Adult nightmares / bad dreams, peri, mh or stress?

[Burnoutwhat]

I'm having a lot of bad dreams and nightmares. I'm 38 and undergoing tests for early (ish?!) peri menopause. I have long term mental health issues of anxiety and depression which are well managed with medication most of the time. I do have stress at work and some personal issues.

Just wondering if anyone else has experience of increased bad dreams or nightmares as an adult? And if they have been related to any of the things I've outlined.

Also on the nights which are quite bad I feel like it's possibly affecting my quality of sleep or mental state. As I feel quite rung out low after a bad night. Which makes sense if I've spent the night thinking / dreaming about awful stuff. Anyone else get this?

Thanks

Any change to your antidepressants? Some of those can cause acid dreams from hell.

I started having very vivid and strange dreams- borderline nightmares, since taking a hormone based medication. I remember them more upon waking and it can be hard to shake too. Hormones can definitely make you have all sorts of dreams, just like in pregnancy.

Yes. Not since menopause but since Covid. Really alarming, I wonder where all this really horrible stuff comes from. The only thing that helps is occasionally taking one of my husband’s amiltriptyline. knocks me out and I sleep deeply and dreamlessly. Don’t very often but really need a decent night sometimes.

Antidepressants affect hormones (serotonin and dopamine) so that makes sense.

No change recently I have been on them 10 years with a few trys and coming off. Changed from citalopram to escitaloprám about 2.5 years ago. Same dose since then too.

I have bad dreams, not sure if they're even dreams as I remember them. Things like seeing spiders all over the bed and I will scream and run etc. It takes me a few minutes to realise im 'asleep'. Theyre more like visions in a way.
Mine are linked to ptsd. And I get them very very bad when pregnant, I think anxiety induced too