I'm finally getting used to CPAP -- NOW THIS!?

[Bama Ryan]

I've been on CPAP since October and really within the last few weeks have I been able to stay asleep through the night. I've been able to get 6-7 hours of therapy a night or more. *cheering*

But now that I'm actually sleeping through the night I've been having some of the freakiest and most vivid dreams ever! Is this a known side-effect of CPAP therapy but it's strange. Melatonin is the only sleep aid I use and that's not an every night thing. What gives? It's freaky!

If a few crazy a$$ dreams are what I have to deal with for having a restful night's sleep I'm willing to make the tradeoff lol.

[chunkyfrog]

Just the other way around--all my weird and wacky came before.
--or I just don't remember now, as I no longer awaken close to REM.
You had probably been REM-deprived, as many are before pap.
My suspicion: you are getting caught up on your REM sleep.
I had REM before, but it was very disturbed, now I sleep until I forget.

[Paul56]

Dreaming is like going to the movies every night... personally I cannot
wait for the next show to start.

[Sheriff Buford]

My dreams go thru spurts. When I first started cpap therapy, I had great dreams... then they got scary... now they are boring.... want to go back to the great dreams (Marilyn Monroe... where have you been??)

Sheriff

[RocketGirl]

But now that I'm actually sleeping through the night I've been having some of the freakiest and most vivid dreams ever! Is this a known side-effect of CPAP therapy but it's strange. Melatonin is the only sleep aid I use and that's not an every night thing. What gives? It's freaky!

Roger that. For my first month or so on CPAP last fall, I had astonishingly vivid dreams. Some were lots of fun, some made me go "Huh? What was THAT all about?" and others were straight out of Stephen King's notebooks. It has all settled down now.

I don't know whether it was that I'd always had such dreams but didn't remember them, or whether I was just seriously REM-deprived. I suspect the latter, since both my good sleep studies showed zero REM.

Now I wish I'd written some of them down

[archangle]

Melatonin increases my weird dream index.

It wouldn't be surprising if decreased apneas changes your sleep patterns and dreaming.

I believe that I remember dreams a lot better if I wake up fairly quickly after a dream. If something gets me up suddenly, I remember the dreams a lot better than when I wake up and just lie there doing nothing for a while. Maybe you are just remembering dreams better because you go from dream sleep to awake faster on CPAP.

[kteague]

I have not had a good experience with taking 3mg of Melatonin as the few times I tried that dose my dream content was quite agitated. I bumped it back to taking 1/4 of a pill then worked up to 1/2 and my dreams are active but not distressingly so. The other times I've experienced bad dreams after using cpap were when my pressure was too low and when my ramp was set too low and too long. Both of these scenarios likely allowed apnea events of the magnitude to trigger alarming dreams. Just my interpretation of my experiences.

P.S. Because of my bad dream tendencies, I have to be protective of what I expose myself to in my waking hours. I couldn't even finish watching the last Planet of the Apes once it got real aggressive as I knew it would manifest in my dreams.

[Gaga58]

P.S. Because of my bad dream tendencies, I have to be protective of what I expose myself to in my waking hours. I couldn't even finish watching the last Planet of the Apes once it got real aggressive as I knew it would manifest in my dreams.

Just so you know....it ended really well!!!

[cindjo717]

I used to have vivid crazy dreams before c pap, they definitely have calmed down since I started it.

[RandyJ]

Ditch the melatonin and see how it goes after a few days with none in your system.