Hi! I'm new here. I'm a 29 year old girl from Sweden if you wonder why the English isn't perfect.. :)

Occasionaly I lose my breath when I sleep. Mostly it occurs right after I've fallen asleep. I wake up, can't breathe and hardly move, then I twist and turn my neck and toss my head and then after a while I catch my breath again with a rapid inhalation. After this I feel a bit sick but I'm so tired that I fall asleep again. And mostly it happens 4-5 times right after eachother before I finally fall asleep for the night. Sometimes I'm all sweaty after this.

The reasons why I'm not sure I have apnea is that I don't have a lot of the symptoms I've read about.

- I don't snore.
- I wake up when I lose my breathe, I've read that apnea patients don't wake up themselves.
- I'm not overweight.
- I'm not specially tired on the day after these "events".
- I've read that most patients have high blood pressure, I on the other hand have very low blood pressure.

The symptoms that I do have are:
- I always wake up at night, having to go to the bath room or just stay awake (very bored..) for a few hours. The last 10 years I've only slept about 10 whole nights without interruption. But I'm not specially tired at daytime, I guess I'm used to it. (I don't have any kids.)
- I wake up with the sensation of choking.
- I wake up gasping for air.

So what do you think? Do I have sleep apnea? Should I get help, although I wake up myself and I'm not tired the day after?

Is apnea dangerous??

Is there anything I can do to avoid this? I've had it for at least 15-20 years, but it's not very often, perhaps in average once a month, but mostly it comes in periods where I have it more often during a period of time and then nothing for several months.

Once a psychologist told me that this was anxiety and that it was the body's self defence. It played dead. But the last time I had this was this weekend and right now I'm very happy in my life, with everything, so I can't see that it could be anxiety.

I hope you can help me sort this out!

THank you,

//MissGee

Hello Missgee....yeah I believe that you might have apnea. You might also have GERD (acid reflux) even though you don't experience heartburn. Those are both avenues that you should persue. Try the acid reflux first....its probably cheaper than getting a sleep study. Try watching your diet especially at night. Don't eat after 7pm. Try antacids.....see a doctor and get an opinion. I never had fatigue either, but I actually got both problems apnea and acid reflux. What a difference when you addres both problems. Good luck.