Wake up gasping

My 22 yr old daughter says recently she wakes up shortly after falling asleep gasping for breath.  She says it's like she needs to remember to breathe and then everything is okay.  She said it happened 4 times last night but only after she had been asleep for a short time.  She doesn't notice the problem deep in her sleep pattern.

[College_Woman34]

I have the same problem, and have to sleep with pillows under my bed, i have been to Doctor after Doctor and no one seems to have an answer or care that I am suffering.  If anyone has info or a possible diagnosis please let me know.

[jkfrench]

I have this exact problem too.  It happens a couple of times a month.  I alway look at the clock because it is always withing 30 minutes of laying down and falling asleep.  I wake up with a few short gasps.  Sometimes I think I'm not breathing and have to find that deep breath to start up again.
I think it might be anxiety.  I've never had this happen during my deep sleep either.  Just when I am drifting off.
Frenchie

[Kottan_Belle]

Sleep Apnea, perhaps?  I was watching an episode of Mystery Diagnosis a while back and the problem was very similar. I could be wrong, though, so don't take me too seriously.

[mlc2010]

I have this problem too.  I know someone else who does and she has gone to many doctors and has been poked and prodded and scanned and whatever else they can throw at her.  I decided not to go to a doctor and to try to figure it out for myself, only because I don't want to go through the heck she has gone through with doctors and all these different diagnosis and "I don't knows" and "take this test" and ending up with no results.

To start off with, I'm a male in my mid-30s.  I'm not fat, I'm healthy and I never had breathing problems like this before.  I don't take drugs or smoke.  I have had a slight case of asthma since my teens, but it only comes out when I breathe in cigarette smoke, or pollen, or any aerosol cans are sprayed near me.  So basically its very much controlled most of the time.

It all started when I almost lost my job.  Thankfully I got reassigned to another position, but it was a position I would never take.  If it weren't for this economy, I probably would have quit.  Basically, the job stresses me out, as it is not what I went to school for.  That's when the breathing problems started.  It only happens at night (but not every night) and when I lay down, one of two things happen.  Either immediately I feel like i'm not getting enough air in my lungs or i'm fine and then doze off and then later I will wake up short of breath.  In the morning, I am still like this, but by the time I shower and leave for work, I'm back to normal.  I can go for a few nights without the breathing problem and I can have a string of bad breathing nights for weeks, or some good, some bad mixed in.  So here is what I experimented with.

1. Drink 32 oz bottle of water before bed - I noticed this subsided my breathing and I felt better.  Some nights it did not happen, some other nights my breathing wasn't that bad.  Only drawback was I kept waking up to go to the bathroom.  Result - My breathing at night was better, I woke up in the morning not gasping for air as much or felt it slightly, but I did not sleep well due to waking up to go to the bathroom often.

2. Don't overstuff yourself with dinner - I found that if I stuffed myself during dinner, I would have the breathing problem.  Any night I did this, I had the problem.  Direct correlation.  The symptoms were subsided a bit by drinking 32 oz of water (as noted in #1).  When I didn't overstuff myself, I was fine, however read on for more info.

3. Not overstuffing myself during dinner, BUT, having dessert late at night - I found this contributed to my breathing problems, but not as severe as in #2.  If I have dessert, I try to eat it before 9pm.  I found even that eating dessert (even a light one of a couple of cookies) after 9 pm, I had the problem.  Funny thing though, I noticed that if I have one type of chocolate chip cookie, my breathing is much worse versus one made by another company.  Perhaps it is an ingredient or two that makes the difference.

4. Milk products late at night - I found this to directly have an effect on me.  I could have milk products during the day and evening, but after 9, it did me in.

5. Taking vitamins at night - Sometimes I forget and wound up taking vitamins late at night, but found out that it contributed to a slight breathing problem.

6. Taking Zyrtec-D - Over the counter sinus medication.  I took this because at the time my breathing problem started, it was time for pollen to be out and about.  So I thought it might be allergies.  I found that this did help my breathing problems when I took it at night.  I breathed just fine.

7. Temperature in the bedroom - If it is hot and stuffy in there, I find my breathing is worse.  With the A/C on or the window open with a cool breeze, it is slightly better.

I don't know.  To me I think I found out more on my own than I would have with tons of doctors and tests.

My conclusion - Stress is a possible cause, allergies are a possible cause (it is allergy season where I live and we had a very wet winter which means the pollen is out in full force and stronger than previous years).  Eating late, or not eating late but having dessert or dairy products late has an affect on my breathing.  Drinking all that water or taking Zyrtec-D (even with just a small glass of water) aides my breathing and I feel better.  Possible food allergy, possible acid reflux.  However with acid reflux I have had lasagna at times and when I did, sometimes I had a breathing problem, sometimes I didn't.

I would still like to pinpoint exactly what it is as I don't want to sleep bad due to drinking too much water and I certainly don't want to take Zyrtec-D every night for the rest of my life.  I doubt that can be good for me.

If anyone wants to, feel free to comment or ask questions.  I'm open to trying anything to cure this.