shallow breathing when waking in morning

[michelle23]

I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and told I should just lose weight. For the last couple of weeks I have been having some wierd/bad mornings and not sure if it sleep related or asthma. I awake with my breathing feeling very shallow, and my chest feels tight. It is that time when you wake up but still can sleep for another hour or so, I just lay there and feel like I am hardly breathing. Then when I do get out of bed my chest is tight and it lasts for an hour or so longer. I also wake up with my throat congested and fluid in right ear ( I sleep on my right side). Any ideas what this could be? I am overweight 210, and 5 feet tall. It is very scary, should I see a pulmonologist? Oh I had a stress test and lung xray that came out fine.
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[National Jewish Health]

Good news about the stress test and lung x-ray.  What you are experiencing could be caused by either sleep apnea and/or nocturnal asthma.  You could also be having gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) and that could certainly aggravate any pre-existing asthma.  Incidentally untreated sleep apnea can, itself, aggravate nocturnal asthma.

One way to approach this is to see your doctor and obtain a peak-flow meter, a small hand held device that can be used to assess asthma.  Then start recording peak-flow values 4 times a day: immediately on awakening in the morning, at noon, at 6:00 PM and at bedtime.  If this is nocturnal asthma you may see a significant fall in peak flow overnight; that is, a drop from the flow rate at bedtime to that in the early morning.

So, you should ask your doctor if he/she believes this is asthma, if you have GERD and if, perhaps it might be time to reevaluate your sleep apnea.

[michelle23]

I wanted to add that I was NOT diagnosed with asthma, just wondered if what I was experiencing could be asthma. Just wanted to clarify.