Malaria Dreams

Since I am deployed to Afghanistan, I have to take malaria pills which basically give my immune system a jump on malaria in the event that I would get it. I heard a lot of horrific things about these meds before I left. Things like they give you nightmares, they will make you go slightly insane, they will destroy your liver, etc… Not exactly the things you want to hear before you start taking a drug. It was like having the doctor read to me the fine print at the bottom of drug commercials. I had two options, a weekly pill or a daily pill. I chose the daily because I was told that the side effects are less severe and the only drawback is that you have to take them every day. Well I have a small pharmacy with me that I have to tap into everyday so it wasn’t a big deal to add an extra pill.

One of the benefits to taking my malaria pills is that they help your complexion. I am not talking a little help. I have had one zit since I left and that was when I first got here. My skin has been absolutely amazing. If there weren’t other side effects, I would ask for a prescription for it when I get back.

I have no idea if the pills are wreaking havoc on my liver but I will find out when I get home, from both my own physician and the government paid one. Not that I don’t trust the government but I like to be extra careful.

I am pretty sure I haven’t lost it yet but if everyone is taking them over here, then we all may just be crazy together, who knows?

They definitely have had an effect on my dreams though. Not nightmares per se but they have been much more vivid and I remember them just about every night. That is extremely odd for me because I generally don’t remember them. The common thread that I have noticed is called day residue (here is where my generally worthless BA in psychology pays off). Just about everyone has something to do with what I was doing right before I went to bed. Generally I am watching a movie or a TV show on my laptop. This can be both humorous and slightly twisted. Some examples are below.

One night I watched Back to the Future. That night, I had a dream that I was Marty McFly and my grandfather was Doc Brown. What is even odder is that as a kid I thought this could really happen. I mean my grandfather is one of the most intelligent people I know and I was sure he was working up a design for a flux capacitor in his spare time.

For about a month I watched the TV series Bones and I had some pretty jacked up dreams. Not scary like a nightmare but interesting. If you have ever watched the show then you will know that it generally deals with decomposing bodies. It was like I was a detective.

I just finished the TV series Scrubs. That was humorous. Imagine having dreams for a couple of weeks that actually make you chuckle in your sleep. Yes, I can now say that I have woken myself up laughing.

If I only had a season of 24 out here because then the insurgents would be in some real trouble :)

A common thread throughout all of it is that my mood the next day is definitely impacted to varying degrees based off my dreams or at least my quality of sleep. I think I am going to stick with dumb comedy from now on. Maybe I am going slightly crazy.