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Avatar universal

Heart or breathing stops during sleep?

I am having a problem where my heart or breathing stops after I've fallen asleep, and I wake up panicking.  I've tried to include as many details as possible.

I first experienced this on a business trip.  I went to China for the first time in February, 15 hour plane ride and 12 hours time difference.  I took 5 or 6 Dramamine during the trip so that I wouldn't get sick and slept the whole way.  So after arriving, I felt on schedule; I fell asleep at night and woke up in the morning.  But in the evening, I would get this "weak" feeling in my chest, similar to what I feel when I have bouts of heart palpitations.  It felt as if my heart was slowing down or skipping more often the more I fell asleep, and then after I fully fell asleep, I started waking up in the middle of the night feeling as though my heart had stopped, and was pretty terrified.  I think I had panic attacks right after I woke up, which I have never had before.  I think I had one during dinner one day, too.  I felt as though I could not let myself fall asleep or I would never wake up again, and so I would jerk myself awake all the time (like trying to not to fall asleep in an early morning class in college).

They took me to the Chinese hospital, which did an EKG and a blood test, and said I'm fine, though I don't know how far to trust them.  (And of course my heart never skips while someone is watching it.  Only when no one is around.)  I have had EKGs in the past to look at the heart palpitations, and they didn't show anything, either.  (I have been getting palpitations for a few years, either a "skipped beat" while beginning to exhale or a fast heavy beat that feels like THUMPTHUMPTHUMP instead of THU-thump .. THU-thump .. THU-thump.) My brother gets premature ventricular contractions, so I wouldn't be surprised if I do, too.  They gave me Chinese xanax, anti-psychotic, antibiotics, and ginseng.  The anti-psychotic helped to relax me.  I tried to go to sleep early that night, but woke up suddenly again and was in a trembly panic state, so I took the pink pill, and warm calmness washed through my body, but it made me feel drugged and strange and I only took it once.  The Chinese xanax seemed to help, so we thought maybe it was just stress, but the same thing happened while recovering from jet lag at home, too, when I was not stressed.  My mother's doctor said that sometimes people get sleep apnea from the pollution in China, but it's been happening since I got back, too.  While riding in the limo home, I would doze off and be woken by the tingling sensation in my hands.

Since then, it has been happening more and more often, though, just at home.  I am not sure if it is my heart that has problems or if it is my breathing, since I am fast asleep when it happens.  Sometimes I wake up and feel as though my body has "forgotten" to inhale, and I breathe in deeply a lot in a panic to try to counteract it.  Other times I am woken up by my heart fluttering or skipping, though maybe this is caused by the lack of breathing?  I don't know much about medicine, but my impression is that my body's normal system for regulating breathing has stopped, I breathe out and it never tells my lungs to breathe in again, and then my body parts panic from the lack of oxygen and wake me up with some kind of chemical signal since the normal nervous system paths aren't working correctly.  I feel a strange emptiness or numbness in my left hand and right foot, kind of like pins and needles from poor circulation, but not really.  It still feels strange half an hour after I woke up.  I went to bed around 1 AM, probably fell asleep around 1:30 AM, and then woke up suddenly around 3 AM.  If I intentionally breathe out and never breathe back in again ("hold my breath out"), I get the normal reflex of feeling a need to breathe in, so I don't know how this could actually happen during sleep.

I am 26, 6 feet tall, 155 lb.  This is certainly not the kind of apnea where your throat gets blocked.  I don't smoke, don't drink caffeine, don't do drugs, and drink alcohol rarely.  My heart rate an hour after I woke up suddenly (4 AM) is 72 beats per minute.  I don't really feel lightheaded when I wake up.  I often have anxiety of various forms.  I do spend the majority of my time on the Internet on a laptop, probably with poor posture, bending my neck at odd angles (is there ANY good posture for laptop use?  probably not.)  I try to exercise, but only do a little.  Running on an elliptical for half an hour maybe once a week, lifting small weights and doing sit ups maybe twice a week.

It seems to happen more often if I go to bed late and if I don't eat enough dinner (bad habit from procrastination, I sometimes ignore it, go to bed hungry, and eat more in the morning so that I don't have digestion problems while sleeping).

