Other disturbances of dreaming associated with migraine

Lucid dreams

"Even more bizarre, i could tell you some VERY wild things about my migraines and how they relate to my lucid dreams -- and the links between my migraines and my completely accurate future-predictive dreams, too..."

(Catherine Yronwode, Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi, alt.magick, Subject: Usenet 'Zen Teaching' Battery (was Gnome: An Answer ...), October 3, 2001)

"A weird, colourful, migraine induced, lucid dream about the blogosphere with it's own soundtrack." [more]

(Bene Diction, Bene Diction Blogs On, Subject: I dreamt about blogging, November 24, 2003)

"Hey, the other day I had a really odd dream that reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. I did some research online, and I found that I was lucid dreaming. Some of my friends are into lucid dreaming, like inducing the dreams, but I hadn't done that. I realized I had these lucid dreams regularly (at least once a week) all of my life since I was kid. So I did some research again because I remember your website about dreaming and mingraines to see if lucid dreams are connected to migraines. I found a couple interesting articles relating lucid dreams and migraines. The really odd part is that when I lucid dream it is usually a nightmare, and then I sometimes wake up with a migraine. It's like my body is telling itself to wake-up because I am in a deep sleep and cant feel the pain. I just really found it all intriguing and very oddly connected. Also, it's kind of odd how for the last couple days I keep comparing my dream to Alice in Wonderland, and that is the last entry in your journal. heh. I thought you just might find it interesting. ~~Katy"

(pixels in love, ksomething's Livejournal, March 17, 2006)

False awakening during lucid dream?

"I get bad headaches, once I had this test where they put these wires all over your head that are connected to some kind of machine that reads your brain waves. The test took about an hour, and I swear I was awake the whole time. I did let my mind sort of drift and daydream, but never once did I fall asleep. When the test was over the guy told me I had been asleep for 20 minutes of the test. I was surprized because I knew I was awake the whole time. There was a time I was really relaxed and focused on some imaginary images of oranges on a bright blue space, the kind of thing I'd build for a virtual reality. Maybe I had relaxed my brain so much that I fooled the test, or maybe the imagery became the dream that fooled me. The source of my headaches was diagnosed as migraine, and the testing guy told me that I had some extra activity showing up that usually shows up in children and people with migraines."

(Lutegirl, Newsgroups: alt.dreams.lucid, Subject: so what is 'awake'?, November 3, 2000)

Forced reminiscence? Sleep paralysis?

"A migraine symptom which I have had checked out, is that sometimes when I have a migraine I also have these funny 'blackouts'. This usually only happens when I have had a lot of migraines over a couple of weeks. But months can go by without this happening. I don't lose consciousness but I can't move and I have these strange dream sequences which have no bearing on my life at all. I know I have the same 'dreams' over and over again, because when it starts it all feels very familiar. The only way I can describe the whole thing is that it's like my brain has a short circuit. This all lasts for a couple of minutes and after it's over I can't remember what it was I was thinking/dreaming about. Once or twice I've tried writing my thoughts down - which is difficult because my motor skills are almost non-existent - but when I'm okay again I either can't make out what I have written, or the words don't mean anything to me. It's quite disorientating. Anybody else experience this kind of thing?"

(Lisa Brink, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject; weird experience, September 24, 1999)

"Yes, I think it might have something to do with a migraine. I get very classic type migraines : severe pain, visual disturbances, loss of balance, nausea etc. But sometimes when I have a migraine I also have these funny 'blackouts'. I don't lose consciousness but I can't move or speak and I have these strange dream sequences which have no bearing on my life at all. I know I have the same 'dreams' over and over again, because when it starts it all feels very familiar. The only way I can describe the whole thing is that it's like my brain has a short circuit. This all lasts for a couple of minutes and after it's over I can't remember what it was I was thinking/dreaming about. Once or twice I've tried writing my thoughts down - which is difficult because my motor skills are almost non-existent - but when I'm okay again I either can't make out what I have written, or the words don't mean anything to me. It's quite disorientating."

(Lisa Brink, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Speech and Migraine, April 25, 2000)

References

Irvin HI. Migraine, Out-of-Body experiences, and Lucid Dreams. Lucidity Letters 1983; 2 (no. 2): 2-4.
Irvin HI. Lucid Dreams And Migraine: A Second Investigation. Lucidity Letter 1986; 5 (no. 2): 31-33.
Lippman CW. Recurrent dreams in migraine: an aid to diagnosis. J Nerv Ment Dis 1954; 120: 273-276.

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