sleep apnea, general breathlessness

[Alice1]

I've been doing okish last few days, mainly cause I had a bad cold and that took the forefront of being obviously ill.
But for the past few months, and it has happened before previously, I've been waking up gasping for breath in my sleep. My boyfriend said this has happened even when I cant remember it which freaked me out. I also almost always always wake up with sore throats, but don't feel ridiculously tired the next day, just a bit sleepy often but it fades like normal.
I've spoken to a doctor about feeling breathless during the day and she said she didn't know as they ruled out asthma so she's talking to the other gps at the practice in their meeting.
I'm a bit scared I have sleep apnoea and how long it can go untreated without serious consequences.
I'm 19 and slim, but I heard only 50% of cases are due to being overweight.

[Emilym80]

Most people who have sleep apnoea are indeed overweight and, or at the very least, male, aged 60+ with a family history.

Maybe your waking up gasping is because you're having anxious dreams? I don't think you'd be waking up at all if you had sleep apnoea, most people just gasp in their sleep without waking. So, it could be that you're simply waking up out of fear and don't always remember it, being half-asleep.

Also, if you don't snore normally, I doubt it's sleep apnoea. I'm not a doctor, but I've heard that it's normally suspected in people who snore and have to get up to go to the toilet a lot during the night. Also, you'd almost certainly be really fatigued during the day. It doesn't happen for no reason- people who have it are usually either overweight or have really large tonsils, etc.

Hopefully you and your gp are able to find out what the cause is soon- but I do doubt that it's sleep apnoea.

Best wishes :)

[feelthelove]

stress causes sleep apnea , you can buy a mouth shield that cna stop it happening or better still do these exercises they cure it .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIJysIYGbLc

[Alice1]

Thank you so much guys this helped

[worrywart29]

My father is 52 and he has sleep apnea. He snore excessively and extremely loud. He was sent in for a sleep study in order to get an idea of how bad it actually is and turned out it was pretty severe. He now has to sleep with a cpap machine. Before the machine he was waking up groggy and light headed the doctor said he wasn't getting enough oxygen to the brain while sleeping his nails was also bluish which is another sign that he wasn't getting enough oxygen. Now he wake up energized and no longer snore. If you are snoring and waking up groggy it's a chance and you might want to have a sleep study done.