# Can DP/DR exist from lack of REM sleep??



## Guest (Jan 25, 2005)

Anxiety causes people not to sleep good. Benzos are given to such sufferes. However, sleep on bezos isn't real sleep!

So do you guys think it is possible that DP/DR exist from lack of REM sleep?

sergio


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## [rula] (Jan 16, 2005)

there's been theories about that. If DP feels like a dream-state, it could be caused by a confused brain that didn't get enough deep, slow wave sleep. benzos do skip that cycle.

i know that when I stopped taking benzos before bed, and replaced it with 5-HTP and a glass of milk, my sleep and morning DP (which was the worst time for me) got a million times better...but it's not completely gone; so i'd say no it's not caused by lack of sleep, just aggrevated by it.

-r


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2005)

I started wondering a few months ago if I was getting actual SLEEP when i'd slept. And I sleep for long periods of time, too. It's all I do, literally. The reason I wondered this was because it was apparent that I was having an abnormal amount of nightmares. I bet that I've had one every single night for the past year or better. What's worse is that the nightmares are so real (what dreams don't seem real though?). But by real I mean that they closely resemble real life. Like they're not very bizzarre, you know. There are no half-bird half-man creatures, it's just stuff that I obsessivly worry and think about during my waking hours that make up my nightmares. And when I wake up I feel awful. I feel so out of place and bitter about something. maybe it was the nightmares. It's like I can't escape worry and anxiety, not even in my dream state. What an existence.


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## [rula] (Jan 16, 2005)

Pigasus said:


> But by real I mean that they closely resemble real life. Like they're not very bizzarre, you know. There are no half-bird half-man creatures, it's just stuff that I obsessivly worry and think about during my waking hours that make up my nightmares. And when I wake up I feel awful. I feel so out of place and bitter about something. maybe it was the nightmares. It's like I can't escape worry and anxiety, not even in my dream state. What an existence.


i know that feeling exactly, that's how i was the whole time i was taking benzos. totally vivid nightmares about almost the same things that i was obsessing about during the day. it's like my brain was stuck in a loop, and i was spending all night in REM sleep. my sleep sucked big time before i DP'ed too cuz it's so friggin quiet in NY!! even right now jackhammers are diggin up something right outside my window. :roll:


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## Mattm4000 (Aug 13, 2004)

Hi, I definately believe there is an association between DR and not sleeping well, as a matter of fact, I posted something about that myself a few weeks ago. I am going to copy and paste that post here so you can see what it said. Hope this helps:

Hi everyone. I dont post all that much here even though I am here almost every single day reading through the posts and just like all the rest of us trying to find some sort of solution to this hell we call DP/Dr.

My personal story is that I have been suffering almost everday since May of 2004, some days arent so bad whereas others are real bad. Mine just started out of the blue one day, I think it can be contributed to alot of stressful situations that I have been up against in the past few years both in my home life and at work. On top of all that I also think that I have depression because all of the typical signs and symptoms of it seem to match the way that I feel.

One of the biggest problems that I have along with this is difficulty sleeping and also alot of dreams when I do fall asleep. I either have trouble falling asleep, or staying asleep and sometimes I wake up in the morning hours earlier then I need to and cant get back to sleep. But like I said I have a problem with dreaming alot at night. The dreams that I have aren't nightmares, some of the dreams are stressful and amazingly enough some of the dreams are actually good dreams some times. I never realized that dreams played a part in any of this until I came across an extremely interestering article online the other day.

The article talked about REM(Rapid Eye Movement) sleep which is more commonly referred to as dream sleep. It went on to say that people who are depressed spend too much time in this REM sleep and less time in more important slow wave,deep sleep. Slow wave sleep is the type of sleep that repairs and replenishes your body. It also said how even though you are physically sleeping during REM sleep that it takes alot of energy out of your brain to dream and that the type of brain waves that are used to dream are the same exact brain waves that your body needs to get through each day with a positive,feel-good attitute towards life and that if you use up all these brain waves dreaming at night, you will wake up the next morning as exhausted as you were the night before and you will have no energy or ambition to get on with your day.

This is exactly how I feel and I truly believe that alot of my DP/DR is being caused by tiredness and that if I wasnt so tired all the time I wouldn't feel so bad. The only bad thing about the article is that it didnt give much of a solution to the problem of overdreaming. It just said that dreams are your bodies natural way of releasing all the stress and tension of the previous day in an attempt to"clean out" your mind so you are able to function properly the next day so all it really said was stop thinking negative,stressful thoughts all day and you won't dream as much as night and you won't be as tired. Yes, easier said then done, believe me I know.

So I just wanted to share this with everyone here as it might make some of you feel better to understand whats really going on when it comes to not being able to sleep and feeling tired and stuff all the time along with having DP/DR. I know it kinda made me feel a little bit better about things after I read it so that was the reason for this post. Now if I could just stop stressing all day and dreaming all night maybe I would be cured!! That would be nice.

Anyway, I would appreciate feedback from anyone on all of this. Thanks.


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## [rula] (Jan 16, 2005)

hi mattm, i think i read that same article once. i was convinced at the beginning that my DP came from stress/lack of sleep. my sleeping pattern was pretty much identical to yours, and it got a lot worse with Benzos cuz they don't allow you to ever enter slow wave sleep. feels good to be finally sleeping! now only if i can get rid of the that 2-D dp thing i got going on, then i'm straight.


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## Guest (Jan 27, 2005)

I have been taking Xanax for twenty years and sleep great and wake each morning feeling well rested. Somenights i seem to dream quite a bit and other nights not so much. I enjoy dreams even nightmares and regard my dreams as attempts by unconcious aspects of my psyche to communicate meaningful truths about my life and give insights to my concious mind. If I pay attention .

I might mention that there was a time when I was taking Inderal (propanol) and that gave me really wild dreams, I mean really bizarre dreams, which I came to enjoy. I looked forward to going to sleep and dreaming. I dreamed so much I would sometimes only sleep, seemingly dream free, about four hours a night and i would still wake up feeling fine and well rested.

The only exception was when I tried to control my dreams during lucid dreaming. Then I would often feel not quite well rested. But I never experienced it as a problem in regards to DP. But my DP hasn't been that severe like it once was, for many years now. Only coming now and then. So maybe if one is experiencing DP intensely on a regular basis lack of deep sleep might play some role in aggravting the DP symptoms. I don't know.

john


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