Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and nightmares are major psychiatric problems among veterans with combat experience. Veterans who have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have increased nightmares while sleeping on their back. Treatment of sleep apnea with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device lessens the arousals from sleep, and patients do not remember their nightmares as they sleep through their dreams. The case report describes a veteran who had severe nightmares especially when sleeping on his back. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea and treated with auto CPAP. During the follow-up visit, the patient reported a dramatic improvement in his PTSD symptoms, nightmares frequency, and intensity. He also reported feeling better, less sleepy, and more energetic during the day. Besides, he reported experiencing no nightmares when using CPAP and improvement in his quality of sleep. He also reported an improvement in daytime functioning and quality of life.
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Abraham, S., Cooper, S., Khawaja, I.S. (2019). Case Study: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder “I Am Having Nightmares on My Back”. In: Khawaja, I., Hurwitz, T. (eds) Comorbid Sleep and Psychiatric Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11772-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11772-6_2
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