Aa
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.
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.
I definitely have anxiety, I've said so. But you're wrong; that's not the cause of this problem. I hope you're not a doctor.
It was caused by taking Dramamine while flying. The same thing happened another time I flew and took Dramamine. Right after arriving, I was having dinner and kept having weird panicky sensations that parts of my body were going numb or limp, but when I touched them they were fine. Again, I kept waking up in the night feeling like my heart had stopped or my breathing had stopped, same as the original post. Again, it kept happening for weeks afterward.
But recently, I flew again. I was very anxious about missing the plane, couldn't sleep. This time I took Bonine instead of Dramamine, and despite having very high anxiety and jet lag, I didn't have any weird sensations or sleeping problems.
It was caused by taking Dramamine while flying. The same thing happened another time I flew and took Dramamine. Right after arriving, I was having dinner and kept having weird panicky sensations that parts of my body were going numb or limp, but when I touched them they were fine. Again, I kept waking up in the night feeling like my heart had stopped or my breathing had stopped, same as the original post. Again, it kept happening for weeks afterward.
But recently, I flew again. I was very anxious about missing the plane, couldn't sleep. This time I took Bonine instead of Dramamine, and despite having very high anxiety and jet lag, I didn't have any weird sensations or sleeping problems.
I feel that its blatantly apparent that you're suffering from anxiety. Perhaps your extreme anxiety is the root of your problem.
I'm 30 and for a while now I have been trying to go to sleep but everytime I dose off I get jerked back awake and I feel all panic like, like my body is shouting to me... YOUR DIEING so WAKE UP and breath. I fell heavy headed and off balance along with a pounding heart that feels all out of wake and not beating right and then their is times I jump up cause I can't feel a pulse at all and I jump up in major panic and then my heart is racing and pounding. My body just won't allow me to fall alsleep. I have ringing in the ears so I have to always have a tv on to mute out the ringing so it won't drive me crazy in a silenced room. I mostly sleep on the couch now cause my wife says I keep her up snoring mow and then she says she hears me breathing weird like I'm some kind of weird breathing robot exhaling my air slow, loud and weird when I am sleeping. I sitting here right now at 7:30 am on the couch tired as heck but didn't sleep all night cause everytime I try or my brain trys to shut down on its I suddenly get a butterfly feeling in my gut and I jerk awake fast. My brain is shutting down only to awake me in a jerking weird way. Now I can't sleep. I need a sleep study BAD. My heart rate will drastically rise every time my brain trys to shut itself off for sleep. This stuff is scary. I shouldn't feel scared to sleep. Can a upcoming sinus issue cause this? I'm in montana and my head in this snowy cold state is bad and I just feel off balanced every time I move my head around. I've felt this get worse and worse as the years go by. I may have a deep sinus infection in my head but I have no runny nose. Also when I jerk awake I feel pressure in my ears like I have ear plugs in and as Im forced awaken from the jerk of my brain forcing me back away. I swear I'm too scared to take sleepng pills and I should probably avoid them. All this ***** I swear. My brain is on a roll trying to auto shut down but it won't let me FALL FULLY back a sleep.
What you have is anxiety. Never underestimate the ability of anxiety/stress to cause all kinds of strange sensations & worries.
Please see a psychiatrist or gp for a rx for anxiety & depression---such as Zoloft. You are overly anxious about yourself so engage in activities that shift your focus from yourself to others or other interests.
Please see a psychiatrist or gp for a rx for anxiety & depression---such as Zoloft. You are overly anxious about yourself so engage in activities that shift your focus from yourself to others or other interests.
i have had these wake up panics too on and off for about 2 years they come with big stress , i have had my first panic attack 9 years ago , looks like we all have Anxiety in common also heart palpilations with the whole speeding up slowing down thing , i just had this an hour ago it starts with not much conscious other than the feeling of panic and being drugged/dead not breathing , as soon as i panic and start walking breathing hard the adrenaline kicks in and the feeling of racing pounding heart lets me know of itself in that point i start trying to calm down because the pulse kicks over 120bpm , the fear makes it worst but it always seems to pass without me dying so thats a positive right there :P it still is a horrific feeling , i have an appointment and am almost sure the doctor wont know what am talking about but the least we can do is rule out most of dangerous known illnesses that can cause this kind of crap and try to adjust our life to it , in the end the thing that makes it more and more fearful is fear ( Anxiety ) itself , so dont ever forget that enemy , good luck to everyone !
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Sleep Disorders Community
Healing home remedies for common ailments
Dr. Steven Park reveals 5 reasons why breathing through your nose could change your life
Want to wake up rested and refreshed?
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
