CASE REPORT

Meditative Central Apneas During Lucid

Dreaming?
Satish C Rao, M.D., M.S.

56 year old successful corporate attorney recommended positional therapy.

A presented to the sleep cHnic for many
years of witnessed apneas, snort arousals and
mild snoring only in the supine position.
These came to medical attention now
because his wife thought it should be
assessed as a relative was recently diagnosed
with sleep apnea. He was not sleepy
whatsoever, and slept well for eight hours
each night. His past medical history was
unremarkable. Physical exam revealed a tall,
lean and athletic man with a moderately
narrow oropharynx due to tongue position.
There was some mild erythema on the uvula
and soft palate. Otherwise, the exam was
normal.
Polysomnography was performed and
showed an overall apnea-hypopnea index of
three. Disordered breathing events emerged
frequently in the supine position. He was
instructed to maintain his weight and
During his return for sleep study results,
he remarked that he has had vivid dreams
and excellent dream recall since childhood.
Furthermore, he was a lucid dreamer and
became lucid periodically. During some of
the lucid dreams he interacts with relatives
who have passed away, such as his father or
an uncle. During those conversations he will
hsten to their words so closely that it
becomes a "meditative" or "spiritual"
experience as he does not want to miss even
a single word they are saying to him. During
these periods, he sometimes notices he will
"forget to breathe" because of the profound
state of relaxation the feeling creates. One of
these lucid dreams transpired the night of the
polysomnogram. There was a single central
apnea during a REM period (figure). It is
unknown if his dream occurred during that
specific REM period.

REFERENCES
¡. Tang H, Sharma N, Whyte KF. Lucid dreaming duiing Multiple
Sleep Utency Test (MSLT). Sleep Med. 2006; 7(5):462-3.

Address reprint requests to: Satish C. Rao. M.D., M.S.,

Center for Sleep Medicine, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW
Rochester, Minnesota 55905
rao.satish@mayo.edu
507.266.7456

Accepted May 17.2009

Sleep and Hypnosis, 11:1, 2009 27

Meditative central apneas during lucid dreaming?

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51 S1 S1 51 50 50 H 50 5Ï » 53 M M 54 S S3 53

Figure 1. Cannels 1-2:electro-oculogram (note: respiratory artifact in electrode Fpz), channels 6-7: EMG,
channel 8: ECG, channel 9: thermocouple, channel 10: nasal pressure, channel! 11: sonogram, channel 12: pulse oximeter,
channel 13-15 thoracic, abdominal and summed Respitrace (note: cardioballistic artifact during central apnea).

28 Sleep and Hypnosis, 11:1, 2009