Strange Dreams since using the CPAP

[kildare1]

I have been using the CPAP machine since August 2011. Since using the machine, I have strange dreams every night that make no sense and are driving me crazy. I have reached a point where I hate the thought of going to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this?

[PST]

I have been using the CPAP machine since August 2011. Since using the machine, I have strange dreams every night that make no sense and are driving me crazy. I have reached a point where I hate the thought of going to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this?

I have not experienced it myself, but it makes sense that it should happen to some people. Sleep apnea is sufficiently disturbing to sleep patterns that people with it may spend little time in so-called REM sleep, the stage in which dreams occur. CPAP makes dreams possible; something else is making them strange.

[RocketGirl]

i also experienced strange dreams when I started last October. The strange ones have now tapered off, but I do often awaken in the morning with a recollection of having dreamed - which had not otherwise happened for at least twenty years prior to starting cpap.

When I was having the strange dreams, I chalked it up to a very tired mind with several decades' worth of sleep deficit suddenly being allowed to do what minds do when they really sleep.

Coincidentally, my strange dreams tapered off at exactly the same rate as my need for extra sleep tapered off - when I first started, I seemed to need 9 or 10 hours of sleep every night, sometimes even more. (I once slept soundly for 13 hours!) Now almost six months in, I awaken naturally after about 7-1/2 hours.

[emeraude]

I have been using the CPAP machine since August 2011. Since using the machine, I have strange dreams every night that make no sense and are driving me crazy. I have reached a point where I hate the thought of going to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this?

I have not experienced it myself, but it makes sense that it should happen to some people. Sleep apnea is sufficiently disturbing to sleep patterns that people with it may spend little time in so-called REM sleep, the stage in which dreams occur. CPAP makes dreams possible; something else is making them strange.

Hello,
I've been on my CPAP for 5 years now, with a daily dose of Depas (muscle relaxant) and Benzalin (sleeping pill) to knock me out when I go to bed. I should stop, but it's difficult to fall asleep without them. I have not had any memories of my dreams for last 5 years now, though I'm sure I've had a lot of them. I'm not recommending any medication unless you have seen your doctor. Hope you are able to get some sleep soon.

Emeraude

[chunkyfrog]

I'm just the opposite:
Before PAP--bizarre, strenuous, sometimes violent dreams.
Now, I hardly remember any.
I wonder if data might lend a clue.
Have you tried mentally directing the content of your dreams?
I forget the name for it, but after a little practice, I can go back to sleep and have a mulligan on one that needed a better ending.

[BlackSpinner]

I have been using the CPAP machine since August 2011. Since using the machine, I have strange dreams every night that make no sense and are driving me crazy. I have reached a point where I hate the thought of going to sleep. Has anyone else experienced this?

What is your AHI? If you are having more apneas during the REM cycle and you are waking up, that is not good. You only remember dreams if you wake up. I would look carefully at my data and check when the wakeups happen. If you don't have a data capable machine then carefully try increasing the pressure a little bit every week and keep a journal. If these are dreams with which you wake up with in the morning then there is no problem.

Also if you were not having REM sleep before, you will have what is called REM rebound. Kind of like sleep debt, you have to make it up to clean up your memory and brain function.

[burc2006]

I started seeing dreams after starting CPAP therapy, some are strange but this makes me happy. I started dreaming again

[VVV]

I only worry about people who have rational dreams.

[Slartybartfast]

Do the dreams have anything to do with being smothered, underwater, underground, etc. that might indicate you're not getting enough O2? I had lots of those before going on the hose and passed them off as "just dreams." Now I understand what they meant. If your settings are wrong and you're not getting enough air, that could be your body telling you something's wrong. Do you have a recording pulse oximeter? A night with one would confirm whether you're getting enough oxygen while you're sleeping.

[VikingGnome]

Oh, if only I could dream again. During my sleep study I had no REM sleep and it's been a very long time since I had a dream. I think my lack of REM sleep is the cause of my continuing EDS (I have my 60-day check-up with sleep doc tomorrow). My antidepressant, Effexor, is infamous for suppressing REM sleep. I think it's time for a new medication.

[Slartybartfast]

There's a difference between dreaming and remembering that you dreamt. It is said that in order for you to remember that you dreamt, you must awaken briefly during your dream, so recalling your dreams may indicate that you were not sleeping as soundly as you might think to be the case.

[VVV]

It is important to recognize when you are remembering dreams. If you remember them from many times throughout the night then something is interrupting your sleep and if you have sleep apnea it is likely that breathing events are doing the interrupting. This is one of the reasons it is so important to have your own CPAP software (or sleepyhead). Use it to troubleshoot events and mask leaks.

I typically remember two dreams each night. The first dream is upon an awakening during the middle of the night and the second dream is upon a final awakening when it is time to rise.

I consider this nearly ideal because 1) there is only one undesired awakening and 2) with both nightly awakenings I am coming out of dreams which is a good indication of achieving REM sleep.

Footnote: We do dream in all stages of sleep so dreaming is not a certain indication of REM.

[BlackSpinner]

Footnote: We do dream in all stages of sleep so dreaming is not a certain indication of REM.

Yes this. But REM dreams tend to be more serious and challenging even nightmarish. So if you are waking to happy dancing in the pretty meadow with attractive partners, then it is probably not a REM dream. But if you are waking up after trying to re-write an exam naked after you forgot to go to the class and there are alligators and guns involved then it is probably a REM dream.

[VVV]

You are forgetting that I have very bad memories of the shallow, spoiled beauty queens I dated in my youth and very fond memories of working my way through college wrestling alligators on stage, studying effectively during the long lulls between shows, and running nude with my frat brothers across campus firing our rifles as we passed the Dean's house.

Thank goodness things were not so politically correct in the fifties.

[rottyjohn]

Hello All,

Really interesting post to me. I had much the same experience. Been on CPAP now for almost 9 months. Prior to CPAP I almost never had any knowledge of a dream. Maybe as a kid but certainly not for the last several years? Starting at my sleep study and pretty much ever since have been having dreams off and on. Not with any particular frequency but often and most times it's more that I realize i had dream than the specific dream. But sometimes i do remember a dream. I now get between 6-7 hrs of sleep nightly. Prior to that I never got more than 3 hrs at a time... often up several times a night.