Citalopram-nightmares and taking ages to wake up

[Bosslady]

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this whilst taking Citalopram. I am on 20mg dose. For over a week now I wake up at approx 5am every morning but whilst my mind is awake my body is asleep. I can hardly open my eyes as they feel so heavy. In addition to this I have had a few strange dreams where I was hallucinating in this dream and everytime I looked in the mirror I was a warewolf (I can laugh about it now but it was really stange).



:blush:

[Izzie2494]

i started Citolopram last week and i have been waking up about 3 every morning! Last night was my first full night ! x

[steveo]

2 months on and I still have this! Not happy! It takes me a while to go to sleep at night, then it's a NIGHT FULL of dreams, very very strong dreams. I wake up early and then try really hard to fall back to sleep, if I do manage to do it, its even stronger dreams. It then takes me hours to come to each morning. Still in bed now feeling woozy and headachy.

[swgrl09]

I've been on escitalopram since september and still have trouble waking up and lots of crazy dreams

[steveo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MERzOzmG8zo

Watch this! Very interesting.

[Bosslady]

wow thats amazing and very interesting. So anti depressents inhibits REM. Thanks so much for the link. Hope others find this interesting. Bit I wonder why it causes some of us to wake so early. Its fine when you dont have work but I am concerned how I will manage early starts when I go back to work. I do make sure I am up before 9am everyday.

[Loobeyloo]

Hi this is my 2nd week at 10mg
I have always been a heavy sleeper. But since I have been having anxity and panic attacks I haven't been sleeping very good anyway. I have notice that I Do seem to wake up around 3 45 in the morning every night (strange) sometimes I cane go Stright back to sleep other times I go back to sleep around 7 then have to be up at 8 and feel sooo tired lol.

I do have a lot of dreams as well but I have always had vivid dreams!

[steveo]

The problem is, know this doesn't help us! We still have to have a night of awful sleep! Plus supressing the REM cycle means we don't get proper sleep cycles of required sleep which makes us feel horrible and tired.

I did a study on sleep deprivation in my nursing degree.

[Gotagetthroughthis]

I had extremely Vivid dreams on Citalopram and Sertraline. You spend the whole day trying to deal with your intense anxiety and you hope for some slight relief when you finally get to sleep but then you go and have the craziest dreams, often nightmares which stress you out even more and don't allow you to get a decent sleep as I was always waking up due to the dreams being so vivid and scary.

Bosslady, the thing where you say your mind is awake but your body is asleep sounds like some sleep paralysis. It is horrible, it isn't dangerous but it is when your brain wakes up before your body and that's why everything feels heavy and you feel you cant move and you are stuck in your own body. I have heard of people having this quite a lot when starting or coming off SSRI's. Although anyone can get it when not on drugs aswell.

[Insight]

I feel like erratic sleep patterns are just something i have to live with,before i started taking meds i had night terrors which scared me more than any nightmares i had as a child.
I still get some funny old dreams but mostly based in reality with my old working days being played out with all the old faces and anxieties i had back then still present in my dreams.

[Bosslady]

I guess it is sleep paralysis. My body feels so heavy, I just lay there waiting to fall back to sleep and ignore my mind and thoughts. Its not scary but an unusual feeling. I dont like it and dread how I will be feeling when I get back to work.

In addition, and I forgot to mention this previously, I feel my bain and motor skills are slow, for instance If you throw a ball at me it would hit me before my brain would connect "ball in mid air aiming at your face- if you do not catch it- must raise hand and catch ball" and bam, the ball has hit me in the face.