Is my dosage too high? I have only been on it 6 days, and yesterday I heard voices twice when no one was around. It has totally helped my pain, but I also have eye pressure/pain but it goes as quickly as it comes, but on a daily basis.
Has anyone experienced hallucinations, like hearing voices while taking Zanaflex?
Question posted by cathi1960 on 10 May 2011
Last updated on 8 October 2023 by neekeslar
The information on this page reflects personal experiences shared by our community members. It is not reviewed for medical accuracy and should not replace professional medical advice.
35 Answers
neekeslar
8 Oct 2023
I have been taking this medication for several months and recently I started to take between 6mg and 8mg a night to help me sleep through the night. One day I heard my husband say baby loud and plain as day so when I went in the room and replied yes he looked at me like I was nuts. Now I’m starting to hear voices now and again but it’s getting worse.
Babaji4me
11 Feb 2022
I was on a small dose for a short time. It started about the 3rd night I took it. I saw blue and black abstract patterns on the walls, floor and bedspread of my room. I also saw unknown objects right beside me, when I tried to touch them my hand would go right through them and they would still be there. The next night the same exact thing only the colors were red and black.. It was terrifying. I will never take this drug again... never. No muscle relaxers for me.
Jomamann1
17 Jan 2022
Story time!
Yep. I can ONLY take it right before bed. If it kicks in before, I cannot even manipulate my bed covers and pillow. But it definitely helps me sleep but I think it definitely the sedative effect. I do also take gabapentin and trazadone so that probably doesn't help. Or DOES help, depending on how ya look at it. And I DO have visual "imagery" and hear songs, some I recognize, or a TV program, or a DJ talking or a commercial, with nothing on in our house. The visual hallucinations initially bothered me. Once, I saw a silhouette of a man looking around and opening the door to our porch. I woke my husband who grabbed his gun(we do have a "stand your ground" law, FYI and LOL) but there was nobody there and I ended up falling on the kitchen floor, I was so dizzy! And I've seen what looked like a dark shadow creature skittering up and around our bedroom closet.
Got up exclaiming " get behind me Satan!!! " My husband asked me the next day if I remembered that, hahahaha!
Now, I mostly get little scenes that are pleasant like little cartoon animals floating on a boat. Like shrooms! Or LSD! Not sure because I never did street drugs. Maybe that's why tizanidine affects me this way.
When I asked about switching back to Flexeril, my provider said hallucinations aren't common and wanted me to stay in the Zanaflex. I'm fine with that, now that I know what it does before the zzzzzs come.
Tammelliott
5 Nov 2021
I’ve been having the hallucinations of huge spiders! Crawling on my ceiling and bed! So scary. I put eye mask on so when I open my eyes, I don’t see the horrid creatures.
WildcatVet
10 Nov 2020
Hallucinations are a rare but reported side effect:
"Psychiatric
Common (1% to 10% of users): Nervousness
Rare (0.01% to 0.1% of users): Hallucinations, insomnia, sleep disorders"
Dishguy
10 Nov 2020
I had TERRIBLE MADDENING hallucinations taking this medication in the hospital. I had to find a way to be conscious enough to tell them to take me off of it which was very hard because I was totally OUT of it. I won’t ever take this medication again in my lifetime!!
Breezyh53
21 Aug 2020
I have a lot of hallucinations. But not every night. I take 6mg every night. Makes me very drowsy and dizzy. Last April I took my dose, sat and watched TV til it made me sleepy. I got up to put my glass in the kitchen, and passed out. Woke up to my son over me. Long story short, I broke both fibulas. One below my knee, other at my ankle. I still have a metal plate and screws in my right ankle. As for hallucinations, I see and hear cats on my bed, I hear them purr and feel them walking on my bed. I pet them and they react. They snuggle with me. I have also seen people at the foot of my bed, a tall thin man with a woman and 2 kids. Last night I saw all of them. I also heard in my right ear, the young girl, whisper Mommy, Mommy. I told her I can't see her clearly. I could see only a form like white and watery. She looked like the size of a teenager. I asked her name and she said Rebecca. Blew my mind. 17 years ago my husband and I lost a baby girl. That we'd named Rebecca!!!
