Scattered thoughts?

[67tony]

I'm a month on the machine and getting decent sleep, a pretty consistent 7 hours per night. Trouble is, from about 6:00 on, I lay awake with some very random thoughts bouncing around my mind. These musings are scattered and confused, and I'm unable to go back to sleep even though I'd like to. I'm totally fine the rest of the day, mentally and physically, but this period of the day is kind of worrying me.

1) Is this a side effect that anyone else has had with OSA?
2) Or, a result of having my thyroid removed last April- even though my TSH numbers are in a normal range?
3) Or, since it is strong in my family, am I getting early-onset Alzheimers!? (I'm 58...)

I'm thinking that #2 and #3 are unlikely, but wonder how OSA could cause this, especially since I am now on the machine and sleeping mostly straight through the night.

[Lizistired]

Did this not happen before cpap?
Do you have the reports from your PSG?
It sounds exactly like the reason I asked for a sleep study. I would wake up thinking really wierd stuff that as I awoke, made no sense at all.
During my PSG most of my apneas were during REM and I had oxygen desaturations as low as 81%. I think it is disrupted REM sleep. I also had some 300 spontaneous arousals, so I wasn't getting much REM anyway.

[chunkyfrog]

Some possibilies:
Since your sleep is more continuous now, is it possible that you are now getting enough sleep in less time?
Your cushion/pillows may need a quick wipe-down--this is when mine gets sweaty and tends to wake me.
I also turn on the radio and listen if I don't have to get up. I don't worry about getting back to sleep.
If I need it, it will happen.
Others have more knowledge about the other issues.
Welcome to the forum.

[ameriken]

I have no clue, but I'm just wondering if it just means that your body is rested, needs no more sleep, and it's time to get up? Perhaps the random thoughts are just there because you're bouncing between sleep and being awake...kinda like you're still asleep enough for your subconscious to do it's thing while you're awake enough to realize what it's doing?

[carbonman]

These musings are scattered and confused, and I'm unable to go back to sleep even though I'd like to. I'm totally fine the rest of the day, mentally and physically, but this period of the day is kind of worrying me.

This very thing started for me once I got my therapy stabilized,
and continues to this very morning.
I think it is because your body/brain have had enough sleep.
During this time for me, I drift in and out of sleep and have
really strange sometimes disturbing dreams, until I get up.
It is really time that is not well spent.

We forget that the sleep hygiene that we strive to make
consistent during the work week needs to carry over to the weekend.
But, weekends have always been for "sleeping in" as it were,
pre-cpap, when you "catch up" on your sleep.
Of course, your body doesn't work that way, but we want it to.

Sounds like to me you're cruis'n on down the road just fine.
Just more of that habit changing discipline that cpap requires.

[snoringshrink]

First off, I'm assuming you mean six in the morning? Many people find that their minds are much more relaxed in the times immediately before and after sleep and it's not that unusual to experience some pretty loose cognitive events even including some hallucinations. To my mind, the key here is that you identify your functioning during the day as being normal. My guess, not having actually seen you, is that you are making your first forays into the world of normal waking up. If it continues or if your normal functioning declines, then you could consult your physician. I hope this helps.

[67tony]

Great info, as usual...thanks for all the replies.

I don't know much about oxygen desaturation, but I assume it doesn't apply to me since they never mentioned it. They only talked about the 67 events per hour I experienced, and that I had a pretty severe case of OSA. I go in again in mid-January, and I will be asking a lot more questions about my particular case.

Hopefully this is a short-term phenomenon. I will try not to obsess or lose sleep over it!

[Elle]

I spent the first half hour after waking thinking of comebacks for the fight I was having in my dream.....it is a time of dream/wake that is confusing. I think I am groggier at first waking than I was pre-cpap but then I feel more rested the rest of the day.

[ameriken]

Great info, as usual...thanks for all the replies.

I don't know much about oxygen desaturation, but I assume it doesn't apply to me since they never mentioned it. They only talked about the 67 events per hour I experienced, and that I had a pretty severe case of OSA. I go in again in mid-January, and I will be asking a lot more questions about my particular case.

Hopefully this is a short-term phenomenon. I will try not to obsess or lose sleep over it!

I think the fact that you're getting 7 hours solid and consistent sleep combined with feeling good during the day is the main factor that indicates you are most likely doing well. Good luck!

[Mary Z]

Maybe it's just time to get up at 6 and you would be musing if you laid in bed later anyway. Worry about Alzheimers (I have heasrd) when you leave the car keys in the fridge, though with your family history I don't mean to sound flip- I have early onset dementia since 2005. It's encouraging since you feel ok during the rest of the day.
Good luck to you.