Nightmares
- Thread starter Jorbin
- Start date
Hello Jorbin, my wife was always prone to nightmares and these got a lot worse after diagnosis and being put on Donepezil. I don’t know whether it was the medication or just the onset of the disease causing this. In any event when I told her Consultant about this he added Memantine to her meds and this eased, but didn’t stop the nightmares.
My dad had very vivid dreams on the higher dose of Donepezil which he thought were real. He was fine with this but it was a nightmare for us!!
Of course like all medications, we as individuals respond in differing ways. My late mother found Aricept made her feel very sick, so we stopped it. The 'nightmare' element is reported often and I suppose that you will have consulted your specialist or GP to look at a possible approach or alternative. I cannot recall just where I read it, but there was a case of someone who managed to confront his dreams. as simply that. Somehow he managed to manage them in situ ( whilst having the dream) and virtually ignore them. Rather an ambitious notion, which worked for him! But I greatly appreciate that this must be very trying, as expectation fuels the problem. Perhaps the GP/specialist might suggest stoppage for a period? This is a precise question and I am sorry not to be able to provide an actual workable approach and I am not a clinician. There must be many folk here on TP who can offer some perspective from personal experience. I hope that things improve soon. Let us know.
When Dad was first prescribed Donepezil it was recommended by the memory clinic that he took it in the morning because the medication was known to increase the risk of vivid dreams/nightmares
