It can be unsettling to realize in the middle of the night that you were gasping for oxygen as you slept, so you shouldn’t dismiss this. It can be a symptom of a serious medical condition. And if you do wake up feeling out of breath, don’t immediately conclude that you have sleep apnea. Many different things can make you gasp at night. The article will focus on common reasons for waking up from nightmare gasping for air.
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Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a breathing disease that affects sleep that results in complete or partial breathing pauses. When the airways narrow and become blocked, OSA occurs3. People who have OSA may snore loudly or awaken gasping for air or choking. Morning headaches, difficulty concentrating, and feeling too sleepy or agitated during the day are additional symptoms4.
OSA is thought to be more common in people who have a prostate and may impact as many as 12% of adult Americans. A sleep lab test or an at-home sleep apnea test can be used to identify it.
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is one of the best cures for OSA. Through a mask placed over the face while sleeping, the CPAP machine continuously blows air to keep the airway open. For those who do not respond well to CPAP therapy, there are further choices available, such as positive airway pressure with automatically adjusted airflow or jaw-forwarding mouthpieces.
Additionally, as obesity considerably raises the risk of OSA, those who have OSA might be advised to lose weight.
Hypnic Jerks & Sleep Paralysis
Certain experiences while falling asleep or waking up may cause uncomfortable breathing sensations.
Hypnotic tics, also known as sleep onset, are sudden, involuntary muscle twitches that you may experience while falling asleep. Hypnotic tics usually affect one side of the body and may be accompanied by a feeling of falling, hearing a popping or snapping sound, or seeing a flash or another visual hallucination. Hypnotic tics are normal and common, but they can be disorienting and can cause rapid or irregular breathing.
A similar phenomenon is called sleep paralysis 7, which causes sleepers to be unable to move when they first wake up, sometimes with chest pressure and shortness of breath. Sleep paralysis is thought to occur when part of the brain is awake but retains the muscle paralysis that occurs in dreams. Some people with sleep paralysis report hallucinations of having someone in the room or sitting on their chest.
Anxiety & Nocturnal Panic Attacks
Your psychology may cause your breathing problems at night. If she ruled out sleep apnea and other potential physiological causes, she often found that patients were likely to pant during sleep due to anxiety or nighttime panic attacks.
Everyone knows what anxiety feels like. Nighttime panic attack is the nighttime version of panic attack, which refers to the sudden occurrence of overwhelming fear and worry, usually accompanied by heartbeat, sweating and shortness of breath. Some people with panic disorder mainly attack during sleep. Asphyxia and shortness of breath are common among people who experience panic attacks at night.
Yadav said that people with sleep time wheezing and other symptoms related to anxiety and nighttime panic attacks usually have a history of insomnia. If you wake up panting, the sheets are wet, your heart is pounding, and you are scared out of your wits, you may be experiencing one of these problems. Yadav suspects that during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic, the number of people worldwide experiencing these attacks may increase. She suggested that patients seek counseling from a psychologist or psychiatrist, and possibly medication.
Panic Disorder
Panic attacks at night can cause people to wake up with shortness of breath, suffocation or a sense of suffocation. These symptoms may be accompanied by other panic attack symptoms, such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, tingling, or feeling unreal or not yourself.
People may experience panic attacks only at night or during the day. When they occur at night, panic attacks disrupt sleep. Nighttime panic attacks usually occur in the first third of the night. Researchers believe that they are more common during deep sleep and may be related to night terrors.
The treatment of panic disorder may include prescription antidepressants or anti anxiety drugs. Slow deep breathing can help you relax before going to bed and make it easier for you to fall asleep after waking up at night.
Central Sleep Apnea
A less prevalent kind of sleep apnea called central sleep apnea (CSA) is thought to afflict 1% of middle-aged to older adults5. The breathing pauses happen when the brain fails to provide the command to breathe, as opposed to a physical barrier. Sleeping at high elevations, using opioids, and experiencing heart failure are all associated with CSA6. Depending on the underlying reason, CSA may be treated with medicine, positive airway pressure therapy, or care for an underlying ailment.
Postnasal Drip
When mucus from your nose falls down your throat, it is known as postnasal drip. This condition can make you feel congested and urge you to cough or clear your throat. If enough mucus enters your throat, it may totally block it, preventing you from breathing while you’re asleep and leaving you screaming for oxygen.
Colds, allergies, inflammation, a deviated septum, changing weather, specific meals, and specific drugs are just a few of the many possible reasons of this problem.
Acid Reflux
Is that cheeseburger you ate for dinner making it hard to breathe at night? Most of us feel heartburn from time to time. If you often feel heartburn in your chest, you may have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Wheezing and other nighttime discomfort can be caused by a related problem called laryngopharyngeal reflux. In GASTROesophageal reflux disease, stomach acid oozes out of the LPR and crawls back into the trachea. Instead of causing the classic symptoms of heartburn, this acidic fluid can irritate the throat of LPR patients (sometimes called “silent reflux” because it seems to creep into the chest). It can feel like there’s something stuck in your throat, which can also make you wake up feeling like you need to clear your throat to breathe.
Since peak acid production occurs between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., you may be particularly vulnerable to gastroesophageal reflux disease or an LPR attack shortly after falling asleep, leading to a wheezing attack.
Fortunately, some preventive measures can help in both areas. Avoiding fried or high-fat foods is wise for a number of reasons and may ease acid reflux. High acid foods and drinks such as tomato sauce, orange juice and coffee should also be consumed at night. Yadavi recommends taking an acid reducing agent, such as famotidine (pepcid), half an hour before meals, or asking your doctor if you use a related drug, called a proton pump inhibitor, such as Nexium (nexium) or prilosec (Prosec). Finally, raising the head of the bed slightly (using a special pillow-raiser) or using lots of pillows can use gravity to hold stomach acid in place.
Heart Failure
When our hearts are unable to efficiently pump blood due to coronary artery disease or faulty heart valves, heart failure develops. Heart failure frequently manifests as breathing problems, which can wake you up in the middle of the night gasping for air. Get medical help right away if you’re also having chest pain, intense exhaustion, or swelling in your legs.
Pulmonary Edema
Excess fluid in the lungs causes pulmonary edema, which is typically brought on by a cardiac issue. You can wake up gasping for air as a result of the fluid buildup making breathing harder.
Along with other symptoms like chest pain, wheezing, abrupt anxiousness, and shortness of breath, the illness can also cause frothy spit when you cough. Consult your doctor right away if you think you might have this problem.
Summary
It can be frightful to gasp for air when you wake up, and if it happens frequently, it might have a detrimental effect on how well you sleep. There are a variety of causes, such as breathing problems caused by sleep deprivation or panic episodes, and why someone could wake up gasping for air. It is important to check into this if it keeps happening to you so you can get the underlying reason treated.