Celexa and Nightmares/strange dreams

Just a little extra personal experienced of celexa (citalopram) that came my way. It was reported that after slowly dropping from a standard 20mg dose to a 10mg dose strange things happened during sleep. These consisted of:

  • Very vivid and frightening nightmares of the type that leave you in a strange mood all day
  • Very vivid dreams which are odd but not necessarily unpleasant
  • Feeling very sleepy even after a long nights sleep
  • Difficulty getting to sleep despite being too tired to do anything else
  • Needing stimulants like coffee to keep you going in the day

All of these tend to effect each other as a vicious circle.

Like all side effects of Citalopram however, sleep disturbances are temporary (It should always be remembered that in a tiny amount of cases people suffer long term effects of SSRI medication).

I think it’s always best to taper slowly!

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5 thoughts on “Celexa and Nightmares/strange dreams

  1. i got all those side effects. the nightmares are terrible. HIGHLY disturbing and its not like you can really share them with others. I am off of Celexa now (its been a month) and I dream nice things. It makes an enormous difference as to how i feel in the morning. also, i can actually STAY up past 10 pm!

    antidepressants are WAY overperscribed.

  2. I've been waiting for the pharmacy to refill my dose, and it's been about 48 hours since I've been off. I take 30 mg every night at 9pm. Since the 2 days I've been off, my dreams are SO disturbing, that it throws me off at work. The smallest things remind me of my dreams, I get confused as to what parts are real and what isn't. Not like I'm being killed/nightmares/zombies, but more like betrayal and uncomfortable feelings. This is soooo strange to me.

  3. Wow, I’ve never taken Celexa, so I can’t comment on the side-effects on me; however, this sounds exactly like what happened to me when I took malaria pills while traveling in Southeast Asia. My doctor gave me something called Mefloquine, and I would wake up sweating from the nightmares it gave me…I mean BAD nightmares. I could not believe my mind could even think up this kind of bad stuff. I wonder if they share an active ingredient? Anyway, anyone with problems with Celexa may want to watch out for mefloquine (I think it is sold under the name Larium or something like that). I stopped taking it after a few days…decided I’d rather risk malaria than have those kinds of dreams.

    aLincoln

  4. My daughter had horrible nightmares, death dreams, wanted to kill herself and threatened us.She was a nice girl normally. She had headaches that wouldn’t stop. Memory loss. It isn’t a medicine I think should be on the market. Going off it is a nightmare too. It can give ticks in the brain that hurt so bad.

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