Can Antibiotics Cause Nightmares? (Answered!)

So, if you are on antibiotics and you’ve been struggling with nightmares, then don’t worry: it isn’t unusual, and the effects will dissipate once you have finished your course.

In the meantime, there may be a number of things you can do to mitigate the effects.

Let’s look further into the nuts and bolts of this.

Can prescription antibiotics cause nightmares?

Yes, is the simple answer.

There are many drugs currently prescribed by doctors which have well documented effects on our dream cycles.

Antibiotics are not a single drug but many different drugs which are prescribed for different reasons.

While not all of them are documented as causing nightmares, some common ones certainly are.

Ciprofloxacin is the clearest example.

Though it is less widely prescribed than it once was, it certainly is still available as a prescription for many different bacterial infections, such as chest, skin and bone, STIs, eye infections and even conjunctivitis.

One study published in 2008 documented a 24-year-old woman who was on a course of ciprofloxacin and had consistently recurring, and hugely varied, nightmares over the course of the treatment.

These were truly horrible nightmares which caused her to wake in the night with fear, perspiration and palpitations.

After a full 24 hours had passed from the end of her course of antibiotics, the dreams subsided as quickly as they had come.

So, in short, yes, antibiotics can cause nightmares.

Though this is not universally the case and there are many antibiotics without such documented effects, the fact is that they are a complex, body-altering medication.

This is, in many cases, bound to have an effect on your dreams.

Let’s look further into why exactly this is the case.

Why do antibiotics cause nightmares?

The reason is obviously tied up in a great deal of medical science which most of us wouldn’t really understand.

But there is a simple, albeit reductive, view we can take of the reason antibiotics cause nightmares.

For one thing, as I said, the ADR of certain antibiotics are well documented. For things like urinary tract infections and gastroenteritis, fluroquinolones like ciprofloxacin have Central Nervous System (CNS) ADR effects.

This alteration of the central nervous system can easily lead to unusual brain activity, which can naturally result in nightmares.

Many medications with complex effects can also cause nightmares.

It is not uncommon—these chemicals have strange effects on our bodies and minds.

While the main causes of nightmares are the drugs we’ve looked at, antibiotics of any kind do stand some chance of causing unpleasant dreams.

So, how to stop such dreams?

How to stop antibiotics causing nightmares

While there are steps you can take to mitigate the effects, of these dreams, I would say that overall, you can’t guarantee that you won’t be bothered by nightmares.

It’s a chemical imbalance from the antibiotics that will only subside once the course is over.

That said, one thing that will help is sticking to a strict bed time routine.

Try and fall asleep and wake up at the same time every day. This will get your body into a natural rhythm—being out of sorts and with restless sleep can often be the root cause of nightmares.

Anxiety and worry can also exacerbate nightmares, so try a few relaxation techniques before bed—meditation, aromatherapy and yoga are a few simple things you can try.

If you can’t seem to find your way out of it, then rest assured the dreams will not persist once you’ve finished the course of antibiotics.

Just try and stick to a regular pattern until the course is over.

Do antibiotics cause night terrors?

Night terrors are an entirely different beast, and typically much worse in terms of how they make us feel.

These occur as we are technically awake, although still in a somewhat dreamlike state.

Documented cases of antibiotics causing night terrors in adults are few and far between, but it is certainly a possibility.

If you are experiencing night terrors as a result of antibiotics, you may wish to speak to a professional.

They are more likely in children, so if you have a child on antibiotics, be sure to monitor their sleep carefully while they complete a course of antibiotics.

If you’re on a course of antibiotics that seem to be bringing on nightmares, then, as unpleasant as the dreams are, don’t worry: there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Nightmares and bad dreams are never easy to deal with, and we can feel powerless in the face of them.

But there are things you can do to mitigate their effects and make sleeping soundly while on antibiotics a whole lot easier.

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