Nightmares with CPAP?

hello!

I’ve always been one to have nightmares, I often have hallucinations when I wake up (I am in my room but I’m seeing things like spiders crawling on the wall or a shadow person). I believe they are called hypnopompic hallucinations.

Recently I have had nightmares about my cpap. I’ll see things on the ceiling of my room (I am still sleeping) and something will urge me (it feels like someone is telling me without saying anything ) to take off the CPAP Mask or I’ll die. And then I take it off and it disrupts the rest of my sleep?

Has anyone dealt with this?

what are you smoking.

Welcome, salon09. Do the experiences of being urged to take the mask off occur as you're starting to wake up during the night? And are you aware of taking the mask off when you respond to these urgings?

Two approaches come to my mind. One is to take steps to prevent yourself from removing the mask when you experience the urgings. One trick is to fasten strips of surgical-type tape over you mask straps so that the tug on your skin will wake you up before you take the mask off.

Another approach might be to talk with your primary care physician or your sleep doctor about both the nightmares and the hypnopompic experiences. You should explain that one concern is this new one about taking your mask off. I imagine another is simply that nightmares and hypnopompic hallucinations are unpleasant and disruptive to good sleep. It's conceivable a doctor might recommend some changes to medications you may be taking or might want to explore the question whether you have some kind of narcoleptic or REM sleep disorder. (I'm just getting that off the internet!)

salon09 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:42 am

hello!

I’ve always been one to have nightmares, I often have hallucinations when I wake up (I am in my room but I’m seeing things like spiders crawling on the wall or a shadow person). I believe they are called hypnopompic hallucinations.

Recently I have had nightmares about my cpap. I’ll see things on the ceiling of my room (I am still sleeping) and something will urge me (it feels like someone is telling me without saying anything ) to take off the CPAP Mask or I’ll die. And then I take it off and it disrupts the rest of my sleep?

Has anyone dealt with this?

The first thing to check is the effectiveness of your CPAP therapy. What is your AHI and leak level?

My first nights, years ago, with CPAP produced nightmares. I would wake to find the full face mask and head gear off me even though the straps were connected. I tried yanking off the headgear without removing straps from the mask while awake and could not do it.

In one dream, that spider looking creature in the movie Alien had grabbed my face, but I managed to pull it off before a baby alien was inserted. In the next dream I was diving in Belize when an octopus about the size of the Alien monster wrapped around my face. I again managed to pull it off before I suffocated. Mask and headgear yanked off again in sleep. These dreams reoccured.

I thought cpap was not going to work out for me. I decided to try to day dream myself to sleep and hope continue the dream in sleep. The scenario of the day-dream, as I was hoping to fall asleep, was being part of a flight crew on a super high altitude jet like the SR Blackbird. I slipped on my high altitude oxygen mask to take a turn for some sleep during the long flight. It worked! I kept in mind that to survive the altitude of the flight, I had to have my jet pilot mask on, it was a comfort to know I had it on as it supplied air to me. Okay...that's crazy, but I was desperate and it worked yet still, once in a while I will pull the mask off in my sleep.

salon09 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 23, 2022 10:42 am

hello!

I’ve always been one to have nightmares, I often have hallucinations when I wake up (I am in my room but I’m seeing things like spiders crawling on the wall or a shadow person). I believe they are called hypnopompic hallucinations.

Recently I have had nightmares about my cpap. I’ll see things on the ceiling of my room (I am still sleeping) and something will urge me (it feels like someone is telling me without saying anything ) to take off the CPAP Mask or I’ll die. And then I take it off and it disrupts the rest of my sleep?

Has anyone dealt with this?

I would suggest going to see a neurologist. This most certainly is not normal.