Nikki44432
5 June 2020
Oh yes. Mine aren’t scary. It’s shapes, letters, words and they swirl or spin. Sometimes it shoots me straight out of bed. I also feel my heart pounding. That is the part that freaks me out. I am scared I am going to die. My pulse is normal though. I had been on it for years before it happened. The first time it looked like a lava lamp. It’s there when I open my eyes too. I’ve learned to deep breathe and let it pass since I took Ambien for 20 years and tizanidine is the only thing that puts me to sleep. I feel better knowing it will go away and I’m not dying. I just breathe my way through it.
Hackergames
31 March 2020
Yes its a side effect. Once you understand why its happening its not as scary. My first experience was terrifying but as soon as I understood it wasn't real I was OK the next few times it happened. After a while that effect will go away
bulletpc
20 March 2020
Glad to see others experiencing this. I was prescribed tizanidine about10 months ago for my legs that lock up during the night without it. I had spinal stenosis surgery but my doctor thinks my leg problem stems from peripheral neuropathy. I take one 4mg tizanidine at bedtime and take another at 1am as the first one wears off in 4 hours. With the 2 I am able to sleep all night with little or no problems. About 3 months ago I had my first hallucination with this medicine. I don't remember at the time but remember it felt real. Last night I got up at 1am to take my second pill and fell instantly asleep. I woke up at exactly 2:10am and saw the most colorful images on my bedroom wall. It was like watching a video or tv. It reminded me of watch Looney Tunes when I was a kid (I'm 73 now) with the most colorful pin wheels circling the image. I watched it for minutes and closed my eyes hoping it would go away. It was still their when I opened them again.
After a couple more minutes I shut them again and fell straight to sleep again. With these pills I can be looking at the clock at 2:00 and close my eyes for what feels like seconds then open them again to see 4:00am . Wife says she never saw anyone go to sleep that fast before. All I have to say is that the vision I saw was the most beautiful and colorful I have ever experienced. It was no dream but my brain made is so real.
Wendyrocks
3 March 2020
Yes!!
I think that you have to be careful about dosage. I have taken this medication off and on. Sometimes I take more than 1 when I am really sore. I have had auditory hallucinations twice now for sure. Last night freaked me out though. I swear there was a ghost in my room. I will never take more than 1 again. No matter how sore I am.
sammi911
21 July 2019
No eye pressure but I’m either having hallucinations, going crazy or being haunted! Just like someone else answered, my 120 yr old (beautiful) house has had some activity since we bought it two years ago. But since I’ve been prescribed Zanaflex (2 months ago) it has been a nightmare! A couple of nights ago I had was drifting off to sleep and saw a black shadow next to me, I could still see my mother in the room watching tv. The shadow wrapped around me and began squeezing me chest and wrapping itself around my neck and head to the point that I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was going to die. I could see every movement my mom was making in the recliner & the show she was watching on tv.
I was screaming & flailing my arms for help (or so I thought) but wasn’t really moving! My last ditch effort to NOT die was screaming “In Jesus’ name I command you to release me!” Every time I said it, the figure would relieve pressure off me until eventually I could breathe. Maybe I’ve watched too many scary movies bc I’m not particularly religious but that’s what my mind concocted to do! When I came out of it, I was in full blown panic & couldn’t breathe. I had to vomit & use my inhaler to breathe effectively again. Last night, I heard a deep low voice mumbling loudly by my bed as well. Scared the bejeepers out of me but kept enough of my wits to just calmly say to myself that this was a hallucination from the Zanaflex & to ignore it. Logically, I know this was all side effects & sleep paralysis from the med but oh my gosh it seems soooooo freaking real as it happens! And I have NEVER taken more than 1/2 of a 4 mg pill at night. I’m hoping this will disappear as I adjust to the med bc it is the only thing that helps me along with Lamictal.
