Waking up about6 times a night.

[markbool]

Can any one help. I am 23 i am a Baker by trade at the moment i am not working. I am having trouble sleeping. I wake up about 6-7 time a night with short ness of breath or coughing and gaging. It takes a lone time to settle down. I do have asma and i weigh about 160kg. I would like to say i am dieting and eating the right things all the time but i am only doing this some of the time. I do advrege to little exercise and i know that is my problem but it is so hard to stay awake of the whole day if i cant sleep right what can be done.

[markbool]

Thank you for the insight i will see how i go tonight sleeping on my side.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

I think you might be suffering from obstructive sleep apnea. The usual symptoms are periods of light sleep, interrupted by sleep apnea (no breathing for 10 seconds or so), which wakes you up. This is commonly associated with obesity. The tongue falls backwards when you are sleeping on the back. This obstructs the airway.

The immediate step that you can do is start sleeping on your side. You will need a sleep specialist's opinion and a sleep study for the diagnosis.

Regards