How to dream again?

I've been on CPAP for about 10 weeks now. Last week, I had a bad case of gastroenteritis, which prevented me from using my nasal pillows nightly. Oddly enough, when I was off of the CPAP, I had the most vivid dreams and I feel like I haven't dreamed in at least a year. Am I reaching REM sleep? I feel incredibly better on CPAP now, but I have no idea why I don't have dreams or remember the dreams. What is the issue here? Your 2 cents are appreciated here. By the way, my settings are at 8-12cm.

-Alex

cubism_dream wrote:I've been on CPAP for about 10 weeks now. Last week, I had a bad case of gastroenteritis, which prevented me from using my nasal pillows nightly. Oddly enough, when I was off of the CPAP, I had the most vivid dreams and I feel like I haven't dreamed in at least a year. Am I reaching REM sleep? I feel incredibly better on CPAP now, but I have no idea why I don't have dreams or remember the dreams. What is the issue here? Your 2 cents are appreciated here. By the way, my settings are at 8-12cm.

-Alex

On cpap, your therapy is probably doing a good job of keeping you able to breathe so well that you're sleeping blissfully through the REM cycles. You're almost certainly having REM (and dreams) while using CPAP. You're just sleeping well straight through them, 'cause you're breathing well straight through 'em. If CPAP is letting you breathe well during your sleep, you're probably simply not being wakened by an apnea long enough to be aware of (and remember) "dreaming."

LINKS to dreaming - dreams - REM rebound
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I used to remember a lot of dreams before xpap, but I hardly remember having any for the past 1 1/2 years on the hose. I'm just sleeping and feeling much better.

They say we "remember" dreams only when we are awakened during the dream for some reason (even a minor awakening that we don't remember).

Pre Cpap...I rarely had any dreams that I remembered. Come to find out my OSA happens to be worse in REM sleep and just as soon as I get into REM...bam event would wake me so I got minimal REM (no wonder I felt like crap).
Now on the machine I find some nights I remember some of my dreams and some nights it is lights out, nothing till lights on. Don't remember a thing.

I think there are always other possible factors that likely cause those minor awakenings during REM that we don't notice and thus allow us to remember the dreams more often. Like Rested Gal, I imagine that the nights that I don't remember any dreams simply mean I didn't happen to awaken slightly for some unknown reason. I am quite sure that I am dreaming as normal but just sleeping right through them.

That said...there are some meds that do disturb sleep cycles and those might be preventing good REM cycles.
So it wouldn't hurt to research any meds that a person is taking just to make sure that meds aren't messing with sleep cycles.

I can say that I was back to dreaming deeply and vividly during the night after about 4 months on CPAP. I had always dreamed vividly, and often would remember about 1/4 to 1/2 of them, ever since I was a kid. It tapered off and seemed to only happen every few nights up until I started therapy. Now, I'm back to having vivid (but typically quite pleasant) dreams just about every night, and remember many of them after waking up.

TalonNYC wrote:I can say that I was back to dreaming deeply and vividly during the night after about 4 months on CPAP. I had always dreamed vividly, and often would remember about 1/4 to 1/2 of them, ever since I was a kid. It tapered off and seemed to only happen every few nights up until I started therapy. Now, I'm back to having vivid (but typically quite pleasant) dreams just about every night, and remember many of them after waking up.

Talon this sounds exactly like what happened in my case also. Now I'm dreaming constantly and remembering them. It doesn't seem to matter if I have a low AHI or an extremley high one, can still remember most of them.

One thing I have noticed is they are a lot more boring than when I was younger. I actually prefer the racier, interesting, and yes even more frightening dreams of yesteryear. Now days dreaming about work problems, traffic jams, or the broken refrigerator just feels wrong. There ought to be a "Dream law", that when we get older our dreams get better, not worse. Or maybe it's just my lifestyle is not exciting enough these days to support the Wild Dreams I used to enjoy?..... Ok enough, I'm starting to sound like the late great Andy Rooney...

Give it time, mine are slowly getting more exciting and vivid.

In my case before CPAP I had periods of months having distressful dreams EACH night, I was feed up of that.

After starting CPAP almost 2 years ago it has been very rare I have a dream I can remember (3 dreams? only).

Me as Pugsy most of the days I sleep the whole night without waking up, my only souvenir is when I put the head on the pillow and when I woke up in the morning. This is great for me because that happens I fell really rested. At the beginning I was sleeping so profound that I had a hard time waking up when the alarm clock sounded. Now it's easier to wake up with the alarm clock but still I'm not dreaming.

I imagine it depends on each person and maybe how tired you was when you started the treatment?

I went through a period of "not dreaming" when I first started PAPpy. I was surprised because I had very vivid, memorable dreams since I can remember. Often the dreams were like something out of a Stephen King novel. Now, after several months of sleeping well with PAPpy, I am remembering dreams -- wonderful, soul healing dreams.

We all have different experiences in getting used to PAPpy. Give it some time. I hope you will have wonderful dreams yourself.

Kody, dream law is a great idea.

Kody ain't been around in six yrs...

TalonNYC wrote:...snip... I had always dreamed vividly, and often would remember about 1/4 to 1/2 of them, ever since I was a kid. ...snip....

How do you know how many of your dreams you didn't remember???? lol....messing with you.