Remembering dreams on a lower pressure

[snoozecruze]

I've been using cpap now for just over a yr. I was initially setup on a pressure of 9 and I was remembering my dreams almost always. A few months later my nurse practitioner increased my pressure to 10. However then i stopped remembering my dreams.
4/5 days ago I put the pressure back down to 9 which was what I was setup with during my sleep study anyway. Well what to you know I'm starting to remember my dreams again.

Even on the lower pressure of 9 my AHI is around 1.5. I’m thinking that the NP increased my pressure maybe a little too soon before I got fully used to cpap?

My question is, am I sleeping better now that I’m remembering my dreams again?

[Lukie]

Remembering dreams is an interesting but complex topic. I find many things can affect how I remember dreams. Sometimes just turning over in bed can cause me to forget a dream and turning back to the original position can allow me to retrieve it. When you begin CPAP you get a few weeks of REM rebound or to me it seemed like REM catch up during which time you spend much more time in REM sleep and dream a lot more. Later on things even out and you spend less time in REM. This could be what is happening to you and it is just a coincidence that your pressure was changed and your dreaming stopped or resumed.
Perhaps at a lighter pressure you do not sleep as deeply and wake up in time to catch a dream or two. I'm not remembering dreams as much now as at the beginning of CPAP but my pressure has not changed.

[BlackSpinner]

Most of those AHI could be happening during REM sleep so that you wake up to remember them - not good. In order to remember a dream you need to wake up and process it.

[Sheriff Buford]

If it was me, I would concentrate more on how well I felt as opposed to the dream-thang'. My goal is to treat my apnea, but find my "sweet-spot" that makes me feel better during the day. I may tweak my pressures if I kept gettin' a beautiful-blonde-dream at a certain pressure...

Sheriff

[nanwilson]

I may tweak my pressures if I kept gettin' a beautiful-blonde-dream at a certain pressure...

Sheriff

You may tweak your pressure to get more of the beautiful blonde dream .....you mean. Mrs. Sheriff is going to whap you one upside the head if she sees this

[Wulfman...]

I've been using cpap now for just over a yr. I was initially setup on a pressure of 9 and I was remembering my dreams almost always. A few months later my nurse practitioner increased my pressure to 10. However then i stopped remembering my dreams.
4/5 days ago I put the pressure back down to 9 which was what I was setup with during my sleep study anyway. Well what to you know I'm starting to remember my dreams again.

Even on the lower pressure of 9 my AHI is around 1.5. I’m thinking that the NP increased my pressure maybe a little too soon before I got fully used to cpap?

My question is, am I sleeping better now that I’m remembering my dreams again?

Not necessarily. You can "dream" in any sleep stage. If you're remembering them, that would indicate you were probably in a lighter sleep stage (REM is one of those). Part of it depends on how many hours you're sleeping, when you're waking up and remembering them. Most REM stages increase the longer you sleep. So, if you're cognizant of them after many hours of sleep that might not be a bad thing. However, if you're waking up at about 90 minutes to two hours (the typical length of sleep cycles), that might not be all that good.

For me, "remembering" some dreams or that I have dreamed kind of goes in cycles. Here lately, I've been cognizant of having dreams. But, I've been getting quite a bit of sleep, too. And, my average AHI is about 0.3 - 0.4. I enjoy (?) the dreams, but I'd take the lower AHI to remembering dreams any day.


Den

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[ironhands]

bingo - dreams happen at other stage. I remember someone telling me that it's possible to tell the stage based on certain factors. If the dream has people you know, places, it's REM, but if it's just generic people, it's often in another stage. I can't verify that with any accuracy however.

After 2 weeks on CPAP, it's hard to say where I'm at when it comes to dreams. I had longer ones last night, and the night before, but a few months ago (no cpap) I was having really vivid dreams every hour or so and waking up. Both of my PSG's have now shown very little REM sleep, the first I went into REM within 8 minutes, the second I didn't hit REM for almost 3 hours.

I will say though, that my dreams feel LONGER while on the machine. It's hard to say though, brain hasn't worked well in years with this damned fog I'm swimming through.

I remember having a dream during my MSLT. I was asleep for one minute.

Fell asleep in the first round of the MSLT 3 times for <1 minute as well, and once in the 3rd with the same <1, not enough to qualify as sleep. Gotta love microsleeps.

[-tim]

If you had a zeo sleep monitor, It would be interesting to see how your sleep data in both cases. The machine has a 9.5 setting too.