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February 20, 2006
I fascinate myself when I'm alone
Wow, brains are weird.
Latest details in the migraine saga: I started taking propranolol about three weeks ago (brand name: Inderal). At first I was taking it at night, and I woke up twice with difficulty breathing, which was very freaking scary and strange. The drug is a beta-blocker (the opposite of the beta-agonists that asthma patients take) and it can have the side effect of causing trouble breathing. My neurologist suggested I take it in the morning, and this helped. After a few days on it, though, I started having a new side effect: vivid dreams.
In addition to the vivid dreams, I've also been grinding my teeth and talking in my sleep. However, the drug seems to be helping with the headaches -- they've been a little less intense, and a little less frequent. Unfortunately, I'm starting to get a little anxious about going to sleep -- the dreams are crazy enough that I wake up kind of exhausted, and feel like I haven't gotten a full night of sleep.
A couple of nights ago, for instance, the dreamscape included the following:
I attended a show at Flux Factory, which turned out to be not only a gallery show but also a performance art piece that involved audience participation. During the dream, I examined all of the art that was hanging, in detail, and had a price list, and discussed it with someone. I considered buying a poster, but realized that we don't have much room to hang new art in the apartment. After I sat down, the performance art started, and it was incredibly detailed. It entailed having everyone in the audience move simultaneously several times, to different parts of the space, while there was music and art projected on the walls. While this was going on, I had a long conversation with a friend, who encouraged me to go to a movie at the Asia Society that he said he'd really enjoyed. He described the movie to me in sufficient detail that I decided to go; the next act in the dream is the movie.
This was spectacular and epic, Matthew Barney-esque, with enormous costumes on all of the actors and with action extending over a period of decades. The single weirdest thing that happened in this section of the dream was that at one point, a woman opened a door in her enormous skirt, and a grown person came out -- for some reason, no one here had given birth for many years, and so the "children" who were born were full-grown. But, we were told, the world was going to come to an end in a couple of years, so nothing mattered anyway and there was no point in teaching the customs of the community to the young.
Gaaaaaah! I woke up right after this (I think the movie had ended), and I immediately wanted a nap! I felt utterly wiped out, as though I'd just spent the afternoon at the Guggenheim watching Matthew Barney films. I am mesmerized by the way I distanced myself from the creative parts of the dream; it wasn't *my* imagination -- someone *else* came up with the performance art, someone *else* came up with the movie, and the paintings at Flux.
----
I talked to my neurologist again, and she's decided that I can try taking nadolol instead of propranolol, to try to get rid of the vivid dreams. They've been interesting, but I could really use some sleep!
Posted by Rose at February 20, 2006 11:07 PM
Comments
Sounds like the sleep you get as a result from the new med is not quality sleep. You may be asleep, but you aren't resting. What the lesser of the two evils, migraine with no sleep, or nightmares and no rest. Two crappy choices.
Benny
Posted by: Iron Benny at February 28, 2006 07:22 AM
I have also had strange dreams on this medication
Posted by: Ryan at July 7, 2006 06:27 PM