I realize this is most likely an anxiety issue rather than something physically wrong with me, but I wanted to post this question to see if any of this stuff is familiar. Lately at night when I'm very tired, around the times when I normally doze off, I stop myself when I'm about to fall asleep and I can't control it. I automatically stop myself from falling asleep because over the last week or so, the "dozing off" feeling feels more like death than sleep. It's like the normal feeling, but it's coupled with almost a gasping sensation, like large amounts of air are escaping my lungs.
There are a lot of other factors involved. I'm 24, and I've always had a very low resting heart rate (around 56-58 bpm), and I'm not an athlete or anything. In the past, this has caused me to be borderline hypochondriac, where I was mistaking gas and bowel movements for more serious chest pain. Lately though, I feel like my heart hasn't been pumping enough blood to my body- I feel more numbness in my extremities, especially when trying to sleep, and sometimes I can sort of feel it working overtime, thumping harder. I think it may be due to a change in environment for me- I have a new job away from the place I grew up, and I have been changing my sleep schedule drastically- though I'm going from a less consistent day-to-day sleep schedule to a more consistent one, which I would think would be good for me rather than bad. I also may be gaining weight somewhat rapidly now, though I haven't had a means of weighing myself since I moved.
I get that too. Most of the time I just go from falling asleep to suddenly wide awake. Lately though, my dysautonomia has been showing symptoms and when I do wake up from "falling asleep" I'm terrified. It's exactly how you describe it, it feels like you're not going to fall asleep, you're going to lose consciousness or die.
My cause is dysautonomia, which is an imbalance of the nervous system. I didn't have any symptoms until a really stressful event in my life. It seems you may be nervous too, new job, constantly worrying about your health.... What helps me is lots of exercise. It's not related to your pulse, my resting heart beat is 82-84.
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A little off topic...are you seeing a cardiologist about your bradycardia (slow heart rate)?