Still Smoking In My Dreams

[Katcandoo]

On April 15, 2013, I made the life changing decision to put out my last cigarette and pick up a vape pen, ending a 30 year pack a day habit. I haven't relapsed, cheated, or had a single puff since that day.

But my dreams are a different story! Several times a week, I still smoke in my dreams. I know I vape, but somehow I convince myself to have just one, then promise to go back to vaping. That leads to another cig, then another. All the while knowing I shouldn't be smoking.

Since quitting, I've had as much nicotine I want, as often as I want. But my subconscious still wants that cigarette. I'm positive there is something else in cigarettes that causes the addiction.

I have the nicotine, and the hand to mouth motion, and I still crave a Marlboro. There must be something more that I used to get from smoking that is missing from vaping.

 

[Wraith504]

Seems subconscious mental. maybe try sleep hypnotherapy on amazon prime or something? I have no real ideas TBH.

 

[ScottP]

There are lots of chemicals in cigs and many of them are addictive. Some I think are added specifically to make them MORE addictive.

 

[Possum64]

Oh Katcandoo! You have done extremely well getting rid of the cigs! The mind is such a powerful thing, and 30 years of smoking is a fair chunk of your life.... I think, no wonder your subconscious goes back to smoking or wanting to smoke?
I too am a big dreamer - wake up exhausted from dreams and feeling like the mind hasn't shut down at all.
I wish I knew the answer for you, so you could turn off your 'smoking dreams'....it must be disconcerting for you.

As long as you stay strong in your waking hours, vaping will keep winning for you.
Catherine

 

[93gc40]

Habits are harder to change or forget than addiction sometimes..... especially if a replacement activities mimic or resemble the thing they replace....


Why I still consider myself in many ways a smoker... there just hasn't been any smoke for 2 1/2 years. I stopped smoking cigarettes and started vaping...... same as switching to a pipe in many ways..... I change the METHOD of feeding the addiction and habit....

I'm still a smoker I just don't smoke.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

 

[HauntedMyst]

Are you dreaming in foggy black and white and the Eiffel Tower is the background? That's normal. It's hard to impress a French beauty when flicking a mod and then fumbling for it back because they're expensive and your subconscious mind realizes that so it substitutes a cigarette.

 

[jfcooley]

I'm still pretty hot in my dreams too...

(Yep, just read the title....)

 

[stols001]

People who wind up in wheelchairs will often walk in their dreams for a while. This usually ranges from a few months, to several years... It will pass, however, though I know what those dreams are like, and they aren't fun. It's just your mind adjusting to your new reality.

When I quit drinking many decades ago (wow, yes, it IS, heh) I used to have drinking dreams pretty regularly. My LEAST favorite one was at a party, where I somehow managed to get totally blitzed without EVEN picking up a drink. I remember stumbling around the party clutching my diet pepsi, thinking, "This is NOT fair." LOL.

They do pass, though, honestly, I haven't dreamed of alcohol in over 15 years, though it's a pretty common phenomenon. I don't know if it's the addictive nature of the substance, or just readjusting to the new reality.... But, just remember it will pass. I started sending my subconscious messages (just thinking about it right before bed) that if I needed to drink in my dreams, let me at least enjoy it (but not TOO much, if you get what I'm saying) the dreams faded pretty quickly after that.

I don't dream as much as I used to, quite rarely do I remember my dreams in fact, and in some ways I'm grateful for it, I'm sure I'm smoking in my dreams, even if I don't remember them when waking up.

Just hang in there, it will get easier over time.

Anna

 

[tgs3]

Be patient, maybe your 'dream self'will eventually pick up vaping.

 

[jfcooley]

I dunno.
I've not had a cig in a little over 2 months, but there have been times I can say I wanted one, if just for a moment.

Comfort. Let's face it, cigs were like good friends...that were trying to kill us. Stress? Light up. Having fun, light up.

Not just the nicotine but the action of pulling a cig, lighting it, and having that drag. Remove the taste & smell for a moment and think about it. Some of the worst times in life I would stop and have a cig. It was the mental equivalent of wrapping a warm blanket on whatever crapfest was raining down at the moment.

Quitting by vaping is somewhat easy physically. Mentally, our Bank of Bad Habits needs time to close the account.

 

[Opinionated]

On April 15, 2013, I made the life changing decision to put out my last cigarette and pick up a vape pen, ending a 30 year pack a day habit. I haven't relapsed, cheated, or had a single puff since that day.

But my dreams are a different story! Several times a week, I still smoke in my dreams. I know I vape, but somehow I convince myself to have just one, then promise to go back to vaping. That leads to another cig, then another. All the while knowing I shouldn't be smoking.

Since quitting, I've had as much nicotine I want, as often as I want. But my subconscious still wants that cigarette. I'm positive there is something else in cigarettes that causes the addiction.

I have the nicotine, and the hand to mouth motion, and I still crave a Marlboro. There must be something more that I used to get from smoking that is missing from vaping.

I agree with you about there being something more in cigarettes - it's not just nicotine which is addictive, and i have my doubts on whether nicotine is much of a culprit at all.

In the end unlike yourself I don't crave cigarettes anymore, the odd high stress situation yes, but that's it. We are all different how long this nags us I think. .

