Has PAP therapy helped anyone with night terrors?

Hi everyone

I’m new here (hello!) and wanted to ask whether anyone has found that PAP treatment has improved their parasomnias?

I’ve had night terrors and night time hallucinations since I was a teenager and finally asked my GP for a referral to a sleep clinic last year to see whether they would have any solutions. The sleep specialist talked about treating me with melatonin and sending me to do a CBTI course specifically designed for parasomnias.

He also asked me to do an overnight sleep study and that’s when it came to light that I have moderate sleep apnea (AHI: 20). I am pretty low on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (6)

The melatonin and CBTI are now on hold as the sleep dr thinks we should try to treat the sleep apnea first as he thinks it’s possible that the apnea may be causing the parasomnias.

So, I’ve now been using an APAP for about 10 days and I pretty much hate it! I feel way more uncomfortable in bed and my sleep feels much more disturbed/disrupted than it was before because I am now more conscious of waking up and am then spending more time struggling to get back to sleep again several times throughout the night. I feel really fed up with it!

Wondering if anyone has successfully treated night terrors with PAP because I am wondering whether it’s worth the discomfort and the lack of sleep when I wasn’t generally having the parasomnias that regularly anyway.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Thanks.

You need to make sure your machine is set up properly in terms of pressures, that you're not leaking too much air around your mask, etc. Once everything works correctly, if you're still "fed up", that's a different conversation. Read up about how to use SleepyHead software. Hopefully your machine supports it.

Also if you don't get a response here to the night terrors question, then consider also joining ApneaBoard.com and asking there.

Thanks. I’ll have a look into Sleepy Head as I’m not sure what that is just now.

I had a call with the sleep clinic last week to check in to see how my first week had gone. They adjusted my ramp setting, seemed otherwise happy with pressure settings and said I had very minimal leakage. So, she seemed to think I’m doing well but I don’t really know.

Will check out that other forum too. Thanks!

I don't know a solution for you, BUT, melatonin CAUSES night terrors/extremely vivid dreams if I take it...

I would not be using that particular drug at all to try to resolve your issues.

If you use your cpap machine correctly, and actually get productive therapy from it, I'd suspect it'll resolve your night terrors eventually.

Get Sleepyhead installed, and post some charts for us to look at.

Parasomnias are a broad subject, and causes and treatments are highly individual.

That said, yes, the parasomnias I had were mostly solved by PAP therapy. Maybe 98%. They still come around for a night or two every few months.

If you are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, treatment using CPAP or an alternative treatment may improve the symptoms of related parasomnias. -- http://www.sleepeducation.org/essential ... -treatment

I've never suffered from sleep terrors, though. My heart goes out to you. I wish you the best in getting to the bottom of it to the extent possible. http://sleepeducation.org/sleep-disorde ... view-facts

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common medical problem that can lead to frequent arousals from sleep. This may increase the risk of parasomnias such as sleep terrors. Symptoms of OSA include snoring, waking up gasping for air, and daytime sleepiness. Treatment of OSA may improve sleep terrors. -- http://sleepeducation.org/sleep-disorde ... -treatment

Hi:
I realize that the sleep disorders people make a distinction between night terrors, nightmares, and sleep paralysis but the CPAP treatment benefitted me enormously on two fronts: I had numerous events of sleep paralysis ( becoming conscious, but unable to speak or move) and frequent nightmares of being attacked and choked, dreaming of falli ng into deep water and sinking as I drowned, and of being smothered by bedding. Immediately on starting CPAP ( 30 years ago !!) all those problems were mmediately resolved and I hve never had any recurrence of those problems.

That alone would have made the CPAP fully worthwhile, but it also relieved my unwanted fatigue and fallking asleep at awkward or dangerous occasio ns.
TheDuke

Treating my sleep apnea cured my night terrors... At least I haven't had once since in the 15 or so years since I started treating my apnea. I used to have horrible night mares. I'd get out of bed and freak out and wake everyone up in the house but all I could remember was the bad dreams as I was still asleep. My nightmares were epic. They were unbelievably vivid and I could feel pain in them.

