Getting to REM sleep?

I had a second sleep study and only had 2 events at 10, so the pressure seems to be fine. However,I only entered REM sleep once all night. The respiratory therapist who did the study was fantastic, and showed me the results on the computer. She said the problem of not getting restful sleep was not due to incorrect pressure but lack of REM sleep. Anybody have any suggestions as to how to fix that? She said to try aromatherapy, question medications I take, try a new mattress- and that I'll just have to experiment. Help????

Once your apnea is under control, you will hopefully go into REM sleep more often. I know I didn't feel like I was dreaming for a while before CPAP. Now I know I am dreaming because I remember dreaming.

Was there any mention of limb movements in your study?

What medications do you take? There are many meds that can suppress REM sleep.

Tcamillemars wrote:She said to try aromatherapy, question medications I take, try a new mattress- and that I'll just have to experiment. Help????

Many psychiatric medications, such as sleeping pills and antidepressants, affect REM.

What about Xanax-would that affect REM sleep?? I take 1/2 pill before bed most nights in order to fall asleep and I too notice that I don't dream very often. My stats are good and the aerophagia is better but I still don't feel rested. Maybe the Xanax is keeping me from getting into REM sleep. I thought it was the APAP machine that was keeping me from feeling more rested even with good stats. I'll have to experiment and see what happens.

Xanax can suppress REM sleep from what I understand, but only mildly. It can more strongly suppress deep sleep, though. It can also decrease muscle tone and cause your sleep apnea to be worse, which of course would make all of your sleep worse. You might try getting off of it and see if that helps any. Just beware that you should taper off benzos slowly. I was on Ativan before and it was a real nightmare to get off of. Even though I was on a very low dose, when I tried to stop it I had seizures, migraines, stomach pain...the works. I had to get a pill cutter and taper off of it a fraction at a time. So just be careful!

grumpygirl wrote:What about Xanax-would that affect REM sleep??

Yes all the drugs in the benzodiazepine family (which includes Xanax, Ativan, etc) affect sleep and reduce REM. Since they are sedating they will often help one to fall asleep initially but can in fact make the quality of sleep worse. Its a balancing act where you might feel better since you are sedated more and sleep more but you might not since you sleep worse.

Benzos are quite habit forming and often very hard to get off of. Personally I think they are WAY over prescribed. But as well all know most doctors aren't interested in finding the root cause of sleep problems and if a pill seems to help then they are all to happy to keep giving it to you. If you decide to get off it (and I think that would be worth while to try) you MUST do it very slowly. Sometimes it can take months to taper off without sending yourself into withdrawl (which doctors usually misinterpret as returning of the original problem)

Visit: http://www.benzo.org.uk/



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Thanks for all the help and support guys. I AM cutting back slowly. I am barely shaving off some of the tab every night. So far it has not been any problem-no withdrawal symptoms but I was on a very low dose. I think my tab is a .025 so cutting back will not be as bad as if I had been taking a high dose. I have been on this medication for several years now since I started having sleep problems(my shrink gave them to me along with an antidepressant which I stopped long ago) and began to feel very tired and depressed. All this probably related to sleep apnea but I didn't know it til much later (Nov. 07). So I am hoping my quality of life will improve some as well as my sleep after I am finally off the Xanax completely!!! THANKS-GG