Sleep apnea or not??????????

[laila]

As i go to sleep at nyt or even if i,m just havin a quick cat nap during the day.....as i close my eyes and start to drift off its like i,ve stopped breathin or i,m holdin my breath. So i wake up gasping for air...which then puts me into havin slight PA symptoms which is so not good. As i have not had a PA in a while now. But trying to google my symptoms this is all i can find. And now i dread goin to sleep at nyt cause its goin to happen again.

[PanicOver!!]

WARNING doctor Googleis BAD for your health

[dottytoots]

I have this too. I have pretty much got on top of my waking PAs, but have similar to what you describe. I will have just fallen asleep, maybe for an hour, and then I suddenly wake up bolt upright feeling as if I cant breathe and my heart is racing. It's also very disorientating when you have just woken up.

My DR explained this is just my body having a panic attack in my sleep, but by the time I wake up it has already reached its peak. At first when this happened I would be very scared and take a diazepam, but I am sure I wss back to sleep before it even helped (but the psychological support of taking one is there!). So the last time I woke like this last week I had a go at just riding with it, telling myself it was just a PA and watched some TV till I felt ready to sleep again.

My DR said as my mind was relaxing in my sleep my anxieties were having free reign to work themselves up, thus causing panic attacks in sleep and I think she may have been right as the night ones got worse when I got in control of my daytime PAs. But like daytim PAs, once\ you have had a scary nighttime one and it freaks you out, if you dread it happening again it probably will. So try to expect it so when it happens you wont be scared, then they may occur less like happened for me.

But if it's any consolation I used to wake up thinking I was about to keel over with heart racing and not being able to breathe, but hopefully we are both still here today!

DT

[hollygirl]

I have had panic attacks in my sleep and woken up feeling my heart racing and pounding etc. But I have also woken up - repeatedly - gasping for breath. In recent months it has been very bad. I do not feel anxious or panicked and I do not have a racing heart or anything else. All that keeps happening is I wake up gasping for air. And once it has happened it can happen over and over again. Some nights I am not getting any sleep.

I have looked into this (although I am going to demand my doc does something about it as I am sure something physical is going on that needs at least investigating) and spoken to doc who says because I do not snore and am not overweight it cannot be anpea. However that is not entirely true. Also it could be a form of asthma if it happens a lot or - and apparently this is really common - it could be GERD - or acid reflux basically. My step brother (who is a medical student in his final year) told me to try some proper ant acids for a week or so and to sleep propped up. If your upper body is propped up and you do not get it then it is likely to be physical - e.g. mild asthma or acid.

But I must say that mine occurs over and over - if it is just once or twice a night you are gasping for air it is more likely to be panic. Especially if you have the racing heart etc.