Bipolar patients report bizarre dreams with death and injury themes before their shift to mania (Beauchemin and Hays, 1995). Beauchemin and Hays (1996) found that dreams of bipolar depressed patients have more anxiety than those of unipolar patients. Dreams of bipolar patients, particularly those with rapid cycling, may show evidence of the subsequent shift prior to noticeable affective and behavioral changes (Frayn, 1991).

to read on... http://bipolar.about.com/b/a/102525.htm and click on the READ THE ARTICLE link

Hmmmm could that also include dreams that are really premonitions? I had those some times...and one where dad(rest his soul) was alive in a hospital hooked up to machines and I saw this after in the dream I had a child....and another one where I begged dad not to die...I woke up crying,...Oh God...I wanna cry just thinking of it.

I mean...are those sort of dreams Normal for someone who is still grieving or even after a long time after break up w/ Kevin I still dreamed about him....mostly when I am lonely.

But it kinda makes sence now that I think of it...dreams could beall manifestations of deep desires ....I dreamed of Dad cause part of me still wishes he was here...I dreamt of Kevin cause I was lonely...I dream about having a kid cause i want to be a mother. I wonder if dis common thing with not only ppl w/ bp...or I just dunno what the fig I am talking about.

Thanks for the link Andi,

I could relate to the sleep walking and remember folks actually taking pics of me asleep as a kid because I slept thru everything.

I also remember a dream where I was chased and died often during the dream to die over and over again. Not much fun sometimes remembering things. But I remember thinking to myself 'the next time I'm chased I'm going to fight back'. Soon after, that particular dream stopped.

Draga, I can relate to the ex-boyfriend dream too. I was with my X 18 years, quite a few of those years when we were having difficulties I would dream about my high school love. Think it was the romance feeling I was missing not the boyfriend.

LOL when i was a kid I used to have them dreams where I am falling...it felt sooo real...I know this one Bipolar Guy who talks in his sleep.

wow, a lot of that artical describes my formative years. growing up i remember many nites waking thinking the walls were closing in, or ive been kidnapped & buried somewhere, lost & wandering in a public place. freaky it is.
nowdays, i still get dreams that are such that i honestly believe the event did happen. lately ive been dreaming that my dad & i are just sitting & having a talk.
i wake up trying to remember what he said, but i just cant. my dad died in 96, & i still think about him.
anyway, these are usually the last dreams i have before waking (ithink)

Full text of article:

Does Bipolar Disorder Affect Dreams?

from Marcia Purse

Part 1: Sleep Disorders, Vivid Dreams

A reader asked us: "Do people with bipolar disorder have extra-vivid dreams and an inordinate number of nightmares or other sleeping disorders?" The simple answer is yes, we do - but looking a little further into the subject yields some fascinating information.

Dreams and nightmares occur during REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep. In normal sleepers, there is more deep sleep at first, and then as the hours pass, periods of REM sleep become longer. This general pattern, however, can be distorted or disrupted by any one of a number of sleep disorders or disturbances, many of which have been shown to be associated with bipolar disorder.

According to the article Stormy Sleep by Terrance Malloy, RPSGT, "Psychiatric disorders are common in sleep disorder patients, and disturbed sleep often afflicts patients with psychiatric disorders." The article notes a study showing that a very high percentage of insomniacs and hypersomniacs met the criteria for mental illness.

Vivid dreams are common among adult bipolars.

I've had them for as long as I can remember, except for a few periods when they were suppressed by medications. The following paragraph from Bipolar II Diagnosis at Psycheducation.org describes my own unmedicated sleep/dream experience of about 10 years ago almost perfectly:

[T]here are people with depression whose most noticeable symptom is severe insomnia. These people can go for days with 2-3 hours of sleep per night. Usually they fall asleep without much delay, but wake up 2-4 hours later and the rest of the night, if they get any more sleep at all, is broken into 15-60 minute segments of very restless, almost "waking" sleep. Dreams can be vivid, almost real. They finally get up feeling completely unrested. Note that this is not "decreased need for sleep" (the Bipolar I pattern). These people want desperately to sleep better and are very frustrated. [For me, falling asleep was also difficult - could take up to an hour.]

Nightmares also occur frequently in bipolar disorder. In The Reinterpretation of Dreams, the authors write:

Bipolar patients report bizarre dreams with death and injury themes before their shift to mania (Beauchemin and Hays, 1995). Beauchemin and Hays (1996) found that dreams of bipolar depressed patients have more anxiety than those of unipolar patients. Dreams of bipolar patients, particularly those with rapid cycling, may show evidence of the subsequent shift prior to noticeable affective and behavioral changes (Frayn, 1991).

Bipolar children particularly suffer from nightmares. The July 2000 issue of "The Bipolar Child Newsletter" notes that for these children, dreams of explicit violence, gore and death are common.

In the January 2000 issue of the same newsletter, authors Papolos and Papolos wrote, "Many of these children suffer night terrors and fears of abandonment and annihilation. Whereas most children sleep and dream and have a nightmare or bad dream once in a while, many children with bipolar disorder are trapped through the night in hour after hour of night terrors (parents may not even realize it because often the children do not truly wake up but seem in anesthetized states)."

Night terrors and such conditions as sleepwalking, restless leg syndrome, bruxism (teeth grinding) make up a group of arousal disorders called parasomnias. Night terrors do not occur during REM sleep and are not dreams, although they have nightmarish elements. They occur instead either during deep sleep or in a transitional state between deep and dreaming sleep and are a form of confusional arousal disorder.

When a child is experiencing a night terror and actually remembers it, he or she later reports dreams that are extremely threatening. The content has to do with some predatory person or animal chasing them, or terrible fears of abandonment such as their parents being killed. Some adults who suffer them and seem to have greater recall speak of ceilings and walls pushing down on them, and others report snakes and spiders slithering and crawling all over the bed or room" (Bipolar Child Newsletter, January 2000).

Night terrors are rare in adults, yet Papolos and Papolos cited a 1999 study by Dr. Maurice Ohayon which found that bipolar disorders and depression with anxiety were the most common factors associated with adults who reported night terrors.

In these episodes, people are known to appear to awaken, recognize no one, and exhibit symptoms of extreme fear, even screaming, thrashing around or running from the bedroom. In her article comparing nightmares with night terrors, Sleep Disorders Guide Florence Cardinal gives tips on how to help prevent and treat these conditions. Dr. Alan Greene suggests an interesting theory and treatment for a child with night terrors who is at potty-training age.

I do not have nightmares often; but in the morning, my last dream before waking might be so involved and detailed that it could take three or four full pages if I tried to write it all down. I could describe the colors and textures of a dinosaur-like creature's scales; I could tell you today 15 minutes of details about a dream I had five years ago where Bill Cosby was standing on our front lawn (I won't, though). The effect of bipolar disorder on dreams can be interesting and entertaining - or utterly terrifying.