Dreaming and Dementia

[PeteMid]

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this, as I am no academic, but while trying to document the effects of my Alzheimer's, I realised that my sleep is now constantly filled with rich and complex dreams which linger in my mind for some time after waking. Indeed, I am often able to resume a dream from where I left off after a bout of wakefulness.
Do other dementia sufferers report an increase in quantity and vividness of dreams? and has there been any research to see whether one of the functions of this dreaming might be the brain's attempt to "fix" memories more firmly in the mind?

 

[karaokePete]

I can’t answer all of your questions but can confirm that my wife experienced these vivid dreams. Her Alzheimer’s meds reduced, but didn’t eliminate, them.

 

[PeteMid]

Thanks. The dreams seldom worry me. I find them quite intriguing as they often contain people and events from my past that I haven't consciously thought about for many years.

 

[AliceA]

Arthur, I cannot answer your actual question.
I have always had vivid dreams. This waking and going back into a dream is call lucid dreaming. Some people train their self to do this.
On my part I think some dreams are like a defrag of the mind. I used to defrag the computer and watch small scattered files be rearranged into order.
When under a stress even though I happily accepted it, for instance when plans were curtailed to unexpectedly care for a grandchild, my dreams were very vivid. I went to a place full of extraordinary colour, surrounded by sea but at the end I saw there was a narrow causeway back. It spoke to my condition.
Now I cannot travel, I often dream of holidays old and new, my husband is always with me. I tell him where we have been, he says our should have told me beforehand. Now I do not tell him, well not unless the situation is right.
A friend who lost her sight says her remaining senses have compensated. It sounds as you have a gift.

 

[PeteMid]

Intriguing... Your comment on lucid dreaming is particularly interesting. I was never particularly blessed with such a rich, deep vein of dream experience before my diagnosis - could be coincidence I suppose, but Ockham's razor tells me different...

 

[Kevinl]

Like Alice I've always had vivid dreams bordering on the nightmare stage throughout my life, I do find that having had a drink makes it worse or any sort of cold or fever type infection.
My wife did seem to get something like this after she was diagnosed as se became much more restless in bed and would sometime wake up shouting t6hings that indicated she'd been having some sort of nightmare about who or where she was.
As for Ockham's razor...Italians eat a lot of pasta, Italy has a problem with organised crime so according to that theory eating pasta makes you join the mafia.
I read an article on a learned website where the whole theory that amyloid plaque is the cause of AZ was questioned, the research said that it wasn't a cause but a symptom, the simile they used was that if you turn up at the scene of a fire you usually find the fire brigade there, but are they the cause or a reaction to the event? Maybe if we got rid of the fire service then the fires would stop, maybe if we prevent amyloid plaque we can stop AZ.
There are probably many of us on here who don't have AZ but do have nightmares or vivid dreams but won't post a "negative" comment to your question and I do believe my wife's dreams became more intense but I was always told it was probably down to the medication. I have been told by people on anti depressants (my wife was on Citolopram) that they get the same thing.
It'll be interesting to see what other people's experiences are.
K

 

[Lawson58]

My husband has been very vivid dreams in the last few months but he describes them as being nightmares. When I asked him what happened in his dreams, he says he can't exactly remember but that they were horrible. As he never talked about dreaming before I have to assume that it is a result of his Alzheimer's, diagnosed almost five years ago.

I have been a lucid dreamer for as long as I can remember though it doesn't happen all the time. These dreams are radically different to what I call normal dreaming. The dreams are almost like watching a movie and are never really about me or our situation, not even events from the past. I can return to a dream but only if I wake briefly and unlike other dreams, I can recall specific dreams for years. Frankly I love it and would be delighted if it would occur more frequently.

 

[PeteMid]

Thanks for your input KevinL I'm not sure that Ockham's Razor is used in quite the way you describe it , but I too am interested in and debate that might serve to enlighten.

 

[PeteMid]

My husband has been very vivid dreams in the last few months but he describes them as being nightmares. When I asked him what happened in his dreams, he says he can't exactly remember but that they were horrible. As he never talked about dreaming before I have to assume that it is a result of his Alzheimer's, diagnosed almost five years ago.

I have been a lucid dreamer for as long as I can remember though it doesn't happen all the time. These dreams are radically different to what I call normal dreaming. The dreams are almost like watching a movie and are never really about me or our situation, not even events from the past. I can return to a dream but only if I wake briefly and unlike other dreams, I can recall specific dreams for years. Frankly I love it and would be delighted if it would occur more frequently.

Thanks for your input. Personally, I haven't experienced any nightmares, but worryingly, I have woken up screaming and have punched my wife on two occasions while dreaming, which has totally mortified and frightened me.

