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(Message started by: BlueMeanie on Dec 31st, 2003, 6:50pm)

Title: CH's & Dreams
Post by BlueMeanie on Dec 31st, 2003, 6:50pm
I recall that most anytime someone comes up with the subject of dreams; I always reply that I either don't have them, or don't remember having them.

I noticed since I've been in this cycle from hell, I've been dreaming every time I sleep and remember what the story was about. (crazy stuff too).

Is it the meds or my brain releasing an overload of info ?

Just curious if there is a connection between dreams and CH's. I did not check archives. Just figured it to be an interesting topic.

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by floridian on Dec 31st, 2003, 8:50pm
Most sleep psychologists believe that people dream every night, but usually don't remember them unless they wake up while they are dreaming.  For most clusterheads, the headaches that wake us from sleep start while we are in the REM phase, which is when dreaming occurs.  

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by BlueMeanie on Dec 31st, 2003, 9:14pm
Yes I know that the majority of the CH occur during the REM sleep. I guess what i'm asking is if any CH patient has ever been to one of those sleep studies or if any info has ever been printed on the subject correlating CH to sleep disorders.

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by TxBasslady on Dec 31st, 2003, 9:50pm
Seems as though there was something posted, recently, in reference to sleep apnea.

Not sure if there was a correlation or not.

PF vibes,

Jean

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by Renee on Dec 31st, 2003, 10:24pm
While I was on Verap I was having some really stupid (crazy) dreams every night, some really funky dreams that were all messed up with my present day life being led while still living at my childhood home, etc. etc..and many others.

been sleepin' better since off the verap and I haven't got confused or disoriented anymore either.  well, no more than was normal before the verap.   ;;D

renee

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by Charlie on Dec 31st, 2003, 10:26pm
I'm sure you're like us all. The last I heard is that we remember only the last one and that its shorter than we believe.  I too recall them if wakened. I haven't heard that CH has an effect. I doubt it would affect the frequency but I wonder if it affects content?

Ask Georgia the birthday kid........ This is the kind of thing she lives for  :D

Charlie

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by 12gagueblast on Jan 1st, 2004, 12:59am
I was speaking to someone a few years back and they said "sometimes I dream in color", i thouth that was weird because i always dream in color.  one of those things where you assume everyone feels or thinks or sees like you do and are shocked to learn otherwise.   Happy New year.

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by fubar on Jan 1st, 2004, 4:44am
I actually look forward to those hyper-dream awareness stages.  The medications certainly have something to do with it, but regardless of how it happens, I enjoy it.

Sometimes I have weeks at a time where I can control elements of a dream.  The cool part is I don't have to 'dream up' the when/where/situation stufff, but when I find myself in it I can control it totally.  I mean, I know it's a dream, I know I'm in control, and things generally go exactly as I will them, but with interesting twists. Not only that, if I wake up, I can at least try to plan the next dream as long as it doesn't deviate that far from the one that I woke up from.

Yeah, yeah... I know  Mr. Happy is gonna yell 'shroomer' again, but this was long before that experiment.

Anyway, my point is that YES, the cycles (and meds that go with them) can affect your dream states, and your awareness of your dream states.

Try to use it to your advantage... dreams are the last unexplored frontier.  You'd think we'd know a lot more about them by now.

-Fu

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by BobG on Jan 1st, 2004, 3:49pm

on 01/01/04 at 04:44:34, fubar wrote:
Sometimes I have weeks at a time where I can control elements of a dream.  The cool part is I don't have to 'dream up' the when/where/situation stufff, but when I find myself in it I can control it totally.  I mean, I know it's a dream, I know I'm in control, and things generally go exactly as I will them, but with interesting twists. Not only that, if I wake up, I can at least try to plan the next dream as long as it doesn't deviate that far from the one that I woke up from.
And, like 12guageblast, I usually dream in color.


I'm the same way as fubar in controlling the content of some dreams. A while back a bunch of friends were talking about dreams and nightmares. I said "If you don't like where the dream is going why don't you just change it?" I always thought everyone could do that. I had to explain what I meant. They all looked at me as if I was nuts.
I do remember dreaming, more than once,  that I was having a nasty headache and waking suddenly with about a kip 4. That's one dream I've never been able to change.

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by Cerberus on Jan 1st, 2004, 4:33pm
well, I can't say personally whether my dreams have increased or decreased with the discovery of CH, but, I can say that certain meds CAN be a source for particularly "vivid" or strange dreams. My anti-depressant is one. Many others I have taken specifically have "vivid dreams" as part of the side-effect list.

Had a truly bizzare one last night...

Ramon

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by forgetfulnot on Jan 1st, 2004, 4:56pm

Quote:
I do remember dreaming, more than once,  that I was having a nasty headache and waking suddenly with about a kip 4. That's one dream I've never been able to change.


Ditto here BobG, happens to me at least weekly.

Lee

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by 12gagueblast on Jan 1st, 2004, 9:57pm
fubar what you are doing is called lucid dreaming people try for years to do that.  there are many books on it one is by Stephen Laberge PHD and Howard Rheingold.  if you think it is fun that book could help refine the experience.  I quit doing it years ago tho.

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by toader on Jan 2nd, 2004, 7:43pm
This is my first experience with CH and I was absolutely terrified to sleep for days.  Every time I fall into REM sleep, I get the axe to the head and the hot oil down the face.  

After a while there is a pyschological trauma that sets in.  It's not just dread of the headache itself.  It's almost like actually being murdered over and over again.  Only its not the mindless TV geewhiz murder -- my mind thinks its real.  

I'm still fighting this.  The doc put me on short acting Verapamil and I think this is helping.  We also bought a new bed and one of those things that plays ocean sounds so I can pretend I'm at the beach and forget that there are monsters.

The past few nights have yielded a few precious hours of sleep and those have produced very vivid dreams about strange places involving neither beaches nor monsters.

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by Kevin_M on Jan 2nd, 2004, 8:11pm
I seem to not quite be able to reach the dream stage of sleep while C's are in vogue.  I'm up too often during the night.  But the one night or two during a bad period when I do sleep, yes the dreams are like they have been waiting with a lot of creativity to be released and are enjoyable, intricate and seeming more than life.

Title: Re: CH's & Dreams
Post by fubar on Jan 2nd, 2004, 10:56pm
Interesting.  I didn't know they had a name for it.  It it a useful thing to know how to do though.  I'm know for a fact it has helped me a lot in the past.

For example, I used to write machine code for Z80 processors.  When an 'impossible' task was requested, I would usually obsess on solving it, literally working on the problem 24 hours a day until it was solved.  If I had to sleep, I would think about the programming problem as I went to sleep.  Then, in my dreams, I could make modification after modification.  In the dream, I would run the program and, of course, it would not work.  So, I'd try another modification.  And so on.  Anyway, 99% of the time, I could eventually solve the problem in my dream, then instantly wake up and type it into the computer.

No matter how many times this happened, it never ceased to amaze me.



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