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I have vivid dreams. When I close my eyes at night, a whole new world appears, in living color. My dreams hold smells and sounds and sights that often rival the sensory reality of my waking life. There have been times when I could swear I've seen people, had conversations, and done things in real life, when these memories were simply creations of my sleeping mind. I know that I talk, run, laugh, and cry while I sleep; something that makes sharing a bed with me a real challenge. I suppose that the vividness of my dreams might be a reflection of the constant activity in my brain.
I don't mind dreaming as I do. When my dreams are good - they are really good. When the visions bring me peace or joy or love, I feel enveloped by those emotions, warmed by them, wrapped in them like a baby in a blanket. Unfortunately, when my dreams are bad, they are really bad. I've dreamt the deaths of my loved ones, the crumbling of buildings, and explosions on too close horizons. I've dreamt of being confused, wounded, and trapped. I've even dreamt my death a few times - on those occasions, my dreams have darkened to an abyss and I have struggled my way into reality with tears filling my eyes and sobs caught in my throat.
By far, the worst dreams I've ever had - even worse than those that include visions of my untimely demise - are the dreams that accompany a low bloodsugar.
The very first time I had a severe overnight low, my mother awakened to "blood-curdling" screams. "There is a a man jumping on my chest! He is crushing me! Please make him stop! Plllleeeasseeee!!!" My mother remembers that even though my eyes were open wide and filled with tears, I seemed convinced that I was being attacked. That night, my bloodsugar upon arrival at the hospital was 22 mg/dl.
These kind of "attack" dreams during overnight low bloodsugars have continued into my adulthood. Most recently, I woke up, clawing at the blankets and sheets, running from the bed in a clamour of clumsy arms and legs, screaming that I couldn't stop - because something was chasing me. This dream grew its roots in a bloodsugar of 47 mg/dl. Thankfully, this time, I came out of the dream and into myself just enough to treat and avoid a visit from the EMTs or a hospital run.
There are certainly nights when I have a low bloodsugar that isn't accompanied by a vicious nightmare. But even on those nights, it is typically a strange or odd or slightly frightening dream that stirs my senses and nudges me awake. And on those nights, as I drink my juice or eat my glucose tabs, I am often haunted by the creepy dreams that pushed me from sleep.
Over the years, I have learned to warn roommates, friends, and lovers with whom I'm sharing sleeping space about my dreams. I tell them that I dream vividly and that if I have a low bloodsugar in the middle of the night, I could wake up screaming, writhing, or running away. I've scared more than one person away with this warning.
Obviously, I've been thinking a lot about low bloodsugars lately. And I've been thinking about the reasons why my overnight lows manifest themselves this way. I've wondered, specifically, about the attack nature of the nightmares that accompany 99% of these insulin reactions. There is a simple and obvious explanation - that my body and my mind, feeling assailed and threatened by the drop in bloodsugar, create dream-images that are in line with those feelings. But is it more? Could it be that feelings of helplessness and vulnerability, supressed in real-life and in times of normal bloodsugar, are being communicated through my sub-concious in my dreams? Could it be a simple backfiring of my - mostly wonderful - tendency to have vivid, all-too-real dreams?
Any ideas from my fellow dreamers - my fellow diabetics?
And please share - how do you dream? And are your dreams - their intensity or their content - effected by bloodsugar level?
i have always had dreams that are very real, but after i got diabetes they became very vivid. and yes when i am a sleep and have a low my dreams will wake me up.i am glad to see iam not the only one who has had this to happen to them
i have always had dreams that are very real, but after i got diabetes they became very vivid. and yes when i am a sleep and have a low my dreams will wake me up.i am glad to see iam not the only one who has had this to happen to them
Nicole, I'm so glad that I found this website and your your posting on vivid dreams. I have had trouble with these dreams my entire life and I'm glad that I've finally found someone who seems to have a similar condition.
I have had diabetes for almost my entire life, since I was 6 (I'm now 21). I have had very real dreams my entire life and I am often very able to remember most of my dreams when I wake up, which I am very thankful for. I've had vivid dreams mixed with hallucinations from low blood sugars since I had my first and only seizure at the age of 6. For weeks after the seizure, I would hallucinate monsters almost wherever I went and as a child, I was miserable. That stopped eventually, though, and I did not have any more of these types of dreams and hallucinations until about 4 or 5 years ago.
