me wonder, though, if having had hallucinations before makes one more prone to having them induced by a medication. I guess that’s something to ask a doctor about.

6

Parents never stop being parents, even if you’re too old to sit on their knees any more. It’s always good to know they’re there in case Gonzo makes a guest appearance in your bedroom.

FWIW, I live with my folks too, and they can be mighty comforting.

7

I wouldn’t be scared of the muppets… Kermit the frog used to be my hero.

But, I have to say that I prolly would have died if I saw a spider that huge on my roof…

You’re very brave.

8

I have spent a great deal of effort trying to hallucinate…sigh.

You should feel lucky elfkin.even with certain things guaranteed to have most people talking to a floating torso of Gahndi,all i get is a wavy ceiling :frowning:

9

Ambien! (Scroll down for the side effect listing: Among my favourites are “insomnia” and “light headdress” :smiley: )

A friend of mine also had terrible hallucinations on that stuff.

She said she saw stuff like screaming faces and other charming, restful nighttime visions along those lines. Ugh.

She lives by herself, however. She said she knew what was happening but it was hard to wait it out. She vomited also but didn’t feel better for several hours. Poor thing!

Now, when she has insomnia, she just deals. I have insomnia myself but I’ve never taken anything for it. Never would, either. I’ll just read a good book, thanks. :eek:

10

I obtained Ambien when the cough from my miserable 2-month cold of Feb-March wouldn’t let me sleep otherwise. I never saw gremlins, but I remember sitting up to read for awhile after taking the Ambien, and after awhile the words on the page started warping up towards my eye as if I were passing a strong magnifying glass over the ones I was reading.