Vivid dreams???

[CHanlon]

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???

FWIW, I never remembered having dreams when my machine was in the bottom of my closet. The only exception to that was some meds I was on once upon a time....when meds cause vivid dreams they are REALLY weird!... but now that I am once again "compliant" (something about that term grates against me nerves) I do have some very vivid dreams that I do remember. Not all the time, certainly not every night, but a couple times a week. Hope this helps.

Same here. I've been a snorer since I learned to sleep... I suspect I've has OSA since at least my late teens. I can remember less the 100 times in 40 years, mornings that I've woken up remembering a dream.

In the last 2 years, since CPAP, I remember them far more often then not, now. Most mornings, in fact, I wake up out of a dream when the alarm goes off. I don't specifically remember *what* I was dreaming, just that I was, but that's far more then I'm used to.

[Dreamcatcher]

Ah yes, finally someone to talk about this, cant believe I missed this post.

You dont have to be in REM sleep to dream you can dream in NREM. In delta sleep or slow wave sleep gets longer if you have not slept well the night before and if you wake during this time its like comming out of mud, very groggy. You can dream in delta sleep aswell. Maybe this will explain it better for you.
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Deep sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep or delta sleep, is the third stage of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Your brain begins emitting delta waves after the first two NREM sleep stages. Delta waves are the slowest brain waves the human mind produces, but they also have the highest amplitude.

Originally, experts divided deep sleep into stages 3 and 4 of NREM sleep. Stage 3 was a transitional phase between stages 2 and 4, wherein delta waves were just starting to appear. Stage 4 was the phase wherein the delta waves exceeded 50% of your brain activity. Studies in 2007 combined the two into a single stage.

You’re much harder to wake up during the delta sleep stage, even with loud noises. If someone does manage to wake you during deep sleep, you’ll probably feel groggier than you would if you wake up during other sleep stages. Studies show a person woken up during this stage of sleep experience around 30 minutes of impaired mental performance (also known as sleep inertia).

The true importance of slow-wave sleep is unknown, but there is evidence showing the human body’s’ “need” for it. If you’re suffering from sleep deprivation, the amount of time you spend in slow-wave sleep increases sharply the next time you sleep.

Dreams often occur during delta sleep, though not as commonly as during REM sleep. Parasomnias often occur during this stage.

[zonk]

I had alot of this prior to getting the CPAP so I am wondering if all this dreaming is common with sleep apnea???

before and after cpap more or less the same
just don,t get bad dreams anymore

[britincanada]

I Asked this ? on a different site

Why am i not dreaming now i am a hose head etc

here is my Answer i got

It is normal.

Studies have shown that waking up during REM has a very high dream recall, while waking from other stages produces no movie like dreams. Since "apnea folks" wake up constantly during REM while untreated, they are used to having/remembering tons of dreams.

In healthy normal sleep without CPAP, people usually wake from REM in the morning and so remember having one dream, though they had 3-4 other REM periods throughout the night.

People on pap therapy have rem throughout the night and so don't remember dreaming unless they wake during one needing to use the restroom or something. Very frequently people on PAP therapy start having frequent arousals right before they wake. Often from central Apneas....nobody knows why. So now they likely aren't waking from REM and so don't remember their dreams.

What you're experiencing is normal, but it still sucks. Nothing is more refreshing as waking up from rem in the morning.

[Shastzi]

I have been having a lot more gnarly dreams since I started on CPAP.
That's because I was getting no REM at all without it. Zero. I was waking up all night
every few minutes from going into O2 desaturation.

[jgjones1972]

Before PAP treatment, sometimes when I would just sit down or if I starting fading out while I was standing, I would physically act out dreams. The dreams were always really mundane...like putting cans on a shelf. People would see me just going at it sitting in a chair putting imaginary cans on an imaginary shelf. When they would say something like, "Hey, what in the world are you doing?" I would come out of it and know what I had been doing. Talk about feeling foolish! When I finally broke down and went to see my doc about that and the narcolepsy, he said that it was my body desperately trying to get to a deep sleep state. All of it disappeared as soon as I started PAP. While I'm sure that I dream, I can't remember a thing. I wake up in the same position I went to sleep in and I always feel like I just came out of a coma...it's a great feeling.

[Sleepster]

Studies have shown that waking up during REM has a very high dream recall, while waking from other stages produces no movie like dreams. Since "apnea folks" wake up constantly during REM while untreated, they are used to having/remembering tons of dreams.

I don't doubt that this is what accounts for your experiences, but for some of us the opposite could be true. It could be that some people with untreated sleep apnea rarely reach REM sleep, so they actually have fewer dreams. Then when they start CPAP therapy they have more dreams because they spend more time in REM sleep.

Also, I think it's been shown that people can also dream when we're not in REM sleep.

You can tell from reading the posts here on Apnea Board that many of us react differently to sleep apnea, and many of us react differently to CPAP therapy.

For example, I always recall waking during the night. But I don't toss and turn and wake like I used to before I started CPAP therapy.

[USKiwi]

I was about to ask the same question. I have been having very vivid and sometimes scary dreams. A lot of my emotional and psychological issues come out. I mentioned it in my last session with my psychologist (he is a neuropsychology specialist) and he mentioned it is common for that to happen and they will eventually taper off but to keep an eye on it and mention it to my sleep therapist.

[PollCat]

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.

[Shamambrian]

Hi. This is my first post as I was just diagnosed 3 days ago. That diagnosis came about after my psychiatrist casually mentioned sleep apnoea as a possible cause of my nightmares which I have had every night for a few years. My research on the net suggested that mild sleep apnoea might cause nightmares although severe SA would not. Anyway it turns out that I have moderate SA (25 events per hour). I am really excited that my nightmares may be reduced but I have to wait for a month before getting the CPAP machine through the NHS.