Air Hunger

[bamagirl]

Anyone get air hunger? Last night I had a sleep paralysis episode, then air hunger, then an adrenaline surge. Sound familiar?

[Guest Belinda]

BAMA-What does your air hunger feel like, I am feeling something very similar I have been feeling it for days..And have yet to find something that helps. Belinda

[bamagirl]

It feels like I have to remind myself to breathe or I will stop. It's pretty scary.

[Sunfish]

i don't know if it's similar to what you're describing but i wake up a lot during the night and sometimes feel "out of breath." i also feel at times that it's harder to breath laying down, particularly at night (when i'm not on as many of my meds) when i'm trying to fall asleep & not in an anxious sort of way...and yet sitting up makes me too dizzy so it's a no-win situation

i actually just found out that i have severe sleep apnea along with O2 desaturation (via a sleep study) and low CO2 levels 24/7 (via bloodwork on several occassions). and go figure that a sleep doc i originally saw several months back thought i didn't need a sleep study since i don't snore and am not overweight....ggggggggrrrrrrrrr.

i've got some messes going on though that obviously need to be sorted out. i originally had a follow-up with a new sleep doctor for feb but a doc i saw today saw the results and got me in this week....so, i see the sleep doc on friday. i'll let you know what i find out.

melissa

Edited December 12, 2005 by Sunfish

[bamagirl]

Yes, please do because I always get mine when I am trying to sleep.

[Jacquie802]

Hi, last night I actually felt like I was not getting in enough oxygen when I breath. Is this the same thing as air hunger???

[SunsetParadise49]

Hi, last night I actually felt like I was not getting in enough oxygen when I breath. Is this the same thing as air hunger???

I felt like that too last night! I'm really not sure what air hunger is, can anyone help me out there??

[India]

I would say I feel ravenous for air sometimes! Things have gotten so bad in this last week that I went to my PCP this morning for help (regular cardiologist is off for the whole month of December!). He thinks things might be being made worse by allergies and has given me a QVAR (beclomethasone dipropionate) inhaler. "See how it goes," he says " and come back in two months." I've got to say that I don't want to wait that long. My air hunger has been pretty constant throughout the day and worse on exertion, but is worse at night, although not constantly. Sometimes I feel a lot worse when I lay down, other times fine, better than vertical. It's worse when I wake up at night, however, and especially after sleeping well for a few hours (?what's that all about?) Last night, I woke up after five hours solid sleep (extremely unusual length of downtime for me) and I felt like my abdomen between my breasts was absolutely paralyzed. I couldn't breath, I was sweating profusely. Then I got up, had a drink of water, went back to bed, and the breathlessness tapered off. It was extremely scary. I've had a sleep study--no significant O2 desaturation apparently, no apnea, but upper airway resistance syndrome supposedly is my diagnosis. If so, 1) I don't see how this is causing breathlessness in the day and 2) it seems pretty much like apnea to me. I don't seem to have any heart racing with the episodes (some docs have tried to dismiss it as a panic attack but my heart is not pounding). It certainly makes me anxious to go to sleep, however, as the episodes are every night now.

Anyway, I've just babbled on and not addressed your real issues. One question I have is what do you mean by "sleep paralysis?" Does your body freeze up or your breathing? I can move everything but my abdomen. In another thread, someone asked whether sleeping meds could make this worse. I'm on Klonopin for sleeping and as a muscle relaxant. Could this be making things worse?

I can't tell you how b***** fed up I am. I thought the florinef was straightening me out and now this happens. My husband has fibromyalgia and so knocks himself out with benadryl and klonopin every night so I have to sit there alone and panic when this happens.

I know, oh woe is me!

India

[gwen]

i guess a general reply answer question. 23 yrs ago I had this type of attack yhat woke me up in middle of night. Hub and new mominlaw took me to er. it was over by then. of course dr said i was normal and said it was prob stress because xmas and gave me back pain relievers even yho i nevre complained o back pain! he told my hus that it was stress from not having any family of my own(!) o ver the years i would get these attacks even during the day where my lungs felt like the were in vise and couldn't breath. gall bladder!! finally saw awoman dr and she took one look and did abarium swallow. oneweek later no gall bladder. perhaps yhis could be looked into.

last week my husband shook mr from adeep sleep shouting wake up! He said I had quit breathing. I didn't know anything about it. I had no pain. i rolledback over and went to sleep. he thinks i need to go to sleep dr. I do have aterrible time going to sleep at night.Amitryptilin only thing helps but makes me wake up groggy. has any one else had this happen?