Has CPAP helped with nightmares and "harsh awakenings"?

[Eleonoro]

Hello. i have similar symptoms. I had nighmares and vivid dreams before being diagnosed but after one year of bipap use the situation is the same. My sleep is terrible, full of vivid dreams so I cannot rest. I still think it has to do with the apnea. but i dont know

[Eleonoro]

I believe I had my CPAP set wrong in the past.  Once I got it right, I've tinkered with it and gotten it adjusted a bit better.

I would sometimes have panicky, sudden wakening dreams.  They seem to have been much worse when my CPAP was badly misadjusted and got less and less as I adjusted it better.  Sometimes they were suffocation or claustrophobia related dreams.  

I'm firmly convinced that some of the bad dreams I had in the past were caused by apnea when I didn't have my  CPAP set right.  I even find that I have fewer of this particular panicky type dream with abrupt wakening when I increase my minimum pressure a bit above where my AHI essentially goes to zero.  

However, on the other hand, many apneas find out that they do dream more vividly or at least remember their dreams more vividly.  This seems to be true both for good and for bad dreams.

If you have a good CPAP machine with data collection, you can check your data and see if you were having breathing problems just before you woke up.

[Hydrangea]

Before I got a CPAP, every time I woke up my heart was pounding and I woke up very startled and mad.

Now with a CPAP, every time I wake up I feel super peaceful and soft. It's quite amazing!

I've slept without my CPAP only one night since getting it (about 6 months in, I just totally forgot to put the mask on when I went to bed), and that morning I woke up startled and with a pounding heart. It made me realize just how much abuse my heart has received due to untreated sleep apnea.

With regard to dreams... Before I got my CPAP, I had a variety of dreams (I had nightmares once a week to once a month.) Once I got my CPAP, I started having crazy and vivid dreams. After a month or so, my body seemed to have adjusted, and now I hardly have dreams. I think I've only had 1 or 2 nightmares in the year I've had my CPAP.

[a21900]

I have similar violent nightmares sometimes, especially in the first one hour of sleep. I tried to correlate the incident with the flow rate, EPAP pressure, pulse rate, SpO2 drop and other parameters. Still, so far I haven't found any significant relation with any of the events. I also notice that heavy evening meals do contribute to these disturbing dreams.

[FaceInTheCrowd]

These types of dreams were my main symptom of sleep apnea. My sleep test showed 43 OSA per hour. I had terror filled dreams all night every night. I didn’t look forward to bed time.

I also slept very lightly and woke up continually through the night.

No daytime tiredness.

The dreams went away with an APAP machine.

[tcinoz]

I had what you descibed every night before CPAP. Since CPAP I still get it after the deep sleep phase has finished but not as badly as before. Even so, if I've had a salty meal the previous day and my blood pressure is higher than usual, the added jolt from waking up with an apnea shock (yes, it still happens even with a machine) can make me get up and stay up for an hour or more before it feels 'safe' to go back to bed. Even then, I often end up on my recliner as it feels better to be slightly upright than lying flat during REM sleep which is always pretty turbulent for me even with CPAP.