I'm not sure if this is sleep apnea, but maybe someone here has had something like this before, and can tell me what it is:

I'm pretty sure I don't have sleep apnea, but occasionally, I'll wake up not breathing. Scarier, it feels like I almost forgot how to breathe... I can recognize that I'm not breathing, but I can't make myself breathe. Sometimes when this happens, I can remember dreaming that I can't breathe, like I'm underwater. When I wake up, and realize that I can't breathe, I'd try to pound my arms or something, but I find that I can't move. After a few seconds, this passes, and I take a breath, and am able to either get up, or go back to sleep. This happens about once every couple months.

Anyone ever hear of anything like this?

PM2, welcome to Apnea Board!

I used to experience similar symptoms. I was subsequently diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA for short.

When my doctor suggested that I was suffering from OSA, I laughed. I refused to believe that I could stop breathing at night, without even realizing it.

OSA took quite a toll on my life. Without getting into details, let me just say that it's a very serious disorder and I wish I had gotten treatment for it twelve or thirteen years ago.

I would suggest a consultation with a board-certified sleep specialist. At the very least, try taking the Epworth Sleepiness Test.

Good luck! Carl

Almost sounds like Sleep Paralysis.

nc

yeah seems like Sleep Apnea,

Take a look at the symptoms of Apnea

Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a persons breathing is interrupted during sleep. People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night.

Sleep apnea is a true breathing obstruction, which requires the sleeper to awaken to begin breathing again. A person with sleep apnea wakes up many times a night to regain breathing, but usually remembers nothing at all about the awakenings.

Marvin.

I've experienced similar symptoms and am pretty sure I have sleep apnea. I wake up feeling like I can't breath. This all started after being given a medication that affected my breathing and had episodes where I would wake up and feel like I couldn't move my body which is sleep paralysis.

Lisa in Canada

You might want to research Central Sleep Apnea, which is different from Obstructive Sleep Apnea. With OSA the soft tissue in the throat/nasal passages collapse during the relaxation that results from sleep and causes snoring and apneas. With CSA the brain literally stops sending instructions to diaphragm to breathe.