Odd Question About CPAP Dreaming

Has anyone else noticed a difference in dreams - frequency, clarity, and remembering - since starting CPAP? For the past three nights I have had very vivid dreams that I remember when I wake up and retain in memory. Before, I would maybe once a month or so remember I had a dream, but rarely anything about it. Now my dreams are so "real" I have to actually think about it to remember they were just dreams.

Yes that is a common experience with cpap. It might be due to getting more REM sleep with the cpap; before using the cpap your apnea problems may have kept you from getting into REM stages where most of your dreaming will occur. Now with the cpap taming the apnea events you're more likely going to get some good REM sleep and have more dreams.

Enjoy it while it lasts................you may experience a little less of the vivid dreams later down the road, most people report a leveling off of the dreams after awhile ........maybe its the brain just getting used to the dream episodes again.

I have vivid dreams all the time, most of them involve lots of walking. Been too long now to remember if they starting being more pronounced after I started crap years ago. I can sometimes remember stacked dreams when I wake for a while (two or more different dreams when waking up).

Krelvin wrote:...pronounced after I started crap years ago. .

Ok...now that's a funny spellchecker miss.

It's a real word., not what I had in mind though...

Lol My Kindle corrects CPAP to crap all the time. Kind of fitting considering how horrible my first mask was! =)

I'm loving these dreams, I used to get ideas from dreams all the time for characters/places/plots for my writing. Can't remember when I remembered dreams from two nights in a row!

If you are having vivid dreams while on cpap then something is not going right and you need to troubleshoot the situation. You get the vivid dreams when you get O2 deprived. If you were monitoring your blood oxygen level then you would likely see a big dip. So monitor your oxygen with a pulse oximeter that you can easily wear at night without it falling off. Your oxygen level should stay in the mid to low 90s. When it drops below 90 its should be a flag as something is going wrong.

I assume you are not on any psych meds when I tell you this. I don't know exactly how the psych meds will influence this state, but it will likely enhance it is my guess.

What goes wrong while using cpap:
1.) Your nasal passages will swell up and close off forcing you to mouth breath. Check this by using afrin type nasal decongestant before bed. If you sleep soundly with out the vivid dreams then you know that is the problem.
2.) Sleeping on your back and entering a dream state when your overweight may be enough added resistance to keep you from breathing. Keep in mind you have the pressure of the cpap to breath against as well. During a dream state the body's muscles go limp and this can suppress the breathing effort as well.
3.) You may not tolerate the cpap constant pressure and may have to go to bipap to get that relief pressure when breathing out.
4.) You may be having obstructed apenea, centrals or mixed apneas.
5.) Your blood chemistry can be out of wack when you go into rem. If your breathing is irregular, your blood chemisty will be abnormal due to O2 deprivation.
6.) Medications like psych med may inhibit breathing during sleep and or the dreaming state. Read the side effects of the drugs. Sometimes you have to read between the lines on the things they do list. That isn't easy to figure out.

MsCJBC wrote:Lol My Kindle corrects CPAP to crap all the time. Kind of fitting considering how horrible my first mask was! =)

I'm loving these dreams, I used to get ideas from dreams all the time for characters/places/plots for my writing. Can't remember when I remembered dreams from two nights in a row!

Yeah the vivid dreams can be really interesting. If you are young, you can tolerate the stress on the body due to the O2 deprivations and lack of good sleep. When you get middle age and older it is a big no no as it will take a toll on your health.

What type of ideas do you get from your dreams? Are they horror stories?

borgready wrote:If you are having vivid dreams while on cpap then something is not going right

I assume you only post when they've released you from the mental institution...

or is security lax and you manage to escape now and then?

Borgready,

That information you posted is pure garbage - that's the only way to say it.

Not only is it unfounded, but I have personal experience as well.

I supplement my cpap with O2 and monitor my O2 levels every night - no dips below 90' average is 93 percent, and I have Vivid dreams that I can recount almost every night.

Literature on vivid dreaming indicates that the amount of detail one remembers depends greatly on what sleep state you are in when you wake up.

Your statement that vivid dreaming is caused by O2 depletion is not only erroneous, but also irresponsible by causing concern where there isn't any.

Professor of Neurology at Havard Medical:

"Three or four times a night, you have a period of sleep that lasts approximately 90 minutes called REM -- rapid eye movement -- sleep. It is during REM sleep that your brain is more active. And according to Scammell, it's then that conditions are right for "story-like" dreams that are rich in action, complexity, and emotion.

"You are most likely to recall dreams if you wake at the end of a REM episode," says Scammell. "Americans, who are chronically sleep-deprived, probably miss out on some REM sleep. This builds up pressure for REM sleep. So when you're catching up on your sleep, you may have more REM sleep with more intense dreams."

I think he knows what he is talking about!

I think I dreamed a little more before starting cpap.

MsCJBC wrote:Has anyone else noticed a difference in dreams - frequency, clarity, and remembering - since starting CPAP? For the past three nights I have had very vivid dreams that I remember when I wake up and retain in memory. Before, I would maybe once a month or so remember I had a dream, but rarely anything about it. Now my dreams are so "real" I have to actually think about it to remember they were just dreams.

Here's a link you might find interesting. It's a collection of lots of links from these discussions (from some years back).

viewtopic.php?t=3524

I don't know where "borgready" got his information from (thin air maybe), but it's WRONG.


Den

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Since using a CPAP machine, I have no memories of my dreams.

And, here's a link to all collected links by "rested gal".......for you or anyone else who wants to read them.

viewtopic.php?t=17435


Den

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