KJMcF
21 March 2020
sammi911--this is for you..I'm the one that moved out of the haunted house, only to have the ghosts seem to follow me. I still have to take the Zanaflex and the ghosts and hallucinations are still pretty bad. I see the ghosts still, and they see me..it's quite upsetting. I also see a dark figure by my bed. It's not like the ghosts because I can see the details of the ghosts, like their clothes and their faces. This figure is just black and shadowy... and it lingers there. I close my eyes and the scenes continue to play out. I've also closed my eyes and find myself inside a house I've never been in before, with scary detail. I'm just walking around in there and can never seem to find a door to try to leave. I've started seeing the weird squiggly lines that people have mentioned and have recently been startled by a loud crash that I can hear but in reality, nothing has happened.
I have also in the past experienced the feeling of someone or something moving around on/in my bed but when I turn the light on and look for whatever it was-there's nothing there. I hadn't experienced a physical assault like you did, until recently. I took my usual night time dose as I always have for the past 5 years, it was about 10pm. After what felt like only 10 or 15 minutes I snapped awake, 3hrs later. I was being held down on my bed by what looked like the dark shadowy figure again only this time it wasn't just lingering at my bedside. There was also what seemed to be the odor of rotting flesh..I think someone else on here had a similar smell sensation during their hallucination. I felt paralyzed and my screams could only be heard by myself, and not my adult son in the room next to mine. I also had to vomit and couldn't breathe when I came out of it finally, and I had actually peed the bed! My son finally woke up because he heard me get up to take a bath and change my bedding. I described my experience to him and he called my doctor the next morning. "Sleep paralysis" with the side effect of hallucinations was the verdict. I take other meds as well and the list is long so my doctor is currently trying to figure out what combination is making this worse. I take this med for severe muscle cramping in my legs at night, and it also helps tremendously with my peripheral neuropathy. I want to stop taking it but so far nothing else has helped like this medicine. The side effects are beginning to be too much though. I'm used to a haunted house but this "demon" trying to murder me can't be good for my high blood pressure. I hope you're experiences have at least improved a bit. Are you still taking it and are you still haunted? --KJMcF
gillfish91
21 July 2019
This medication has really really screwed with my psyche. I’ve had visions of women in black dresses that are dead watching me sleep then sliding down my walls to my bed. Once my husband (who was asleep) was covered in bugs. I’ve seen the most horrible things and I won’t ever ever forget it. Little men-like creatures up in my windows hiding in my blinds. I won’t ever take this again
KJMcF
12 June 2019
I not only hear voices on this drug, but I also see ghosts..they carry on with their usual activities without knowing that I exist. My old house actually DID have paranormal activity, people from the college's paranormal psychology dept came out several times to study it. I've since moved to a brand new dwelling so doubt what I'm seeing here is real. I'm seeing ghosts again... going on like I'm not there..but recently, they've seen me and keep looking. It freaks me out. My doctor wants me to stay on the medication, they think it's residual from my last house. College thinks I was "followed", but the ghosts have never looked right at me before. I've become extremely anxious about it. I'll close my bedroom door to keep them out but then my cat comes out from under the bed and won't stop scratching at the door. Before this happens, he's always on top of the bed. Is it drug related halucinations or is it a haunting? I want to blame the drug..
Valzeroo
2 May 2019
I had almost identical experiences. The shadow people, the voices, the vines and trees, Christmas lights, moving squiggles, ringing in my ears. Only one spider (and never Trump's face, thank God). More than once I've women my poor boyfriend up screaming my fool head off.
My auditory hallucinations usually consist of loud, repetitious music. Everything seems more intense when I take it with Seroquel or Ambien.
Just try to remember that the hallucinations can't hurt you. I know they seem so real, though!
Related topics
zanaflex, pain, dosage, hallucination
Further information
- Zanaflex uses and safety info
- Zanaflex prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Zanaflex (detailed)
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