Coma-like sleep and odd feeling in morning??

Does anyone else fall asleep sometimes and literally not move for 7 or 8 hours?

Last night I fell asleep with my CPAP on and TV remote in hand. I woke up in the exact same position 7 hours and 15 minutes later and I actually felt quite odd - like sort of spaced out feeling. No flipping. No getting up to pee. Nothing. Just stayed in same position the entire night. It took me a hot shower and a large coffee to actually shake this weird sort of spacey feeling.

I've had my CPAP about 4 months now and this kind of sleep happened about 3 or 4 times before. I work a lot and gave an exhausting schedule. I only usually average about 3 to 4 hours of sleep per night normally so this coma like sleep is really unusual for me, even with my CPAP.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

When I first started my therapy it happened to me quite often at least the first few months. I know I had a big sleep debt to pay and attributed it to exactly that.


I wish you well

One of the key symptoms of narcolepsy is actually a symptom sleep deprivation. Called sleep paralysis it is abnormal REM atonia. When we enter REM all of our muscles except our eyes and breathing muscles are paralyzed. It is intended to prevent us from acting out our dreams. When you have a strong sleep debt, for instance only sleeping 3-4 hours a night, that REM atonia may set before you actually fall asleep or as you are waking up. If the sleep debt is strong enough the paralysis can last all night.

Many narcoleptics, myself included, find that there are certain triggers that induce sleep paralysis. For myself, laying flat on my back while falling asleep will trigger sleep paralysis if the room is quiet enough. If I go to sleep on my side there is no abnormal sleep paralysis. Using a full face mask also increases the chance that I will have sleep paralysis as I go to sleep, while using a nasal pillow does not.

I've had it happen twice since I've been using my APAP; both times were in the first month. Before that; it was decades ago; probably when I was a kid. Lately; I'll slightly remember either looking at the clock or turning over and moving the hose.

I've had that happen occasionally even long before I did CPAP and probably before I had apnea. Sometimes with some likely cause like fatigue, sometimes for no obvious reason.

When I had my one sleep study I slept on my side and didn't move all night. Seems like this is pretty common for me. But the weird spaced out feeling is what I used to get before CPAP, maybe due to the sleep deficit and/or oxygen deprivation. Since CPAP I have not once awoken to use the bathroom whereas I used to be up one or two times during the night. Now I awake occasionally due to a leak or something, but I basically sleep like a rock now and feel pretty "normal" in the morning if I've had 6+ hours.

I definitely feel better with the CPAP overall on most days, even with little sleep. It was just these few occurrences seemed to be different. I got a lot of sleep but felt kind of groggy and just a little weird a good chunk of the day but in the morning I felt really spaced out - its kind of hard to describe....just weird feeling, like surreal almost. Ahh who knows? I guess I shouldn't complain about a good night's sleep. Maybe Im just not used to sleeping that long.

Once. It was my 1st/only hangover; I was 46. My in-laws were so amused. I felt awful.