Vivid dreams???

[SuperSleeper]

Welcome to Apnea Board, Shamambrian. Make sure you get a data-capable CPAP machine. Your Durable Medical Equipment supplier (DME) might try to get you a low-end cheap non-data capable machine, but you must insist that you get a proper machine. Medicare and all insurance companies use the same billing code for CPAP machines - so you should not have to pay more for a data-capable one. They may try to give you a cheap machine at first - because they get reimbursed a flat $1500 to distribute CPAPs to patients, so it's in their financial interest to give you a $800 machine over a $1000 machine.

Read Archangle's article on recommended machines here:

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ne_Choices

[sleepwarrior]

So I have been trying to get used to my CPAP for about 4 weeks now, things are better but there are still some nights I rip the damn thing off in the middle of the night. I have noticed that when I do that and go back to sleep without the mask I have very vivid dreams, like I am not in a fully deep sleep at any point . I had alot of this prior to getting the CPAP so I am wondering if all this dreaming is common with sleep apnea???

I have definitely noticed that I have had some of the most bizarre, perverse and twisted dreams at the height of my apnea. I also notice that when I remove the mask sometimes they change and almost always take a turn for the worse. It's like the intensity goes from bizarre to twisted to evil and at that point I wake up like WTF? I have a few theories for this, 1. I'm plagued by demons..just kidding...although it does feel like an episode of Nightmare on Elm Street meets Fellini

1. That somehow the intensity of the REM gets ratcheted up if I'm having restricted breathing in order to compensate for the limited sleep or
2. That these disturbing dreams are actually the primitive brains way of waking me because of the restricted airway.

Also I note that if morning comes and I wake and still want to sleep some more I often can't go back to sleep with the mask and at that time I remove it and fall back "asleep" but then I often have the aforementioned evil dreams. But with the mask I just seem to have normal bizarre dreams but not the crazy horror house nightmares.

[Sleepster]

When you sleep without the mask you are causing brain damage. Your cardiovascular system is placed into a panic mode. You run the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

It's no surprise you're having bad dreams. Your body is trying to tell you something.

[greyhousewolf]

Having been on PAP therapy for a long time, I no longer remember specific sleep/dream experiences before the CPAP. I do know that I have what I consider to be 'normal' dreams, in color; the only time I have scary dreams is when I'm running a fever.

Wow, PollCat, you wrote exactly what I would have wrote.....the fever thingy and everything. I've been on PAP for 12 years.