I am very shaken up... centrals, nightmares.. normal?

I once again went back to sleep this morning for a nap for a lousy 4 hours. I was very shaken up when i realized yes while i was sleeping i was in REM definitely my trouble spot. Reason i know is the horrid nightmare i was having where i was shaking, practically crying upon waking up too, and just frightened still am. Based on my nightmares and what it was about "someone passing away" i woke up and checked my data card right away was this nightmare somehow linked to what was going on in my body at the time..very scary for me.

All 11 of these events took place during my "nap" once again thankful i chose to put the mask back on... was debating it.
11 events all centrals, low leaks... all within 20 minutes?











I added the flow charts for the clusters..

See my post below.

Hi mzlaura, glad to hear from you but sorry about your nap from hell. I had a similar experience some time back, was having an especially stressful day and laid down for a nap. The number of "centrals" I had during that short period was way higher than normal. WAY higher. While you're right that people with untreated SA can have bad dreams because of the struggle that their bodies are going through, in my case and I suspect in your case with our naps, it was emotional stress that led to the dream and probably a lot of irregular breathing, restlessness, etc. If you were crying in your dream you may very likely have been holding your breath at times and "confusing" the machine.

What is a typical AHI for the night for you? And what's the normal breakdown of your events (CA, OSA, Hypopnea)? If what happened with your nap is unusual compared to what your night data typically looks like I would conclude that stress hormones (you're going through some tough times these days) made for a restless nap and some whacky readings from your machine. Rely on the info from your nights, over time, to evaluate how well your PAP therapy is going.

Can you blow up the flow rate to a 30 minute window (and perhaps a couple of representative 5s)?

In my experience (or my two cents worth) daytime naps; laying in for an hour in the morning, daydreaming with the mask on; going to bed early and just lying there trying to fall asleep and other such endeavors ARE NOT included in my personal definition of 'real sleep', therefore totally worthless for analysis purposes. I simply discount that time and only look at my hours of actual real sleep, vis a vis, mostly by inspecting my events, flow and and tidal volume waveforms. To learn more, go to my member profile page, then search my posts for "tidal". You'll easily find several of my 'real sleep' analysis techniques. Here's one to get started: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=79688&p=725010&hilit=+tidal#p725010

I realize it is impractical for most folks, but having an ASV machine just for taking daytime naps is a viable alternative to these out-of-data centrals. The older, used PR AutoSV Advanced ASV machines can be had for ~ $600 or so. They use the same basic algorithm as the newer System One ASV machines - just lack the more detailed breath-by-breath data.

Centrals plague me for the first 20 minutes after falling asleep and during the last hour of sleep when dreaming. All in all, these central clusters are killers with some individual ones lasting 95 seconds. A ResMed APAP Auto made it worse. A Resmed ASV Adapt worked wonders and gives me excellent paced breathing with AHI <1, no centrals at all. I still have some hyponeas, but they are well handled by the ASV so that ventilation stays fairly constant.

Bottom line is when we get centrals, asking a CPAP to do the job is like asking a tap dancer to dance the Polka....

Laura, I would also like to see your central's flow chart expanded to show the fine detail of the event cluster you had....

T

I added the flow charts....

Before cpap, I could rarely sleep longer than a half hour at a time.
I had a LOT of REM--all bad. My brain was creating scenarios for the way I felt.
Always strenuous, frustrating, frightening dreams.
I was always running climbing, trying to do the impossible.
I even dreamed my grandson drowned.
All of this disappeared with cpap.
Have hope and patience. Many of us have been there, too.

mzlaura1884 wrote:I added the flow charts....

Can you blow it up to 5 minute window?

This has the appearance of Sleep-Wake junk.

Here this is as far as i could figure out i am still rather new to sleepyhead.

Sorry, mixed it up with this thread:


viewtopic/t82314/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=82 ... 18#p746618

Scratching my head here because I don't remember suggesting increasing the pressure any. Looked back on prior reports and comments but I don't see where I suggested it nor do I see any reason to suggest it.
I stayed out of this discussion because too many cooks spoil the broth and DeltaDave is head cook.

Pugsy wrote

I stayed out of this discussion because too many cooks spoil the broth and DeltaDave is head cook.

Yeah, the head cook Deltadave has a helper , his name starts with an A

Well, may be DeltaDave could say something about those centrals. Nothing is spoiled yet.
I get such clusters of centrals when I take a nap.
But I don't have nightmares. I know someone with an early stage of Parkinson's who have nightmares
and talk them verbally and aloud.

Here is my recent nap showing centrals:



I disregard it b/c I know that I don't have any component of Central Sleep Apnea Syndrome. I check it
by looking at my long term Stats and I see no higher CAIs than OAIs and the CAIs are less than half of the AHIs.
If the OP is interested to see such a long term Stats I am ready to do it.

p.s. Pugsy, I suggest that you remove the remark about DeltaDave, and become friendly with him. Like taking Rested Gal
and teaching her a lot about those sleep clinics procedures, he could do the same with you. It would be important for the benefit
of this website.

mzlaura1884 wrote:I once again went back to sleep this morning for a nap for a lousy 4 hours. I was very shaken up when i realized yes while i was sleeping i was in REM definitely my trouble spot. Reason i know is the horrid nightmare i was having where i was shaking, practically crying upon waking up too, and just frightened still am.

I saw a Nova program the other day where they were discussing that we now realize that dreams don't always occur during REM sleep like we used to think.

CPAP treatment does tend to make some people dream more. Or maybe just remember their dreams better. One other thing is that if you wake up in the middle of a dream or right after, and think about it, you remember it better.

Maybe the change in oxygen, hormones, etc. affects your dreams.

It doesn't seem to be a long term problem for most users.

I wouldn't worry TOO much about it as long as the AHI numbers are low and you do at least take an occasional breath a few times a minute. Also check that your minute vent doesn't get too low. Remember that it's pretty rare for someone to actually apnea themselves to death or serious harm in a single incident or a single night. You'll almost always wake up first. It's the repeated small stresses over and over throughout the night, night after night, month after month, that does the big damage.