In the circumstances you really need to ask your Doctor. Pain medications bring a host of their own problems. So avoiding them is good but leaving pain uncontrolled can be harmful.
After a serous injury you may have some post incident trauma that causes yo you bad dreams. Especially if you may have had Codeine as a painkiller. I see no harm in you asking on Y!A.
However, your problems might even require the diagnosis of a Neurosurgeon.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.