Dream Dazed
all my life I have been a "lucid dreamer" that is, half awake dreaming, with dreams that are more coherent and story like than the usual, and often remembering many details of them. I have had the "normal" jumbled kind, but rarely. Now I am suddenly having them to the point of waking dream dazed with nonsense.... It has taken me 6 to 7 weeks of therapy to get to this point - and I am wondering; is this the new normal? or another transition on the path? Anyone else have a spate of dream daze after beginning therapy? I am assuming this is a response to my previous lack of REM sleep...
RE: Dream Dazed
I'm not sure about the Daze, but I'm definitely able to dream again since starting therapy, before therapy I haven't had a legitimate (Read: Remembered) dream in forever.
RE: Dream Dazed
I am finding that I can pinpoint fairly well when I have entered REM sleep and when I am dreaming. I usually (80% of the time) wake right out of REM sleep [not so sure this is a good thing], and am very aware "that I dreamed" but not real clear about "details of the dream". I successfully recall that I dreamed about 90% of the times my respiration scan indicates I did. The dreams I am not too sure I recall are the ones that occurred (ended) over 20 minutes before my waking. I either don't remember or don't remember remembering. I think that corresponds to much of the research on recall of dreams.
So, if you don't recall dreams you may be 'staying' asleep or not waking right away.
I cannot help with the lucid dreaming, though. Lucid dreaming is when you know you are in a dream and you purposely choose to 'recreate' or 'bend' some of the 'facts' or 'rules of nature', essentially taking control. I only recall doing so as a youngster, where I knew I was dreaming and that I could fly, so I did.
Now, I have quite a few (40%) dreams where the details were vividly remembered sometimes for days, weeks, and years.
Prior to APAP therapy, I had dream recall only about once a week, but sometimes did not recall dreaming for months.
As I learned to stay off my back, weeks of waiting for my machine, my dreaming became regular, and at least once a night.
I now dream between 3 and 6 times a night.
Of the over 200 dreams I have had since early Nov, I had 2 or 3 nightmares, depending on whether I count the one about the tornado.
I do count the one where Mrs QAL and I were selecting snacks and I realized I had picked about 6 various carb-laiden sweets/treats - a whole bowl full and I screeched when I realized that would throw me into diabetic shock. Woke up with tears streaming.
[recently diagnosed as DM II, A1C is within control band (under 7.0) and not doing glucose measuring]
Yikes.
Dedicated to QALity sleep.
RE: Dream Dazed
(12-30-2014, 05:26 PM)quiescence at last Wrote: I cannot help with the lucid dreaming, though. Lucid dreaming is when you know you are in a dream and you purposely choose to 'recreate' or 'bend' some of the 'facts' or 'rules of nature', essentially taking control. I only recall doing so as a youngster, where I knew I was dreaming and that I could fly, so I did.
yeah, I flew all over the neighborhood as a kid  I am thinking this happened because I was not getting good amounts of REM.
For the first 6 weeks of cpap therapy I had zero remembrance of dreaming, including that feeling of weird disjointed dreams with just barely out of sight memories. For the past week or so, I have been heavily getting those, and a also slightly higher AHI, and corresponding higher pressures - due to heavier sleeping, I believe.
RE: Dream Dazed
(12-30-2014, 03:38 PM)Jamesxfce Wrote: I'm not sure about the Daze, but I'm definitely able to dream again since starting therapy, before therapy I haven't had a legitimate (Read: Remembered) dream in forever.
I found the same thing - pre-CPAP rarely remembered dreams, if I even had them.
Post CPAP - definitely remembering dreams!
Evpraxia in the Pacific Northwest USA
Diagnosed: 44 AHI when supine, O2 down to 82%
Treated since 20 Sept 2014:: 0.7 AHI, Settings 7-15, EPR on Full Time at Level 3
Better living through CPAP/APAP machines!
RE: Dream Dazed
There is a technical term for it: REM rebound. Many people report more dreams in the beginning of CPAP. It levels off after a while but is a good sign. REM is good. It cleans out and organizes your brain.
RE: Dream Dazed
Since going on CPAP I have been remembering more of my dreams. Really interesting Sunday mornings when the alarm wakes me. Some of the dreams are quite interesting. Someone on the board once said we dream more, because all the restrictions have been removed and the mind can play and wander like it used to. All good for the brain and reboots the system.
Homer
01-01-2015, 10:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-01-2015, 10:57 PM by TyroneShoes.)
RE: Dream Dazed
(01-01-2015, 02:23 PM)Homerec130 Wrote: Since going on CPAP I have been remembering more of my dreams...
Me too. Probably because while no longer being strangled, I get more opportunity to dream.
I always thought the def of lucid dreaming was realizing that you were dreaming. The "take control" factor is also a part, I guess. I always wished I had better ability to lucid dream. There are apps for promoting it, but they never worked for me.
Unfortunately, once I realize I am dreaming, everything changes and I feel like I'm falling down an elevator shaft and that if I don't struggle to wake up I will die (never had the nerve to chance fate and just not struggle). Probably related to sleep paralysis; happy that has not occurred for many years now. I always felt like the movie Flatliners had tapped into something possibly more real than we had imagined. Creepy, yet interesting.
RE: Dream Dazed
(01-01-2015, 10:55 PM)TyroneShoes Wrote: I always thought the def of lucid dreaming was realizing that you were dreaming. The "take control" factor is also a part, I guess. I always wished I had better ability to lucid dream. There are apps for promoting it, but they never worked for me.
Yeah, that is the definition  the "take control" is why the dreams turn into a cohesive story rather than a jumbled mass. They can still be rather nonsensical and/or symbolic. IMO Lucid Dreaming = 1. realize you are dreaming. 2. Guiding the dream, even reworking it if it is a bad one or has a bad ending 3. Remembering the dream on waking.
It is nice to have these kind of dreams, but I will trade it for real sleep
01-02-2015, 01:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-02-2015, 01:55 PM by novatom.)
RE: Dream Dazed
This is my first week on my first CPAP therapy (in hindsight, I realize this was a good week to start, being on holiday).
I am a daily cannabis user and for the longest time I was under the impression that my daily use was the reason I couldn't remember my dreams.
Last night was my second night using the CPAP. After my 4 hours minimum, I took the mask off so I could get at least a few hours of sleep before morning. But here's where it gets interesting. I fell asleep after that and had some very vivid dreams, more vivid than I can remember in awhile.
Which raises an interesting theory and question: maybe the reason I wasn't remembering my dreams is that I wasn't dreaming after all (I wasn't getting to the REM stage), and that it wasn't due to my cannabis use after all.
But it does raise a question: why was I experiencing REM *after* I stopped using the CPAP and not *during* my use?
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