I still have nightmares sometimes but they're nothing like before. I mean they're unpleasant and suspenseful more like watching a scary movie, but not like before. OMG I"M GOING TO DIE!!!!


The not breathing thing can cause your brain to panic. If your having a really bad nightmare anyway that's bad enough as is... add in the physiological feelings and reactions of lack of breath and it's going to get a lot worse. Also having your sleep disturbed over and over can cause lots of other issue from chemical and hormonal imbalances and all sorts of problems.

Do what you can to gather as much info about how your treatment is going and get it dialed in right. Make sure you understand your treatment and how it's working don't just take the word of a nurse or some DME tech who may just look at compliance data and tell you your doing fine even if your not. Once you understand for your self how everything is working you'll know better if you really have everything set up right for you.

Your right that having all the "Stuff hooked up to you" may be causing disturbances in your sleep but if you were diagnosed with an AHI of 20 you'll want to get that treated. After a while the mask and nightly routine feel more like second nature and you won't have to worry about that aspect causing issues with your sleep. And if you have your treatment dialed in right you won't have the apnea causing issues with sleep terrors. You may still have an underlying issue that could be causing the sleep terrors that's independent of the apnea but I'd definitely get the apnea under control and see what happens.

Wish you the best of luck with the sleep terrors. I understand how they feel and wouldn't wish them on any one.

Rest well

Gryphon

Thanks for the recent posts, which are encouraging.

I don’t have an appointment with the sleep consultant until October, but the sleep technician said to get in touch with them if the night terrors occur between now and then and they can then refer it to the consultant and see what else we can try.

At the moment, I am finding the PAP uncomfortable and I’m waking up during the night and struggling to get back to sleep. I’m feeling really tired. In other words, I feel worse than I did before I had the machine!

I know it takes everyone a while to get used to it so I’m trying to hang in there!

Yes, it helped me. I was having very bad nightmares which I think were caused by my breathing stopping and oxygen not going to my brain. They stopped after I started using my CPAP machine.

My story is similar to others already shared. When I started CPAP and my settings weren't optimized, the scary stuff worsened. Once my treatment was working as it should, my episodes of nightmares and waking up in a panic stopped. That's been well over 10 years ago. Settings that work and a mask that fits will move you toward better sleep. It's common for the brain to stay on alert until it can accept all the new sensations as your new normal. Maybe you can develop some pleasant associations, or develop routines that signal your brain it is time to sleep. For several years I used aromatherapy, with drops of essential oils on a cotton pad just behind the machine near the air intake. Even once I didn't need the help, I continued for a long time just because I enjoyed it. Got a friend who has night terrors and REM Behavior Disorder. CPAP lessened the intensity of her episodes but as of yet they haven't gone completely away. Let us know how things go with you.

I completely stopped dreaming when I started using my machine. I miss those dreams.

I guess night terrors aren't really the same thing.

Not absolutely related to your question, but a recent anecdote from my world:

I don't often remember dreams anymore, because my sleep quality overall has been vastly improved. But Sunday night, after completing a fairly stressful 10-day stretch at work, I fell asleep early in bed, without my mask. When I awakened at around 2:30a.m. my mind was fogged with some of the most realistic, parallel to life dreams I've had in many months. So much so that in the last couple days I've had occasion to stop and think "was that a real memory, or was that those dreams I had that night?!" All because my apnea was untreated for those 4-5 hours. I awoke in the wee hours, donned my mask, and slept VERY soundly for another 5 hours without such disturbances.

Before cpap, I had dreams of being chased. I believe they were my brain's way of explaining why I was out of breath so much. I have never had one with cpap. I have seen many people post about dreams of being chased or drowning.

Also, some doctors are really good about checking actual data. Some just check leaks and compliance. Some check ahi, some don't. Many are happy with anything under 5. You will need to download the free software and check your own data. Make sure that the settings are working to reduce your events. While most people do better under 5, some need to get it under 2 to feel better.