Suffocation dream

[AppleCinnamon]

I woke up this morning, noticed that I wasn't breathing in a regular way. So I read a book for an hour and tried to sleep again. Then it felt like I would fall asleep several times but I immediately woke up each time within a couple of seconds, as in an immediate response to falling asleep. I think this has something to do with one part of the brain being in sleep mode and the other part not. Eventually I did fall asleep. Then I dreamt that I was suffocating all of a sudden, I really felt as if I couldn't breath or that my breathing was very shallow. I then woke up and immediately had a panic attack with hyperventilation. Could this have been a nocturnal panic attack? I am afraid that there was something wrong with my body like sleep apnea causing actual suffocation. I never had this before.

[Hollow]

I often wake up during dreams sometimes being chased or falling from a tall building and usually have a fast heart rate when i wake up. I think these kind of dreams are due to high anxiety/depression. Mabye what you had was sleep paralysis where you wake from a dream but your body is still in sleep mode. It's quite common and nothing to worry about.