Gasping for air, any ideas?

Can pvc's cause you to wake up gasping for air and a slow heartrate? It happened to me again last night and it felt like my heart stopped for a min or so. Its really got me worried now! Im not sure if I may have sleep apnea or if its my pvc's causing it. It hasnt happened in a month or so ..so I wasnt too worried about it but since it happened last night its got me scared to go to bed..that I may be taking my last breath :(

I'm gonna set me up an appt with my doc tomorrow ..just wondering if anyone had anything to add?

[winter_tears82]

But could anxiety cause me to wake up unable to breathe? Im hoping thats the answer to my problems lol..yea i do get 5ish really crazy pvc's on a good day ..thats 5 i can actually feel..before I started taking buspirone for anxiety, i got tons more a day and my event monitor picked up many more i didnt feel. If your saying im just being paranoid, i do not think thats the case. I will agree that anxiety has played a major part in my pvc's tho!

[scotty27]

Hi,

Have you considered that you may just be suffering from a general health anxiety.  I have been a vicitm of this in the past and I just couldn't convince myself that I didn't have something seriously wrong with me... at a very young age I moved from diabetes to an aortic aneursym to a brain tumor.  Of course all were untrue.

I note from one of your other posts that you have only 5 or so PVCs per day.  I think that I read somewhere that an average estimate for a healthy individual is about 8 PVCs in 24h.  Most are unaware of these.  When you have a health anxiety you tune yourself into every little twitch that your body makes and extrapolate that to the worst case scenario.  I remember a time I turned up to an emergency appointment with my doctor insisting I had symptoms of bowel cancer when all I had was symptoms of over-indulgence on Indian food!  Rather than chemotherapy, I cured myself i 2 days with Bran Flakes!

I got great relief when I sorted out my health anxiety.  This is a very real problem, just like any other anxiety disorder, and can be hell to live with  not just for the patient but their doctor too!  I realised that other things in my life were contributing to this and when I sorted these out I was much better at putting my health concerns in a realistic context.  Now I suffer from very many PVCs on occasion, but conquering the health anxiety allows me to live with them safe in the knowledge my heart is OK and the sensations are just annoying.

Good luck!

[scotty27]

Paraniod - no way.  I'm sure your PVCs are real.  

I'm just suggesting that the PVCs may have caused you to become very anxious and over-sensitive to other events in your body.  Perhaps your experiences in the night are indeed due to a physiological condition...but they could also be a consequence of a nightmare or terror that wakes you suddently - and your slow heart rate is just typical of the depression in heart rate and BP that occurs when a normal person sleeps.

I learned to cope by making deals with myself.  For example, I agreed that PVCs are not allowed to be recognized in my bedroom.  When I have any PVCs in bed I refuse to dwell on them but spend time before sleep listening to some smooth classical music and reading a bit of a trashy humour book.  This puts my mind in the right gear to have a good night's sleep.  If I lie in bed counting PVCs, I'm in for a rough night once I dose off!

[scotty27]

Good luck sorting it out.

During my worst times with health anxiety I told my doctor that I though I might be afraid to be well.  He suggested that this wasn't the case... I just couldn't face perceiving myself as less than perfect.  Blood pressure problems tarnished my impression of my "health perfection" and I allowed a thousand other health worries to flood in.

Now I just try to accept the quirks of my physiology ( most of the time ) and it feels great.

[winter_tears82]

My pvc's arent what bothers me at all. All im worried about is why i go to sleep..and soon after i wake up and cant catch my breath. It only happens as soon as I fall into a deep sleep..odd? Ive learned to cope with the pvc's as much as I can. I, too dont let pvc's interrupt my sleep until this point. I think I may have some sort of sleep apnea, no guarantees tho. I plan on going to my doc first thing in the morning and seeing if I can get a sleep study done to rule it out. If it is just my heart, then i guess i gotta learn to cope with that one too lol...

btw, i love tv in bed! nice way to take the mind off things before sleepy time.

[fearfactor]

I have woken up gasping for breath before - it wasn't related to PVCs but probably anxiety-related.  I too get PVCs or PACs during the middle of the night sometimes that wake me up.  In fact, it happened last night.  It's a strange, eerie feeling and I hate it - I'd rather be awake to know what is happening to me!  

[winter_tears82]

have you been to a sleep study to rule out apnea? It is an eerie feeling! Id much rather be awake when its happening :)

Scotty- thank you for helping me to get some answers! Good luck with your blood pressure problems and Im glad youve been able to overcome your fears

[fearfactor]

No, I haven't but I don't think it's sleep apnea because my husband actually has that and he used to snore so bad (before he got treatment) I could barely sleep in the same room with him!  I don't snore at all and that's one of the major signs of sleep apnea.  It only happens once in a while, when I'm really tired and I just wake up feeling like I'm drowning or something, it's a weird feeling.  I always thought it was a panic attack of sorts.

[winter_tears82]

I read somewhere that with sleepl apnea some people dont snore at all but have the feeling that they stopped breathing. I dont snore either so Im hoping I dont have sleep apnea..I sure dont wanna wear that headset to bed just to sleep!

Lets hope for both our sakes that its just anxiety related!

[Barbarella]

I had that the other night, and immediately the awful skipping beats started.  I got out of bed and walked around the house, checked e-mails just so I would not concentrate on it so strong as if I had stayed in bed.  It went away soon after I got up.

As for the sleep apnea, my husband has that and he stopped breathing many times during the night, and never knew he stopped breathing.  At the sleep clinic the report told how many times he stopped breathing, it was a LOT and he never was aware of it.  He now has to sleep with this headset because he also has COPD.

Most people I talked to who have sleep apnea do/did not know that they stopped breathing during the night.

[KLB32]

Yes, anxiety can cause you to wake up feeling breathless.  Nocturnal panic attack are very, very common for those who suffer from anxiety disorders.  I have had the same thing happen many times.  It's kind of like my heart stops then I wake up gasping for air.  I was checked for sleep apnea and they told me my oxygen level during sleep was 97% which is excellent.  

Talk to you Dr. just to rule out any health problems but I am willing to bet it's anxiety.