Nocturnal fainting

[ecogirl]

For over 10 years I have been having occasional to frequent what I have come to call

[Halloweenbaby1946]

Amazing~

I cannot believe I've accidentally run across this thread. I relate to almost everything in most of the posts and I'm nearly speechless.

About 11 years ago I noticed some sleep issues and also some issues with severe acid reflux. Through the years the symptoms would wax and wane with treatment - once seeming to affect the other

As my GERD (severe acid reflux) problems got worse so did my sleep issues but I did not recognize that fact.

After years of being on acid reflux medications and it only getting worse, I finally had a sleep apnea study done and was found to have positional sleep apnea. And that's when I notice the worst of my swirling down episodes - when I'm flat on my back.

I recently had to have surgery to attach my stomach to my lower esophagus due to GERD and I thought the "swirling, whirling, fainting, slipping away, dying" feeling would stop but it has not. In many ways it's worse.

For some time I could not fall asleep - a good year or so. My doc finally gave me Trazodone to help me fall asleep and stay asleep. It does what it's supposed to do but it doesn't do much to help me to stay asleep or go back to sleep when I awaken very early and begin my daily slipping into the pit of blackness.

I have tried very hard to describe this horrible feeling to my husband (he and I both wear CPAP) and I think he understands it for the most part since he went bonkers about 5 years ago when he too became oxygen deficient.

These episodes during sleep for me always seem to be early in the morning but they have occurred at night and they wake me up. I'm always afraid, rapid heart beat, sometimes dizzy and always wonder what in the world is happening to me.

I'm always still very sleepy when these events occur and want to go to sleep again but I have to sit up or I feel as if I'm going to die on the spot. I have to breathe from my mouth if I don't get up right away and I have or get a headache soon after getting up

The sad thing now is that my early morning fright festival colors my day so much that I only settle down about noon or so and then the afternoon goes so quickly that I've grown afraid of the evening and the night because I know what's coming.

I have a wonderful life. A loving husband, everything I need, good friends, faith in God and everything in retired life to look forward to but I cannot sleep well due to sleep apnea and the feeling of impending doom that comes with my fear of getting sucked into a black hole and not being able to breathe when I do.

Hubby and I have a theory at least for me that it has something to do with my position while lying in bed and when my oxygen becomes low. It also NEVER happens when I sleep all night sitting up in my recliner. Never.

We have an adjustable bed and tonight I'm going to try my CPAP with my bed elevated nearly as high as it can go at the head.

I am WORN OUT. Exhausted and tired and ready to move on to other things. I'm waiting on the results of a 24 hour pulse ox test right now and hope to learn something more from this. I've had three sleep studies all of which indicate positional sleep apnea but I have such problems with the CPAP machine.

I hope to hear back from some of you.
It's good to know I'm not alone but that fact won't stop the terrors.

Thanks.

[psmithy]

I have had some on the sensations you describe when I have fainted in the past - mostly followed by vomiting. These "faints" have occurred in sleep too. After extensive tests for heart block, it was shown I had low blood pressure, a good thing for old age. Food poisoning was also involved and blood had rushed to the stomach.
Last night, however, I had a slightly different experience. I was thinking of a film I'd seen and possibly drifting off to sleep when I woke with a start unable to remember my last memory and completely panicked by that. So I told myself not to worry or try to remember at the same time I felt a little sick and thought the room needed more air (could smell a whiff of chemical or whatever from the airconditioning). I also thought "that's the second time that's happened recently, goodness my brain cells are really dying/alzeimers"...and then it clicked. Maybe I had fainted for a fraction of time. I know I have sleep apnea although I am slim and do not smoke and exercise regularly and sing. But I didn't feel I had been asleep. It was just like a memory loss that panicked me because there was a gap - when I've fainted there's the fast flashes/hallucinations/noise rush and I think I'd had that but for seconds only, then there's the slow coming to consciousness.
Scary stuff. Must check out what pin strokes are.

