This seems incredible, but who knows, there might be a correlation.
i recently started taking my daily dose of vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. I take 1000 IU a day, just before bedtime, from about fall equinox (Sep. 21) to spring equinox (Mar. 21), because there’s mounting evidence that we northerners don’t get near enough of the stuff (generated by exposure to sunshine) during the winter months.The corresponding health risks include multiple sclerosis, bone strength, various cancers and autoimmune disorders — no thanks!
Anyway, i’ve been having incredibly vivid dreams for the past week. More unusual still, i’ve been remembering them (more or less), which rarely happens. Last night’s involved my father in his younger days, a job that i liked but was ducking, and some kind of tropical watersport that made me feel really happy.
I just made the coincidence today between my enhanced dream life and starting to take the vitamin D. Thing is, i also just remembered that my Victoria friend Fil told me a couple of weeks ago that he had to start taking his vitamin D pill in the afternoon, because he was losing sleep over all the dreams he was having — so wild they kept waking him up. I was skeptical at the time, but now….
So maybe there IS a correlation. I googled up “vitamin D dreams” on the World Wide Web and found almost zero references linking vitamin D and nighttime dreams. So, all you vitamin D users out there … let’s do some SCIENCE. Has there been any change in your dream life?
Greg Blee 
In my 68 years of life I have rarely remembered dreams.
Approximately one year ago, due to the recent importance that Vitamin D3 has gotten in relation to calcium absorption, I have been taking 1,000 units a day (the minimum doctors prescribe). I have started and stopped taking the vitamin about 4 times. Each time I start taking it, I start dreaming and remembering the dreams that are not disturbing, but involve convoluted and problematic situations.
I wonder what chemical reaction the vitamin D3 is trigging in our bodies. I mentioned this side effect of the vitamin to a couple of doctors who looked at me like a rare specimen and said they had never heard such a thing. I hope they read this website and start researching.
I am taking 10,000 IU and I have very vivid and wild dreams. They wake me up. I was also looking to see if there was a correlation and found your blog, hope your experiment is going well.
I take a very low dose of vitamin d3- 500 IU 2-3 times a week. I noticed that after taking this particular vitamin, for that evening and the next I will have extremely vivid dreams which I will remember very clearly for the whole day. Some are nightmares, others are just strange. These dreams are so real it makes me feel like I was never asleep. Is that how this vitamin keep people slimmer? It makes the body think it was awake all the time? The good thing is that I do not feel tired after the dreams when I get up.
I am also one who almost never remembers dreaming. I started taking only a small dose of vitamin D (200iu in the morning and evening) three days ago. It’s the ONLY change I’ve made and I’ve also had vivid dreams every night that I remember in the morning. Thanks for posting. At least I know I’m not alone.
After taking oil based Vitamin D for a few years, the “dream effect” had subsided. I recently switched to a dry form of D and the vivid dreams have started up again.
Yes, I have never had vivid dreams like I have had since I have been taking vitamin D (2000 IU, oil based, in morning) for the last 3 weeks in all of my 56 years. I didn’t notice it until last week at scout camp, but it continues! So I looked it up on the web and I am now leaving my comment here. Thanks! I’ll let you know if they continue.
I hardly used to
nothave many dreams, usually only once in a while. Or maybe I do but I can’t remember them properly.However, once I started taking the dry tablet form of vitamin D (1000iu) every morning, I’ve been having a lot more dreams (or maybe the same but I can remember them now). This is the only real change in my diet that most likely brought up these more frequent dreaming.
Googled ‘vitamin d dreams’ and ended up here.
Judging by the responses here, I am not alone in thinking this and it definitely seems like a valid area for more research to be done.
Now, as posted a few posts above, could the form of vitamin D supplementation have any effect?
I.e. Dry tablet form vs. Liquid gel capsule
[Edited per original poster’s instructions — greg]
*hardly used to have many dreams
Cannot edit my post, so this is the only way to correct it.
I am on a D3 400 IU and also have this vivid dreams.
Thanks SO much for this post and all the responses!! I too thought I was going crazy because many of my family and friends have not had these dreams though they take more Vitamin D than I did. I thought it was just me having this experience. I have always been a very vivid dreamer and could always remember my dreams, since I was a kid. I had to stop taking the 1000 D dose after about two weeks because my dreams became so troublesome to me. They weren’t strange as much as they were quite disturbing. I always remembered them and to this day can still remember them. They always consisted of me being a bystander in a dream of some type of murder of people I didn’t know. Children and adults. I was just a witness, no one ever acknowledged me as being there and I couldn’t stop what was happening. For a little while I thought maybe it was opening some psychic abilities and I was actually witnessing crimes being committed. I couldn’t stand it! It took a few days for the dreams to stop after I stopped taking it. If the dreams eventually subside, I may start taking it again but it was too much for me to handle at the time and was quite depressing to watch. I’m really interested to know why this happens to some people and not others though. What makes us different? Fascinating to say the least but so glad I’m not alone!!!
Same story here, after my vitamin D test came back less than 10 my doctor started me on vitamin D 3,000 per day I had the most awful nightmares and felt anxious through the day. I stopped the D and the symptoms went away. A couple of weeks later I started D again this time 1,000iu – same result a very disturbing dream that upset me all the next day – I can still recall it now several days later. I don’t know what causes it but vitamin D supplements are absolutely related to nightmares and intense anxiety for me.
I’ve been taking 50,000 iu of Vitamin d once a week for 4 weeks….and been having vivid dreams of things I did about 30 years ago and before, also weird unthinkable
sexual dreams… I have 2 more weeks to take it……I’ll let you know if the dreams stop
What a relief! It took me a while googling before I found this site.
