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Can a dream wake you up
#1
Can a dream wake you up
It has always been my opinion that apnea or other outside events were the cause for interrupted sleep. I feel I have found my “sweet spot” with an AHI consistently less than .5 but I still wake up often. I feel great and seem to be getting enough sleep but my dreams are getting very vivid and strange. Many are violent but many are just strange. They are not the type you want to continue after waking so I have to get out of bed and completely reset. Their not so much frightening, just not pleasant. 

Question: is this price we pay for good deep sleep?
CPAP is a journey like “The Wizard of Oz”. It’s a long slow journey. You will face many problems and pick up many friends along the way. Just because you reach the poppies, it doesn’t mean you are in Kansas. 
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#2
RE: Can a dream wake you up
I thought I was the only one who felt that way.  

I normally wake up from a dream.  Then it ticks me off because it woke me up. Sad   Then I can't get back to sleep.  My dreams are not frightening, but just strange.
OpalRose
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#3
RE: Can a dream wake you up
Awakening from REM or a dream is not unusual, in fact I think it is probably more unusual to have no awakenings at night, especially as we get older. I just relax and let sleep come back when it may. It helps that I'm not having to get up to go to a stressful job.
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#4
RE: Can a dream wake you up
If the dream is unusual in some way, I will often awaken.  Usually, if I do awaken, it's to turn over and decide, half-asleep already, where to take the dream from 'here'.

I was plagued by nightmares in my youth.  One day I decided I was the boss of my dreams and that I was going to turn into something even worse to scare off the monsters.  It worked!!!  The monsters quickly became conciliatory people who really had no stomach for a fight.  Cool
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#5
RE: Can a dream wake you up
I've had strange dreams since beginning xPAP.

All my life, dreams sometimes wake me up.
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#6
RE: Can a dream wake you up
I Have had Vivid dreams for years. I recently found out that some people who have Vivid dreams can control and steer the dream. They actually enjoy the dreams. I too have awakened wondering why am I dreaming crazy stuff, but haven't figured how to shape the dream yet ?? I started CPAP because I was waking from my Vivid dreams with adrenal surging that was causing BP of over 200/140 and very fast pounding racing pulse. I thought the dreams were causing it at first but found out I was having so many apneas that my O2 sat was in the low 70's % from very long periods of not breathing. Not to mention snoring like a chainsaw. Long story short I was over 100# over weight. I've lost about 60# dieting since I started CPAP and haven't had an adrenal High BP episode since the first night of CPAP almost 4 months ago. Very little snoring now also. I have no doubts that I was on the way of checking out and believe CPAP and dieting has for now saved my life. CPAP is a PITA to me but a heck of a lot better than the alternative. I still am having Vivid crazy dreams but not as often. If I could only learn to control them. Some are pretty good dreams!!
Ron
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#7
RE: Can a dream wake you up
I like the idea of steering a dream. A dream I have often is about not being able to find my parked car. It has a number of variations but it never ends up with me finding my car. If I could steer it to a positive result it would be interesting to see what might change in my life.
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#8
RE: Can a dream wake you up
(08-27-2018, 03:36 AM)holden4th Wrote: I like the idea of steering a dream. A dream I have often is about not being able to find my parked car. It has a number of variations but it never ends up with me finding my car. If I could steer it to a positive result it would be interesting to see what might change in my life.

Losing things is very common for me too, and, yes, I wake before I find then. Until last night. I found the item just moments before I woke.
Most of the time, as I am waking up, I am conscious enough to realize nothing is lost and remind myself I do not have to look any more. Maybe this is a start to steering dreams. 

Thanks for the input.
CPAP is a journey like “The Wizard of Oz”. It’s a long slow journey. You will face many problems and pick up many friends along the way. Just because you reach the poppies, it doesn’t mean you are in Kansas. 
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#9
RE: Can a dream wake you up
Steering a dream sounds a lot like what is called Lucid dreaming. I have experienced this type of dreaming since I was in my teens. when I have periods of sleep / wake junk, drifting in and out of consciousness I often have a continuing a dream over which I am able to have limited control. I can recall details of these dreams, at least for a short time and can often continue them after a short bathroom break. They are sometimes useful for planning trips or obtaining a new perspective or understanding of problem - but most of the time they are just entertaining.
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#10
RE: Can a dream wake you up
this is liable to sound a little weird but then dreams are weird. dreaming is weird. dreams are usually uniquely personal but because what I'm about to describe is apnea related, or so I believe, and not related to dream content, I'm curious to know if anyone else has had this weird dreaming experience.

I was about to say that I rarely dream; or I rarely remember them. I attribute that to fragmented sleep, rarely sleeping long enough to reach a dream state. the only dreams I occasionally remember tend to be when in that light sleep wake state, immediately before waking up. which is probably where my consciousness was during the dreams described below.

so then I thought back to before cpap. severe apnea, both obstructive and central, plus periodic limb movements. I thrashed a lot. audio recordings have me making all kinds of tortured breathing noises, moaning, groaning, complaining, swearing, thumping, kicking, hitting myself, you name it. I do remember dreaming during all that activity. the interesting thing about those dreams is that they were repetitive. I think apnea, diminished O2 and the struggle to breathe stimulated the dream, which would end as the apnea ended, resuming again with the next apnea. it's hard to describe but I think that repetition of the same dream made me think of them as some kind of enclosure like a box or a closed room or a limited category of ideas or thought; discrete, finite, limited, bounded. it felt like the boundaries were distinct from the dream. they contained the dream. I don't think those dreams ever reached any kind of resolution or conclusion. the dreams were often the same or similar from night to night. my sense is there were a few, but only a few story lines. weird I know.

upon awakening (actually, even in between the repetitions), I always knew (believed I knew) I had been deep into apnea when I had these short repetitive dreams.

to try to respond to the OP's initial question: I think dreams can wake us up; I remember waking to nightmares and sleepwalking as a child. I remember disappoinment when a really great dream was cut short by waking up (although I guess that doesn't necessarily mean the dream woke me up). I always wake up just as I'm about to lose my grip and fall from that great height (or similar). however, with respect to these apnea dreams I've tried to describe, I think the apnea caused arousals and awakenings, not the dream. I continue to have severely disrupted sleep but I am not aware of dreams being the cause. rather, I strongly suspect disordered breathing. (other's suspect sleep hygiene issues.)
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