Propanalol For Nightmares

[PinCushionPrincess]

A while ago my GP prescribed me propanalol for panic attacks. Of course, once she prescribed them I stopped having the attacks (in hindsight I realise they could have been helpful for other anxiety, but I didn't take them for that as I thought they were only for panic attacks). A few weeks ago I encountered an army vet suffering from PTSD, and we chatted about it and I confessed that what was really crippling my life at that moment was the nightmares; on days after nightmare free nights (rare things indeed) I was much brighter and happier and better able tocop. But the nightmares were almost chronic and destroying my life - on the day after a nightmare night I was tense, anxious, depressed, irritable, frightened and on and on and on. He suggested to me a beta blocker, such as propanalol, which he had been prescribed and found very helpful in stopping the nightmares.

I've been looking into this, and this does seem to be a legitimate way of using them, and I have noticed that when I have taken them before bed I have slept better, with no bad dreams. This could be the placebo effect of course but I don't care, no crippling nightmares! Of course, this isn't what I was prescribed them for, and it is something I want to and will discuss with my dr, but I can't get an appointment with her until the 20th. The thing that's concerning me is that I read that nightmares can be a side effect of this medication, as mentioned on the info included in the pack, and reading other people's experiences of taking them for anxiety and having nightmares/night terrors.

Has anyone had experience taking propanalol to *stop* nightmares? If you take it for that purpose, and therefore in a different way than for anxiety, does it prevent rather than cause nightmares? The last thing I want is a temporary relief and to be plunged back into that. I didn't take it last night and I did have awful dreams, and they are really badly affecting my day to day life, I cannot take this much longer, it's destroyibv me

 

[hodge]

I've never taken that med. But I have taken praxocin and and am currently taking clonidine for nightmares. They don't prevent the nightmares, but they do help them fade away as you wake up, so they don't haunt you all day. I know how badly my nightmares affect me. I can only take clonidine twice a night and I usually wake up several times during the night and it only helps in the one cycle. In other words, if I go back to sleep without being able to take another clonidine, I have nightmares that are with me all day and sometimes into the next days. Anyway, do discuss this with your doctor.

 

[desiderata310]

I take clonidine as well at bed time. It's a BP med. the way it was explained to me is that My sympathetic nervous system needs a punchers chance of calming down. This does that. So, while it doesn't STOP the nightmares, I spend less time awake and they are less...dramatic in the way I wake up.
It's been pretty impressive to me the impact that they've had on my sleep.

 

[PinCushionPrincess]

Yes, I figured the way the BB work just means I'm less likely to wake up during the dream, and so less likely to remember it and have it affect my day. I really need to get something done about it though, as the nightmares are affecting every facet of my daily life, so anything I can get or do that reduces the affect of te nightmares upon me would be so greatly welcomed!