I’m 71 and, until now, I’ve seldom recalled dreaming. Recently I began taking vitamin D3 pills (in Scotland the winters are pretty cold and dark) and noticed that occasionally I was recalling very vivid dreams – unsettling, but not nightmares. Having read the postings it occurred to me that the recall incidents occurred on the occasions when I had forgotten to take the pills early in the day, and took them in the evening.
Before embarking on the vitamin D course I spent a lot of time googling the subject, but did not come across any reference to its effects on dreaming. Hence my delight at finding this lengthening series of posts from those with a similar experience.
I’ve been taking 1000 iu daily (in the morning) for about a year and I’ve been dreaming way too much (in my opinion) during that time. I feel less rested after a night of dreaming. I find my dreams to be very vivid, but not bad/frightening. Last night (in my dreams) a coworker from many years ago and I met at a grocery store and he was looking for “Internet salt.” I’m going to stop taking the vitamin for a while and see what happens to my dream life.
BTW, if you’re wondering, Internet salt comes in a small white container with a blue label. You can find it at most any grocery store of your dreams.
I hardly ever dream, every once in a great while I’ll remember a bit of a dream from the night before….and then I was diagnosed with an extremely low vitamin D level and my doctor put me on a high dosage of vitamin D…I started having odd strange dreams every single night and after a week or so of this I tried to think what I’ve been doing different that could have triggered this and it just dawned on me one morning the only thing different was the start of vitamin D so I researched it and there are tons of people out there who are saying the same thing! They’re not nightmares, just odd… people from my childhood I haven’t thought of in decades, really off the wall type stuff….strange….
Nobody believes me either (except my mom), but I’ve been noticing this for over a year. I take Vitamin D once per week and I have one morning of vivid dreams per week, always the next day. It’s pretty consistent.
Glad to know I’m not alone. Started taking Vit D just 1 week ago after my Dr prescribed 5k a day (atrocious blood work is to blame). Since day 1 I’ve noticed increased dreaming and more vivid dreaming, and I feel less rested. After reading all your posts, I’m hoping my body will adjust and I’ll feel more rested soon. Thanks for keeping this thread going!
Started taking 10,000 IU daily for the past week for my acne and SAD..(its been helping a lot) I take a half dose at dinner and yes really elaborate and intense dreams every single night! I kind of brushed them off but when researching more about vitamin d today I came accross this and it was kind of an A-ha! moment. Sadly for me I do not remember the majority of these dreams in the morning, not sure why…
Finally, I’ve found you guys 🙂 I’ve had this thing as well, and the dreams were so strange and strong I just had to stop taking Vitamin D. At first I as taking 1600 IU per day. I believe it was during dinner but not sure. The dreams started a few days later. I had to stop. If I recall I also had strong pulse while waking up. Then, a few months later I started again, this time only 400 IU per day. The dreams came again after a few days.
Omg yes!!! I am vitamin d deficient and have been for a few years and the basic dose of 1-2k iu’s wasn’t helping so 6 months ago my doc moved me up to 5000 iu’s. got my blood drawn and still showed deficient albeit a little better. So she put me on a 60 day regiment of 10,000 iu!
I’ve been seeing the benefits but after about 2 weeks I started have incredibly vivid dreams!!! Like…woah. Not bad but just vivid! I find myself waking up multiple times during the night, which leaves me sooo tired the next day and repeat. I’m glad I decided to google it! I couldn’t figure out why It was happening and now I’m confident my theory was correct!
BTW I take mine about 8am but I guess bc
The dose is so high it still has the same dream effect even 12+ hrs later!
I was glad to find this series of postings re Vitamin D and dreams. My dreams used to be vivid and interesting (in my youth) but lately seemed to go into a “pause”, just repeating the same scene over and over. I was taking required daily amount of Vitamin D via multivitamin and calcium supplement but that didn’t help. Then when I started taking Vitamin D-3 5000 IU every other day, my dreams improved and lost that “pause” quality. Interesting effect on my brain!
Good afternoon everyone. I came upon this site from researching after finding my husband, a traumatic brain injury/stroke survivor who has been on Vitamin D along with other meds, very recently excelled in what I call dream states. After looking deeper into his medicines, which are very few Praise God, I dismissed that the problem to his waking up to toilet and his mind getting stuck in vivid dreams. His dreams seem to be of memory past in his career in electrical and manufacturing and I am grateful that over our 26 years we had great conversation so I am very familiar with his history of employment and activities. Due to his brain afflictions, he sleeps well, however recently upon waking, his mind stays in a dream state, vividly indicating he is still not alert though does toilet ok. It is during these times, always in the middle of night that after toileting he talks and acts like still dreaming. God has taught me over these couple years many things, one being how to redirect and wind down my husband from this state, thus successfully waking him from the dream state and getting back to bed, to sleep. Anyhow, because of recent increases to waking and being stuck in dream, and finding out today that his blood labs from last month showed high vitamin D and I was to discontinue giving him the daily dose of 1000u. I am wondering if perhaps there is a connection here. I am trying to think back over the past weeks and don’t know the answer but will certainly keep a watchful eye on his behavior through our nights to see if improved.
I want to let you readers know because, we truly never know how even vitamins might affect our behavior or health and if this is a fact that I discover improves and might bless you if you find yourself in a similar circumstance – than thank you.
May God bless you this day and always.
Karen Nosbisch
Me too! I’m D deficient so I was prescribed 50k I thought that was too high so I bought 10k iu’s and I am having tons of crazy dreams and I remember them too. Thanks for your post. (I’m a Midwesterner)