you know why you dreamed it.


I woke up at 0600 this morning and took off my CPAP mask and chin strap.  Settled back into bed to enjoy a Saturday morning and not having to get up for work.

Next thing I know I have a dream where I'm in an empty house with a barrel in the corner with a fire in it.  The fire is making thick smoke and it's getting hard to breath.  I jerk awake and realize I'm apnea'ing (is that a word?) as I was dreaming....dang it.

At least I know my CPAP works and I need it.


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RemStar Pro M-Series with C-Flex jamming 10 cm H20 down my piehole And finally getting a good night's sleep...every night!!!! I'm a 46 year old FMAWG...and proud of it.

I am 61 and have been having dreams for many decades about being drowned, being waterboarded, floods coming up, etc.  I just got diagnosed now. Previously I thought these dreams were just bad dreams, but now I know better.  

Incidentally, I live near a flood plain and have been having increasing problems with flood waters rising for the last 3 years, just as my apnea was getting worse-----Oh well, coincidences DO happen! But it certainly does make for some confusion.

Of course, Caroline, you haven't been breathing so you couldn't blow back the flood waters!  Problem solved!

I am 51 and was just diagnosed with SA two days ago. But as long as I can remember I've had dreams where I can't breathe. I try to call for help and can't. In some of the dreams I am under water. Now I wonder if I have had SA for all these years???

I'm 48 and was diagnosed 15 months ago.  The only dream I had prior to CPAP for years was a reoccurring one where I was floating above myself.  I could see myself laying there sleeping.  I was always surprised at how easy it was to float above the room.

When I was diagnosed with OSA, my sleep tech said I had an AHI of 87/hour and I would stop breathing for up to 2 minutes at a time.  My blood oxygen saturation level was 61%.

Based upon that, I'd say I was pretty close to dying many times during the nights and these dreams were trying to tell me something.  (My dad passed away in his sleep 19 years ago before there was such an awareness of sleep apnea.  My mother had passed earlier that year but she used to say that dad stopped breathing quite often while he slept.  They were both in their early 50's.

I have just been Dx'd and have had my BiPAP only a week. I have had several dreams in the past where I couldn't breathe and would go looking for my puffer(in the dream) I then would wake myself and precede to fall back asleep into the same dream. Over and over. Freaked me out!
Jules


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Respironics BiPAP Auto M-Series
M-Series Remstar Heated Humidifier
Pressure 18/12 with 2 lpm Oxygen
Small Comfort Gel Nose Mask
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When I had my first sleep study, I dreamt I was underwater and couldn't breathe. I woke up gasping. When I got my study results later, I noticed during my REM sleep, I had a 10 second apnea. I guess my body was trying to tell me to wake up. Although I wish it would be a tad more direct at it...  

On occasion, I have dreams ot being underwater or dreams of not being able to catch my breath. I have tested negative for OSA/UARS, so it has been attributed to excess saliva.  

actually it was a nightmare.  I was so scared and was trying to scream but then I remembered I had the nasal mask on and I wasn't supposed to open my mouth.  I ended up screaming with my lips pressed together.  It sounded like an elephant trumpeting!

I was having an interesting dream. Lots of driving to an office building in a far away city. I would park my car in the parking lot and then walk into this building. I don't remember what I was doing in the building. I believe I went to the cafeteria. Then I walked into an adjoining building.

Because I was far from home, I was staying with relatives (whom I didn't recognize but felt I was related to them).  I would navigate to this building using my portable GPS unit.  I did this routine at least two different "days".   At the end of the day, part of my dream was driving back to my relatives house by following the GPS.

In my dream, the third time I visited this place, it was more like a college campus building.  When I got back to my car, all the windows were smashed in, glass was everywhere, and my GPS unit had been stolen!  I was on the cell phone calling my wife to tell her that I would be late coming home because I had to clean up all the broken glass when I woke up.

My car was broken into about six months ago while parked at work and my GPS unit was taken.  In real life, the thiefs only smashed in one window.  I guess I am still reacting to that traumatic event...

Had another OSA related dream...

I took my mask off at 0600 one morning so I could lay in bed and enjoy a sleepy morning.  

Next thing I know I'm having a dream of being about 20 feet underwater scuba diving and I've run out of air.  Trying to inhale and can't, feels like my chest is ion a vise.

I woke myself up gasping and realized how much I really need that damn CPAP....


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RemStar Pro M-Series with C-Flex jamming 10 cm H20 down my piehole And finally getting a good night's sleep...every night!!!! I'm a 46 year old FMAWG...and proud of it.

Apnea nightmares are common.  I have them too (pre-CPAP and if I fall asleep without it, bad Vicki).  I was in a dream workshop once where there was a woman who was a recovering addict.  She had a dream where she was in a car but the front and rear ends of the car were smooched up tightly against her body.  Everyone interpreted it to mean that she was moving neither forward or backward in her life.  I, knowing the nature of apnea dreams, asked her if she had ever been tested for OSA.  She said “yes I have it but I will never use that thing” (meaning a CPAP).  

So if you ever talk to people who are having dreams about suffocating, drowning, etc. ask them if they have ever been evaluated for OSA.

Vicki


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Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.
Marilyn Von Savant

That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

I too one night a couple of weeks ago had a dream in which for some reason my husband was trying to put his CPAP mask on ME--and no matter what he did or how he messed with the controls i could NOT breathe--it freaked me out! I haven't been dxed yet although it's suspected--don't know for sure yet. i also had another dream a month or so before that inwhich i was sitting at my desk and someone came up from behind and tried to strangle me with a pillow--i know they're just dreams but just weird.

I didn't remember my dreams, but would wake up trying to catch my breath and be terrified, thinking I must have had a nightmare.  Now I realize, I was just gasping for breath!

It is really amazing how our minds work.  I also have dreams in which I am doing something with family, like riding a bike or something, and I keep telling them my hip hurts, I have to stop.  Soon, I wake up in tears, because my hip really is hurting.  


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RemStar Plus M-Series withC-Flex--Pressure of 9
On CPAP since September 12, 2008

I have a dream book stuffed with drowning, suffocating, choking, stabbing, you name it.  I got Dx'd two years ago, at age 66, and haven't had a real bad one since. Even with chronic mask problems. Tho I'll still get stress dreams, like not able to get a phone to work. And sometimes I awake to find my mask on the floor, not sure what goes on there. A friend's doctor wanted her to be tested and I asked if she had those kind of bad dreams. Never, so I said she probably didn't have it. Test was negative.