I had horrible dreams and night sweats as well, and no energy at all as well as many other side effects. I started it when I was in college around 1993 I think. At first I had improvement of my depression and didn't notice any really bad side effects, but after a few months on it things started going downhill. I went to doctors for all kinds of evaluations who told me it couldn't be the med, that it wasn't addictive, and that it was all in my head etc. Since I had a history of depression and anxiety they latched onto that and sent me home with benzodiazepines to take with it. I was young and at the time really believed that doctors must know what they were talking about. Then I went through all these tests and even an overnight hospital stay with a lumbar puncture, tilt table test and other hellish tests trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Not one doctor out of the 10 or so I saw even possibly attributed it to Effexor. I was finally blown off as a hypochondriac or nutcase and referred to shrinks. It wasn't until I got access to the internet years later and stumbled across something about it that I learned it had all been the drug. I couldn't get off of it though. It really destroyed many years of my life.