[mimi2012]

PS. Whatever you decide to do, I am definitely not a doctor, please take my comments with a grain of salt and question mark your self if it is the right thing for you... thank you.

[female25719]

After the last couple of years I have some strange experiences whilst in bed at night. After soon going to bed but not to sleep I have a sudden feelings that my brain has been unplugged, it then feels like in the next few seconds before I black out completely, in which time I experience the following. I have no idea how long this all takes because I am in bed, I get regular 10-11 hours’ sleep at night and remember everything  when I wake from this experience but not in a panic and usually go back to sleep afterwards. And wake up fine in the morning.
-slowing of breath
-heaviness of body
-stiffness of body
-clenching of hands and arms
-feeling of dying
-flashes of images going hundred miles an hour
-can’t speak, even though my mind is sound
-hallucinations
-painful high pitched sound in brain
-voices that are my own telling me to get up
-awareness of what’s around me
-Rapid eye movements
-Then black-out
There is epilepsy in the family but I only ever have these symptoms at night. After looking on the internet I can recognise some but not all of these symptoms in Sleep apnea of Rapid eye movements (REM) but there seems to be no medical info on sleep fainting of fits.  They are becoming more frequent now at 25 and female but thinking back I’ve always had them but put them down to dreaming. Maybe I am dreaming?

[shevidoo]

I Googled fainting in my sleep cause I know from past experiences that the docs are never really right about whats wrong. I have had this problem for anout 3 months now. I have been battling cancer for a year and that was enough stress to know I could die from it but now this? I get the same symptoms. I'll fall asleep but then bout a hour later I wake up trying to breathe. I feel like i'm bout to faint or that i'm lacking oxygen. I also feel as though i'm going to die in my sleep and that terrifies me enough to where i dont want to go back to seep. I start to panic. I really hope the docs can diagnose all of us soon case it's not just one of us but alot of people with the same symptoms. I take Lunesta from time to time to sleep cause I have Insomnia but this feeling is just too powerful. I'm scared to tell anyone cause I feel like they are gonna think i'm going crazy. I am gonna go get checked out by a doctor and I will metion that I found several other people with this problem. There has to be an explantion to all this. I'm glad we are not alone. Best health to you and I hope you all get better.

[Ducky3]

I've been having these episodes for about a month. I don't experience paralysis, just near-fainting.  It has always happened after I've been asleep for a couple of hours, then gotten up and laid back down.  Within 30 seconds or so of reclining, I start to feel I'm being sucked into a vortex and have trouble breathing.  I sit up to get control, and have to control my breath until it gets better.  It feels like I might die.  (However, as you'll see below, there isn't any fear or panic.  I was extremely sick as a young child and don't have what is generally considered a normal fear of dying.)

Usually, it has taken 5-20 minutes to get over the worst part, but hours to be able to recline again.  One night, it just wouldn't let up, so I went to the ER.  They weren't very helpful, and suggested panic attacks, which is a psychological disorder, and not what is going on here.  My internist thinks it's probably a side effect of some other meds, which I'm getting off of.  My mother had the same thing, once, and began taking electrolytes, which stopped it.  So far, that hasn't helped me.  It's got something to do with the reclining position and ..what, blood pressure?  It's not a "panic attack" because I don't experience fear, mostly annoyance and anger that my routine is being interrupted.  I think docs throw that label out when they don't know what else to call something.  However, fear is a part of the definition of a panic attack.   The Mayo clinic website says that the fear triggers the other symptoms, not the other way around.  In my case, it's reclining that triggers them.  Don't let people tell you it's a panic attack, if that isn't your experience!  The ER doc also said that, if it isn't a panic attack, a cardiologist would have a hard time diagnosing it, as unexplained fainting is very hard to figure out. In the meantime, I'll just keep having to get it under control when it happens. Good luck, everyone!