Is there a way to stop dreams?

[boosmum]

I know that sounds like a silly question, but having never really dreamt before i'm NOT liking the vivid dreams i'm having. Last night was a terrible night with a very graphic horror movie playing out in my head staring me and my daughter!. Most nights though the dreams have been fairly basic and not frightening but still very very vivid.

Is this "normal"? do most people dream like that?

[Kahfree]

I actually love dreaming and dont want to lose them.

[Julie]

You said you haven't dreamt before, but that's just because you don't remember doing it - everyone does it, there are physical ways to prove it happens when it's happening, apart from other ways to test such as with EEG's, etc. I guess though that being new to feeling it, when the dreams are scary, isn't much fun. Hopefully yours will get better, maybe less intense, and maybe you'll welcome them in time, but you may also go back somewhat at least to not being aware of doing it, or only vaguely so. I had crazy ones just prior to starting Cpap, and while I've dreamt my whole life (though certainly not aware of a lot of it), I wouldn't want them to be the whole story!

[Emilia]

If you are dreaming then you are in REM sleep which is when you restore your 'batteries.' As you adjust to dreaming and sleeping through full sleep cycles, this will calm down.

[Cuda]

Thats what my doctor told me. I have been in REM avoidance so long that now that I am finally get some decent nights of rest I am noticing the vivid dreams but in his experience they will calm down and/or I will become accustom to them.

[SnoozyQ]

I had no idea that dreams meant that REM sleep occurred. That's an interesting tidbit to add to my sleep log. I would like to see how that corresponds with numbers and good/bad days,etc.

[jmcanzo]

I could not remember any dreams for several yrs. The night of my titration I had a very vivid dream of ripping out all the wires from the equipment and breaking the cpap hose and machine. So vivid I apologized to the sleep tech for breaking the equipment.... ( I also work at the hospital the study was done at so my dream included the employee who would have to fix the equipment )She looked at me like I was crazy LOL
My 1st study they told me I "slept" 5 hrs. and got 10 mins of rem sleep the entire night.
Now since being on cpap since March 2010 I recall dreams several times a week.

[Lizistired]

I had great dreams last night. I remembered 5 different ones. Still smiling about one of them!

[boosmum]

Thanks everyone, it's reassuring to know it may become less noticeable over time! Most of the dreams lately have been either directly or indirectly related to my daughter and I "escaping" somewhere or from something.... perhaps I should look at what that may represent although I have a feeling I know.....

Anyhow, it's just hit Midnight here in Australia. Today was Australia day and my daughter and I just got home from a day at the lake with friends and a Barbeque followed up by drinks at a friends house. Great day but i'm knackered and off to bed

[SnoozyQ]

That sounds like so much fun! I'm at work and it's rainy and cold!


Maybe try some relaxation exercises before bed to clear your mind and allow good thoughts in before you sleep.
Sweet dreams!!

[jweeks]

I know that sounds like a silly question, but having never really dreamt before i'm NOT liking the vivid dreams i'm having. Last night was a terrible night with a very graphic horror movie playing out in my head staring me and my daughter!. Most nights though the dreams have been fairly basic and not frightening but still very very vivid.

Hi,

Dreaming is good. That means that you are getting good amounts of REM sleep. Your brain might be doing a bit of catch-up now that you can sleep again. I know that I had a number of very vivid dreams after starting on CPAP. Several of them involved poor service in restaurants, where I would eventually start yelling at the wait staff for screwing up so badly. That is so out of character for me that I found it kind of amusing. I have heard that this kind of dreaming is part of the brain doing housekeeping while you are sleeping, such as moving stuff from short term memory to long term memory, making new connections, and working on any vexing issues that have been on your mind. That is just one more reason why it is so important to use your machine to ensure that you do get some good sleep.

I found that I got used to having the dreams, and I generally don't remember them anymore. I did find them to be especially vivid for a few months after starting on CPAP.

I seem to have a second kind of dream that bothers me from time to time, possibly even messing up my sleep. It happens when I have been working on a technical problem or computer code for too long. I end up endlessly analyzing the math formulas or program code in my head for hours at a time, and I cannot turn it off. This sometimes helps because I'll wake up with a new solution to a problem, but the cost is a few bad nights of sleep. I generally take this as a hint that I should step away from the problem for a while and do something else, like one of my hobbies.

-john-

[Borgasmord]

I'm glad to hear that cpap causes vivid dreams because I have been having some doozies! It is like switching to HD TV after years of watching an old color TV.

[Little_Peep]

I keep having these crazy dreams where I am trying to talk to someone and it comes out as a gravelly purr. If I awaken, I am usually breathing through my mouth! Too bad I can't tell myself in my dream that I need to close my mouth!

[rested gal]

I had no idea that dreams meant that REM sleep occurred. That's an interesting tidbit to add to my sleep log. I would like to see how that corresponds with numbers and good/bad days,etc.

Don't ever think just because you wake up in the morning and don't recall dreaming, that that means you didn't have any REM. You almost certainly did, whether you "remember" having dreamt, or not. Just like Julie replied to boosmum:

You said you haven't dreamt before, but that's just because you don't remember doing it - everyone does it, there are physical ways to prove it happens when it's happening, apart from other ways to test such as with EEG's, etc.

If you are getting effective CPAP treatment, it's very likely you won't have any apneas during your REM cycles. If you sleep undisturbed through your REM cycles without waking up during the dream, you probably won't even be aware of having dreamt. You'll wake up in the morning thinking, "Hmmm, I didn't dream last night." When, in fact, you almost surely dreamed a lot. You just slept blissfully through the dreams without being aware of them at all.

While using CPAP, I take "not remembering dreams" as a sign my CPAP was doing a very good job for me all night -- letting REM happen with no apneic interruptions to it.

That said, we can dream in other stages of sleep than just REM. REM is thought to produce the most vivid dreams, while dreams at other times are probably more vague, wispy. So, a person could wake up with a vague recollection of having dreamt and not have had any disturbances to their normal REM cycles.

REM is when the most apneas happen for most people. If CPAP pressure is doing a good job preventing apneas, you probably won't wake up at all during your REM cycles. Unless something else happens to wake you during a REM cycle...something like the alarm clock, car door slamming outside your window, arthritic pain shooting through your shoulder, dog jumping up on your bed, someone turning on the TV, sudden thunder clap, bedroom getting too warm, bed partner turning over jostling the bed... the list could go on and on. Hopefully all those things wouldn't happen at once!

I'm glad to hear that cpap causes vivid dreams because I have been having some doozies! It is like switching to HD TV after years of watching an old color TV.

Well, I wouldn't quite say that cpap causes vivid dreams. Effective CPAP treatment can allow a person to have normal REM cycles. And can allow them to have REM rebound (more REM than normal) for a few nights...if, before they got on CPAP they had been very REM deprived due to apneas continually interfering with getting to (or staying in) REM.

Anyway, hope everyone's dreams are enjoyable... if you do happen to get awakened long enough during one to be aware of it.

As for me... I like waking up in the morning totally unaware of having dreamed at all that night. I know I have dreamed... I simply had no wakeups during one that were long enough wakeups to commit the fact of "having dreamed" to memory.

LINKS to dreaming - dreams - REM rebound
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[secret agent girl]

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