 

[Lawson58]

Like Alice I've always had vivid dreams bordering on the nightmare stage throughout my life, I do find that having had a drink makes it worse or any sort of cold or fever type infection.
My wife did seem to get something like this after she was diagnosed as se became much more restless in bed and would sometime wake up shouting t6hings that indicated she'd been having some sort of nightmare about who or where she was.
As for Ockham's razor...Italians eat a lot of pasta, Italy has a problem with organised crime so according to that theory eating pasta makes you join the mafia.
I read an article on a learned website where the whole theory that amyloid plaque is the cause of AZ was questioned, the research said that it wasn't a cause but a symptom, the simile they used was that if you turn up at the scene of a fire you usually find the fire brigade there, but are they the cause or a reaction to the event? Maybe if we got rid of the fire service then the fires would stop, maybe if we prevent amyloid plaque we can stop AZ.
There are probably many of us on here who don't have AZ but do have nightmares or vivid dreams but won't post a "negative" comment to your question and I do believe my wife's dreams became more intense but I was always told it was probably down to the medication. I have been told by people on anti depressants (my wife was on Citolopram) that they get the same thing.
It'll be interesting to see what other people's experiences are.
K

Ockham's Razor allows preferences for choosing a more likely theory from among several possibilities that are all consistent with available data. Italians eat a lot of pasta. Italians have eccentric politicians so eating pasta makes you elect eccentric politicians. Just another possibility and a simple principle, but a wrong one from a range of several other options.

Just the fact that researchers still don't have much to offer in the way of treatments offers a few options - that they still don't really know what they are dealing with (my husband has been given four different labels attached to his diagnosis of AD). If you don't know what you are dealing with, then you don't know how to find the direction to take to find a solution. It's the old chicken and the egg question, except that originally there wasn't a chicken as we know it so there was never an egg as we know it.

My husband was diagnosed with AD almost five years ago but the nightmares started about a year ago. He has been on the same medication for years so I have to assume that it is the AD and not the medication that is the cause. However, there may be other possibilities that I haven't thought of yet.

And antidepressants haven't caused me to have nightmares.

 

[Bunpoots]

Off subject here but the mention of chicken and egg reminded me of my daughter's theory on that when she was 6:

The egg came first.

Where did the egg come from?

A dinosaur

 

[AliceA]

Off subject here but the mention of chicken and egg reminded me of my daughter's theory on that when she was 6:

The egg came first.

Where did the egg come from?

A dinosaur

Well, she may be right! In this mad mad world it seems anything could be right! Made me smile!
Yesterday two gt. Granddaughters called in, the 14 yr old said in a bored tone she had not been doing anything, the eight year old retorted you must be otherwise you would be dead! The latter is having cancer treatment.
Einstein said experience is knowledge, everything else mere theory.

 

[PeteMid]

Off subject here but the mention of chicken and egg reminded me of my daughter's theory on that when she was 6:

The egg came first.

Where did the egg come from?

A dinosaur

❤️❤️❤️
The latest discoveries seem to show that your daughter was correct!

 

[Bunpoots]

The wisdom of children @AliceA. I hope your little girl is doing well.

She still stands by her theory @Arthur ASCII...

 

[AliceA]

The wisdom of children @AliceA. I hope your little girl is doing well.

She still stands by her theory @Arthur ASCII...

Thank you, two more chemo sessions then a rethink. X

 

[Dunroamin]

Me too. I am profoundly aware of the richness of things like colour, texture and light in my dreams now, but only since I commenced Donepizil. Not only that I am recalling things (specifically items) I have not seen or thought of for decades in the greatest graphic detail. I can recall in great detail when awake too. So far all pleasant

 

[Littlebear]

My husband had horrendous dreams/ nightmares when he was on Donepezil. He would wake up terrified & sometimes angry or violent. It could take an hour or more to calm him down. I'm pleased to say the doctor took him off it (he had FTD so should never have been on it in the first place). Things have been so much better since.

 

[WJG]

I am experiencing nightmares every night - usually waking up in a state of some agitation. Family members tend to suggest this is caused by meds - i reckon it's the brain disintegrating.

 

[Dunroamin]

Another thought on the dream front - as I no longer blame medication myself either. My vivid dreams occasionally overlap (i cannot think of a better description) into day to day life. My interpretation is that this can be the beginnings of the confusion often seen by carers .In other words I am sometimes aware that things I say/do actually have nothing to do with real life. They are things that occurred in my dreams. At the moment I have insight into this, but over time I am sure I will emphatically believe such occurrences. I hope this makes sense.

 

[PeteMid]

Another thought on the dream front - as I no longer blame medication myself either. My vivid dreams occasionally overlap (i cannot think of a better description) into day to day life. My interpretation is that this can be the beginnings of the confusion often seen by carers .In other words I am sometimes aware that things I say/do actually have nothing to do with real life. They are things that occurred in my dreams. At the moment I have insight into this, but over time I am sure I will emphatically believe such occurrences. I hope this makes sense.

What you say makes perfect sense. The boundaries between real and surreal are blurring more and more for me too. I know the difference, but I too am aware that there will come a time when I will be overwhelmed.