Users Complain That This Night Cream Is Giving Them Weird Dreams

A night cream is exactly what it sounds like: a cream that you apply to your face overnight to moisturize while you sleep. Yet some users of a night cream from skin care brand Dr. Brandt report that more than wrinkle-softening is happening when they use it: they report incredibly vivid dreams, some of which are scary.

Screen Shot 2016-03-11 at 11.32.23 AMWe learned about the strangeness from Racked, The cream costs $135 for 1.7 ounces, which is a nightmare in itself, but Sephora recently sent out large samples of it to customers to try, and received a flood of reviews in return.

The good: the cream made fine lines disappear and improved most users’ skin. The bad: the strange dreams. Multiple users have reported similar experiences in their reviews.

The first review mentioning strange dreams came on December 1, 2015:

This product definitely works as advertised. My skin felt better and looked better after using consistently for 10 days. However, some ingredient in this gave me strange and vivid dreams. The dreams stopped as soon as I discontinued using this product. Absolutely befuddling.

One reviewer in late December wrote:

After a few nights of use, I started having really vivid, creepy dreams where I honestly could not wake up. I thought I was hallucinating. They were the kinds of dream where you need a while to recover after you wake up. I don’t know if it gets better once you adjust, but I don’t think it’s worth the $135 for scary dreams.

Strange dreams continued to happen into February:

One morning last week, I woke up feeling incredibly happy. I had the most amazingly vivid dream that actually affected my mood all day long. I even told a few people about it (it was that good). Then, I had similar experiences the following two nights.

When I read the reviews about this product, I stopped dead in my tracks. The dreams — other people are having them, too! How on earth can this be explained? A facial moisturizer causing vivid dreams? Well, I was intrigued, so I used it again last night. This morning, I woke up feeling very shaken. I had another dream, but this one was very upsetting. Wow, I don’t know what to say. It makes me feel crazy to write this. But it is 100% true.

In a statement to Racked, a representative for the brand said:

During the testing phase, Do Not Age with Dr. Brandt™ Dream Night Cream was used by consumers once a day for 28 days, during the nighttime and no concerns or side effects were reported. Following this inquiry, we have looked into the product again, consulting with our ingredient manufacturer to investigate the claim’s validity. We have found no scientific backing for this claim.

The thing is, though, there’s not really any requirement for cosmetic ingredients to be tested: the Dr. Brandt brand claims to have run a test on 30 women to see how they liked the results, but didn’t appear to ask them about dreams. Customers who read other reviews could also find themselves paying closer attention to their dreams once they begin using the product.

Is This Night Cream Causing Night Terrors? [Racked]
Do Not Age with Dr. Brandt™ Dream Night Cream [Sephora]