I know I should see a doctor about this, but I apparently have some kind of doctor phobia.  I went to the doctor just last week about a puncture wound in my toe, and fully intended to ask about the sleep problem during the same visit, but chickened out while sitting in his office.  I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't want to die in my sleep.
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Avatar universal
I’m a 58 year old male that has sleep apnea. Did four sleep studies & they say I have a mild case of sleep apnea but it feels a lot worse than mild. I tried the CPAP breathing machine but it didn’t work. I tried having the operation to take my tonsils out but that didn’t work. I’ve been fighting this for 7 years. I wake up at 4:30am every morning in a panic & my blood pressure is high but goes down after 45 minutes. But now my blood pressure doesn’t seem to going down as much as it used to. And then go back to bed & sleep 2 more hours. If I get 7 hours of sleep it feels like 3 hours.  Like a lot of the other commenters have said it’s really crippled my life professionally & personally. I’m falling asleep at my job. Tired all the time. Can’t focus very good. It really took its toll on my marriage which ended up in divorce.  I’m kind of a zombie half of the time. I am afraid to go to sleep cause I think I’m going to died. Like other people said I wake with headaches & light headed. I have a tremendous feeling of impending doom & then it passes after I’ve been awake for awhile. But now I found an app on my android phone that I downloaded that’s called “Paced breathing” that I do an hour in the morning & an hour at night & three time on the weekend when I have more time to put oxygen back in my body & it’s been helping. I think the lack of oxygen in my body is perpetuating the sleep apnea. I'm not out of the woods but it's helped. Also I am going to get a custom mouth piece specifically made for sleep apnea from my dentist to see if that will help the sleep apnea. Hopefully it will help. I want my life back. I hope this helps somebody.
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2 Comments
My pulmonary doctor told me that those mouth devices do not work with all sleep apnea patients. Like in my case, I need the CPAP machine and the full size mask. This device is to be used for the rest of my life...so it's a matter of training myself to it, wearing it during the day so that my body gets used to it. Good luck.
The post above is exactly what has been happening to me for the past 3 nights now. The jolting awake in a panic with a deep breath and even tingling in hands. Kind of shaky feeling internally and light headed. I’ve been on a stay cation this week and don’t know what I’m going to do when I go back to work on Monday if this doesn’t go away.   Im 48 5’1 and weigh 122. I have gained about 10 lbs in the past 6 months so I’m hoping if I lose weight this will go away.   I first noticed this the other night when trying to fall back asleep at 3am. That day I did have quite a few drinks and am wondering if I somehow damaged my brain.
Avatar universal
i have same problem, this few years experiencing dysautonomia and i finally have a few preventing tip i do.
1. be calm and feel any pain in you chest, its really little pain that almost you dont feel it but when you massage the pain get in your nerve i mean its really please your body like almost a 100 yrs lying in bed. use a oil or something chill/cold that use in massage. i use omega
2. dont lean your arm/use your arm to support your chest too long. sometimes the bone or the blood vein is the reason.
3. do an exercise. its really helpful in all kinds of problem in your body
4. ancient kwak doctor (acupuncture, not-like-ours people) is useful in this kind of problem go see them if you know someone.
5. eat regularly, an air that wont go out in your stomach is triggering
6. dont sit all day. stretching your body is good

im not a doctor im just guy have same problem and wishing you that my tip can help you.
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612876 tn?1355514495
Hi, folks! I was wondering if you might help us out by answering a one-question survey?  If you have a moment, go to the front page (hit the back to community button at the top of this page) and locate the poll about sleep topics. I would love to have your feedback. Thanks, H.
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Avatar universal
This happens to me also.When laying on your back,muscles relax and the back of your throat will kind of close shut.This causes a sudden loss of breath of course.Anxiety makes the muscles do alot of weird things which can make it worse.Acid reflux contributes I believe as your throat muscles tend to spasm due to the burning.
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612876 tn?1355514495
" I do not believe it is sleep apnea because I do not wake up panting or breathing heavy as one would with oxygen deficiency."

I believe this is a misconception. Of the people I know personally with sleep apnea, I've never seen them panting or breathing heavily like one would from aerobic exercise.

It is really unsafe to cut your medication dose in half, *especially* after your doctor has specifically advised you not to. If you don't have confidence in this doctor, it's entirely appropriate to seek out a second (or even third) opinion. Considering your symptoms, it makes sense to request a sleep study to test for sleep apnea. This is a perfectly reasonable request, and if your doctor is unwilling to definitively rule this out, the best thing to do would be to see a different doctor for a second opinion.
Helpful - 0
612876 tn?1355514495
What you describe sounds similar to something called "sleep paralysis." Most people experience this at least once in their lifetime, and some people have this problem recurrently. Sleep paralysis is scary, but it is not dangerous at all. It usually occurs when people are sleep deprived or have a "sleep deficit" and more often occurs when people sleep on their backs than when sleeping on their sides or stomachs. This is definitely something to bring up with your primary care provider (family doctor, general practitioner, etc.) just in case they think it could be caused by something else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
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