i had not been able to breathe in my dream and i woke up and couldnt either

[bwilliams21]

Whenever I dream sometimes what can be happening in the dream will actually be happening sort of. I can have my toes ran over by a car and I would wake up with a big pain in my toes. But last night was the worst. In the dream I was fighting and getting strangled sorta and then I woke up after not being able to breathe for a long time in my sleep and when I woke up I still wasnt breathing for a few sec and my heart was beating really fast and everything but this type of dreams happens all the time to me and Idk why.

[bishobri]

I didnt read responses so that my answer isnt influenced in effort to find the reason.

I have the same experiences every night this past week, only difference is I do not dream of being strangled.  I take some narcotic medication and I suffer from sleep paralysis.  One time i couldnt open my mouth and my nose was plugged in but that was different than this.  There are 3 types of sleep apnea , some is from people who snore and their airway gets blocked.  A more rare type which I have is where your brain quits telling your body to breath, now I dont know if it also disables you to breath on your own but that could be likely.

my email is ***@**** Id like to correspond with you so that we may find relief.
Best of luck and a prayer.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

You may be having Obstructive Sleep Apnea. When a person sleeps the airways are usually patent allowing normal passage for air entry. The upper airway that is at the region of the tongue and the soft palate is the most compliant (soft) part. So, this is liable to collapse and cause airway obstruction. As the air way collapses the lungs do not have air entry leading to deoxygenation (decreased oxygen) of blood and the person wakes up. This period of non entry of air is called ‘Apnea’ and the waking up is called an ‘Arousal’. This keeps alternating and the person may not actually wake up all the time, but these repeated arousals can disturb the sleep architecture and cause fatigue, headaches and daytime sleepiness. These people are also more prone for Hypertension. Obstructive Sleep Apnea is more common in people who snore.

I would advise you to consult a sleep specialist who would assess with first a sleep questionnaire, and then he may ask for a polysomnogram, which is an overnight sleep study as this helps to detect the apneas.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[ticked]

Its possible that you were having a panic attack.  I could be wrong but I had one similar and i was told it was a panic attack