The reason I'm writing this post and trying to find out as much as possible about these dreams and hallucinations is because about a week ago, I had my most serious episode ever. They don't happen often at all, maybe 5 or 6 times in my whole life, but the most recent episode really scared me. I will not go into the details of what I was seeing, but plainly, it was monsters again. I came home from class at about 11 in the morning and decided to take a 2 hour nap before my next class. On a side note, within the past few years, the dreams have only happened when I've taken a mid day siesta, never after waking from a full night's sleep. Anyways, I had a dream where everything was going wrong for me that day and it just progressively got worse. Midway through the dream, I woke up and realized that I was having a dream, but I didn't realize I was having a low blood sugar, so I rolled over and went back to sleep, relieved that I had been dreaming. Once I got back to sleep, my dream picked up exactly where it had left off when I woke up. Only now, as my blood sugar was undoubtedly dropping lower and lower, the dream was much more vivid and real and much worse. I dreamt that I was in some type of sadistic world like hell and that I was being forced into slavery. Eventually I woke up from the dream, but started to hallucinate the things I had seen in my dream around my room. I remember kicking, crying, flailing around, and screaming for the spirits and demon-looking-creatures to stay away. I had no idea that what I was seeing wasn't real because my blood sugar was so incredibly low. The hallucinations became so bad that I had extreme thoughts about anything at all that I could do to stop them. At the time and in that state, I felt willing to do almost anything to make the visions stop. I even thought about hurting myself or taking my own life just so I could get away from the images. This is why I've been so worried about the dreams lately and am seriously considering seeing some type of specialist or therapist that can help me avoid these crazy thoughts when I'm in this state.
My dreams always center around a feeling of extreme isolation, helplessness, vulnerability, and loneliness that I can't avoid no matter what I do. I have also noticed that during the hallucinations, I feel like I can't leave my room and that I am locked in. I look at the door and see it as a blockade or something that I can't possibly get out of. This often makes me unable to go get help and food to bring my blood sugar up. I've also noticed that everytime these dreams happen, I have been completely alone. The past few times they've happened, I've been living in a house with several other roommates, but for some reason, I'm always alone at these unfortunate times.
When these episodes happen, I wake up and hallucinate usually for a period of up to ten minutes, then like with every low blood sugar, I realize what has happened and quickly eat. I've talked to my mother, who is my sole guru on diabetes counseling and definitely knows me better than myself, extensively about the subject and my worries about my thoughts while in this state, and we've come up with some measures that will undoubtedly help. We agree that the short time of the episodes probably rules out the possibility of me ever actually trying to severely injure myself, but I still worry. I now have a prominent picture of my parents on my headboard and I brought my longtime teddy bear from home. My goal with these objects is to remind me of home and love and happiness when I'm having these episodes. I am also much more careful about testing before I nap during the day, so hopefully these dreams will never happen again. Still, though, they are so scary and real to me that I feel the need to seek further counsel on them so that they happen as little as humanly possible.
I read in your post above that sometimes your dreams are loving and happy and make you feel very warm when you wake up. I often wish that my vivid dreams could be like this since they are so real. But they never are and instead they terrify me to the point of borderline insanity.
Have you ever experienced a dream this bad and had extreme thoughts like that to stop them? I know that the dreaming and hallucinations are a common side effect of low blood sugars, but I often wonder if anyone has cases as bad and as horrible as I do.
Do you have any suggestions for ways that I can control my thoughts during these episodes? I have yet to talk to my doctor about this subject, but when I do, hopefully she'll be able to tell me some effective ways of avoiding them. What do you do to avoid these episodes and does it help?
hi chase6,
I just came across this website and i'm so glad that someone else is going through the same as me! I, also have had extremely vivid dreams where i wake up in the night dodging real bullets thinking that i am in world war 2! i understand completely what you mean, and its so disturbing to know that you just slip out of your body into a fantasy world for what seems like half an hour! I'm writing to ask if anyone knows what causes vivid dreams, as lately i have felt as though i've had no sleep whatsoever as i remember every detail of my dreams and often question people about things which have never happened! Lately i've found it very hard to determind whether my thoughmts are dreams or reality and it can be quite embarrasing! is it something to do with the insulin i'm on? because i seem to remeber every litle detail of my dreams and walk around in a dream world for hours after! if you know anything which can be triggering this, please let me know. also just some advice on your problem, if you feel as though you are trapped in, try sleepong with the door open, and also i always sleep with a sugary drink by my bed so that i dont have to leave the room, you might find that usefull, I hope so! xxx
Chase6 - Thank you for writing. How scary - I'm sorry that you're having these experiences.
I am not a medical professional, so I am happy to hear that you've talked to your mother and that you are considering talking with a counselor or therapist about the dreams and the after-effects. I would also recommend bringing it up with your endocronologist, as he/she may have some suggestions about who you could see.
I have had similar experiences. I've had nights when I can't make myself go back to sleep after a low because I'm afraid of what will happen if I sleep. I have had dreams bleed into reality, just as yours seem to - leaving me very afraid and very confused. I have laid in bed, thinking I'm seeing things in the corners of the room - and too afraid to get up and test.
Something that has helped me, and may help you is writing the dreams down when you're able. Detailing the experiences, how they make me feel, what the things I'm seeing look like, smell like, and feel like - well, it seems to make me more able to sort through what's a dream and what's real when I have the next experience. Since I've started writing them down, the "bleeds" into reality have happened less.
Now that I've addressed the physical - I'd also like to address the spiritual. I believe that most vivid dreamers - and most people who've had visions (both calming and terrifying ones)outside of dreams are in some way more connected or more in-tune to the pieces of the world that are not readily obvious. I know this sounds nuts, but I'm going to say it anyway. Try meditating - try plugging yourself into what the world might be trying to tell you.
I think you're starting in the right place, with the momentos you've brought to school - and with a plan to test before you sleep - every single time.
Please take care of yourself and check in here every so often!