For me what helped was to get as far away from tobacco flavors as possible, so long as I do that I don't crave.

There is something for you to consider though.. are you stopping nicotine an hour or two before bed? Nicotine can give you more vivid dreams.

A couple weeks ago i had a dream where in it my husband had a heart attack while at work and died (my biggest fear) and in my dream I broke down and started crying and then in my deep sorrow myself began to have a heart attack - in the dream.

I woke up having chest pains and it messed me up physically for the entire day, and still had some recuperating the next day too - all from a dream.

Someone mentioned to me I might have taken in too much nicotine before bed which may have caused a dream that vivid. Which I had done that night actually. .

So, what might help you stop having these dreams of smoking might be to avoid or lessen your nicotine intake before bed.

Just a thought. ..

 

[ScottP]

I can say I have never smoked or had a drink in any of my dreams ever. My dreams are straight out of bizarro land. Like if David Lynch, Tim Burton, Jim Henson, George Romero, and Steven King collaborated on a movie that might get close.

 

[Letitia]

I'm surprised you are still having smoking dreams. Mine went away fairly quickly, now I dream about losing all my gear and wake up in a panic. lol
Maybe need more lung hit, pens don't really provide that.
Wishing you better dreams. I have real sympathy for what those dreams do.

 

[EIHYPI]

With addiction it's very normal to have dreams about the thing you were addicted to. This goes for all addictions too. I sometimes have dreams that I am smoking...I believe that if you smoked a cigarette in the past when you were stressed and that calmed you down it's very normal that if you had a stressed filled day you can dream of the thing that was your go to stress reliever that you were addicted to.

 

[VHRB2014]

I had a couple of those, but no more in a long time. Occasionally dream of the white stuff every so often, after 20 years! LOL. Boy am I a happy camper when I wake up. :?)

It is normal, the sub conscience never forgets..............

 

[Paul Mohr]

Due to my mental problems I have some pretty extreme and crazy dreams. Too the point where I wake up screaming at night or knocking everything off my night stand or kicking a wall once (my bed is next to a wall). I have spoken to my psychiatrist about dreams and done quite a bit research about different sleep states and dreams.

First of all dreams are very hard to interpret. It is very likely your dream has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to smoke. It is more likely there is something else going on in your life and this is your brains way of dealing with it. It could also just be completely random and having nothing to due with anything at all. It is nothing more than a dream.

I have a reoccurring dream about being back in high school, but I am the age I am now or have all the knowledge I have now. Like for some reason I decided to go back and do it all over again. It is a nice dream because there is no stress to it. I know must of it is all BS and petty. I also know I have a diploma already so I can just walk out and quit anytime I want. Does this mean I have some deep desire to go back to high school? Or that something tragic happened to me when I was young and I am trying to work through. Nope, not at all. I have NO desire to do that part of my life over again lol. And while my teenage years were not fantastic, they were not all that bad either. I had a pretty average life for the most part.

I also have horribly violent dreams where I am being chased, fighting or killing people. When I am awake I don't feel paranoid, I have no desire to fight, and there is certainly no one I want to kill. And I am not locked in a mental institution so I guess my doctors are not worried about it either.

Last night I murdered someone with a coffee mug. You had a dream you wanted a cigarette. Consider yourself lucky lol. You probably don't want a cig any more than I want to kill someone. My advice is don't worry about and just ignore them.

When we sleep it is sort of like defragging a hard drive in your computer. This is when your brain tries to re organize things or make sense of what is happening in your life. This is why sleep is SO important. Not getting enough sleep is one of the worst things you can do to your body. My simple advice is to not try and make sense of things that will probably never make sense. Just start your day on a positive note and move on. But if you ever need to talk about anything we are here for you.

 

[Kickingthesticks]

I have dreams of smoking as well. Still bothers me but I just tell myself its only a dream. Over two years now, what trips me out is that when I was a smoker I never had dreams of smoking, only after I quit, did they happen lol.

 

[Katcandoo]

Are you dreaming in foggy black and white and the Eiffel Tower is the background? That's normal. It's hard to impress a French beauty when flicking a mod and then fumbling for it back because they're expensive and your subconscious mind realizes that so it substitutes a cigarette.

I wish! Lol! My dreams are full color and interactive. Always have been. When I smoked IRL, it didn't carry over to my dreams. When I quit smoking - Bam! there it is! And I feel so guilty when I wake up!

 

[Katcandoo]

I'm surprised you are still having smoking dreams. Mine went away fairly quickly, now I dream about losing all my gear and wake up in a panic. lol
Maybe need more lung hit, pens don't really provide that.
Wishing you better dreams. I have real sympathy for what those dreams do.

Thank you so much! Over the 4 1/2 years, I've progressed to a mod, building my own coils, and mixing my own juice. I do lung hits now, where I didn't when smoking. If I had ever tried to do a lung hit on a Marlboro, I probably would've coughed up a lung.

The further I get away from my quit date, the more frequent smoking in my dreams.

 

[SmokeFree]

I too have had many cig smoking dreams, after quitting smoking with vaping! In one dream I am searching for another pack of cigs, on dark streets that are unknown to me, and I can't find a convenience store that has a pack of my smokes. I had this strange dream several times.