I woke up startled in the middle of a dream last night

[cmmarti3]

Since I have gone on CPAP, I have never remembered the dreams I have when I am on CPAP. When I was using CPAP on and off at the beginning, I would remember the dreams ONLY if I had them when the mask was off. Last night, for the first time, I was apparently laying on my back and I guess in REM which is not a good combo, and had a bad dream that startled me and something woke me up. I am guessing it was a respiratory event that awakened me, which upset me.

I have had a tough time adjusting to CPAP, and am just able to sleep with it more than one night in a row (though last night's sleep was pretty fragmented) but I've made a commitment to never be in bed without it. I either sleep with the mask, or if my brain doesn't want to cooperate, I don't sleep at all.

I downloaded my Encore Pro waveform report (I have a Dreamstation so Sleepyhead isn't available yet). Should I see that a respiratory event awakened me? Maybe that's why I was so upset when I woke up.

Usually with my CPAP I never, ever remember any dreams. This is a first in two months.

[Julie]

Only you can tell if you see something (an event) around the time you woke up... unless you want to post the graph of that here and we can take a look.

[cmmarti3]

Here is the graph. I woke up startled at 4:45 or so

[cmmarti3]

I guess I don't know how to post graphs. Sorry, I thought it would post. Can someone enlighten me?

[grayghost4]

this will help with posting

https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

[cmmarti3]

I hope this works:

http://i.imgur.com/DJWxTMB.png%3Cblockq ... /script%3E

[WindCpap]

This is probably also the one of the first times you have had a proper sleep on CPAP. I have a lot of dreams now, a lot more than before, and I have had more nightmares. my charts show a doubling of my respiration rates at times just prior to waking up from a nightmare. I don't have any events associated with the awakenings, it is just what happens when I have a really bad dream.

[cmmarti3]

It's interesting I told my mother this morning I only slept 2 hours last night. Then I looked at my report. I slept a lot more than 2 hours. It was fragmented but I can see by my breathing (I think) that I slept again after that awakening as well as before. I thought I had been awake the entire night. It's weird. I don't like the pillow I have right now. It hurts my ears with the Dreamwear mask so i hope the new one I ordered will help.

The dream I had was upsetting. And bizarre. Maybe because I'm finally sleeping with the CPAP. That makes two nights in a row that I actually slept. It used to be that in order to sleep one night with the CPAP, I had to lay awake struggling the evening before. Maybe I am getting closer to having this figured out than I realize.

And again, I never lay in bed without my mask. I took your advice. I would say, although I'm currently a bit sleep deprived, it has served me (my internal organs anyway) well because my body is no longer exposed to the assault that used to happen to it nightly. Now if I can just find a way to fall asleep faster and stay asleep a bit longer, I'll start to feel like a normal human being.

[WindCpap]

So glad you are following through with the plan. I am glad that you are taking control of the things that are within your control. Now, try to let go of the idea that you absolutely must sleep, and you will find yourself sleeping more.