Chest Pains and Trouble Breathing

My friend has severe chest pain and trouble breathing before she goes to bed at night (sometimes during the day this will happen, but not as often at night at all--night is almost guaranteed). This comes in phases, where it will happen for a few days to a few weeks and then decreases somewhat in intensity. She suffers from a lot of stress. Her breathing becomes shallow before she goes to sleep, and then erratic shortly after she goes to sleep, and sometimes the pain in her chest gets so severe she wakes up. It seems that these 'attacks' of some sort only go for maybe the first hour of her sleep, and that they will cease after some time. I thought it might've been sleep apnea due to the sounds she was making while asleep, but the fact is, she is fully aware of having a problem, while most with sleep apnea are mostly unaware of their issue. And also, there are nights when her breathing is fine. When I try to wake her up, she is very hard to speak to and seems locked into an almost unresponsive state of exhaustion. It takes probably about 10 minutes until she can really be awake and talk to me, but the pain is still there. I took her to the ER one night but the doctor said he wasn't sure, and said that they'd probably have to catch it while it was happening. EKG produced no findings.

I am now thinking of possible nocturnal panic attacks, yet she claims she has no sense of impending doom whatsoever. I am making her see a doctor and aim for a sleep study, but I figured more opinions couldn't hurt at all.

Any ideas? Counter questions are more than welcome. I can answer them all.

[cnote]

Sounds like you are a very good friend to this person. Good for you for taking her to the ER.

Sounds to me, if the Dr. couldnt find anything wrong... its more than likely anxiety. Chest pressure is a VERY common symptom. Some people describe it as a heavy chest, or someone is sitting on them... and they feel like they cant breath.

Also, if it leaves for some days and doesn't happen... and then it comes back... this points more to the direction of anxiety. And a person doesn't always have to have the "impending doom" feeling. It's just one of many feelings anxiety suffers can get.

If this doesn't leave though... she might want to consider talking to a Dr. about getting on some sort of anti-depressant... or a little mild chill pill... just for a while til she can get control over it.

A therapist can help so much too!

Good luck to you and your friend.

[remar]

Cnote gave you very good advice. You do not have to have the feeling of impending doom. A panic attack can just come on out of the blue.
I've had them wake me up in the middle of the night many times. I can go to sleep feeling fine and then wham, I wake up having a panic attack.
I'm glad to hear your making her see a Dr. This could be something completely different. No matter what it is she needs to see a Dr.
Please let us know how she's doing. Take care. Remar

[ItsNotMyProblem]

Thank you so much for your comments, and please keep them coming!

I've been doing my utmost best to make sure she is having a stress-free time lately, and the past two days she's slept very well. No interruptions. She's still in a good deal of pain, but we'll see where it goes. I'm going to have her speak with a therapist at no cost to her. She is a good friend of my family.

I will be keeping you all updated. Thank you again.