SHORTNESS OF BREATH, WAKE UP GASPING FOR AIR, LIGHTHEADED AL

Hello,I to have this and been checked out by doc.everything comes back perfect.we have to do process of elimination rule.and watch everything we do.I'll be cutting out caffeine for sure.I read the comments of others as well.I don't have the choking of the throat.I get dizzy in day at times.when walking mostly(weird).I just keep walking.I'm thinking muscles are to tense.I'll keep you posted.

I work in an ER and I have seen a lot of that, panic attacks, thats the diagnosis to all those symptoms mentioned above.

To be honest the only solution you have is God.

Patients suffering from this are hopeless in the sense that at the end they are alone in this when it comes to go to bed.

Afraid of not waking up next morning, scary,.

I met a particular someone with the same symptoms, actually with an extra one none of you had mentioned yet, while taking care of her while she was resting I presenced something I strongly believe is the main cause to those panic attacks, happening only at nights.

I personaly believe from my own experience with this girl that this is more than a physical or mental problem and she found the treatment. 

I have had panic attacks for 37 years. I can deal with them and usually they don't bother me. Sometimes I get what I like to call a wave. It is when out of the blue I can't focus on anything in front of me for about 3 or more seconds and it looks like the walls are falling in. (very scarey) or I get lightheaded. Now for the past few years I have been having night time panic, which is: I am asleep and all of a sudden I wake up hyperventlating. soon as I am fully awake I am ok and it is gone. I have noticed that it is happening more often lately, but this too shall pass. Anyone that has ever had panic attacks knows exactly what I am talking about. I have noticed that when I am under stress (loss of loved one or divorced) it is worse.

I suffered from symptoms for years of dizzyness, pains in my chest...and the weird waking up at night gasping for air feeling like I was going to die. I was told by so many doctors that I was having anxiety and that these were panic attacks. I accepted this as the case until two years ago when a rheumatologist noticed that my heart rate increased abnormally from sitting to standing. Turns out I have POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Which IS OFTEN MISDIAGNOSED AS PANIC ATTACKS!! My diagnosis was confirmed by a neurologist and several tests including a tilt table test. I find at night that if I am too warm and am lying completely flat I will wake up gasping for air (low blood pressure). POTS patients have heat intolerance and need to sleep with the top part of the bed raised. Please check if you might have this illness rather than accept the panic attach explanation. This illness is frequently misdiagnosed as panic attacks! I wasted 10 years with the wrong diagnosis and am finally on the right medication and am doing the right things to help symptoms. Good luck!!

I have this gasping for breath and lightheadedness like I will pass out. I have discontinued Xanax though on light dosage once a day. I think Ramipril for blood pressure at night may make this worse. But I want off from Xanax. Very frightening to be so lightheadedness though passes quickly, but gasping for breath is worse. Get off meds, dependency is worse than lack of sleep.

Sounds the same for me. Its been doing things like this to me too, ive been to the er about three times cause of it and like you, things are normal. They tried to lable it as anxiety..but thats the thing, i dont know how anxiety just comes out of the blue like that..just instantly...it started off as going to the gym, id get the same symptoms, so i cant do anything at the gym anymore, because when i do, i have that faintness, heaviness, lack of oxygen, choking sensation, like somebody just put a closepin on my airway. Once i sit down for awhile it seems to subside. Sometimes i even get it upon waking up morning or middle of night, my body goes in flight mode and parts of my body feel heavy like my head and neck, which then makes it feel even more harder to breath. Last time i went to the er they said i probably could have asthma, because i never had a test done for that. I wanna put that out there, im not saying for sure, but that could be possible. I sympathize for you, i feel the same way.

Hi Nez I had the same problem started last year out of the blue. I woke up feeling like I was going to die feeling dread for no reason feeling scared that something happen. I don't sleep good at night to begin with my doctor says that lack of sleep can cause Anxiety along with daily stress from work home or play. I work in a packing house witch can be very stressful with orders and such and dead lines. So it started out with gasping for air in the mornings when I wake up then feeling scared for no reason. Like when some one jumps out at you around a corner. So having this for two weeks straight had enough and had my mom take me to the doctor for as I was having the issues then and didn't want to drive my self. Got an Ekg and everything was normal. They put a heart monitor on me for a day and read that I was having skipped hart beats.  Then another 3 day halter monitor just to make sure they was reading it right and sure enough said the same thing skipped beats.Other wise my heart was fine. So ask the doctor what was wrong then I felt like I was having a heart attack and going to die he said was anxiety. So now I'm on  digoxion a heart pill that calms the heart beat to a normal beat. They put me on some meds for anxiety but that made me worse and didn't like how it made me feel after a meal so quit taking those and started eating healthy. Salads  and also started juicing to cleans my body of toxins.This helps but you have to stay on it or your back to your old self again. I started off slow on the juicing then worked my way to every day and totally noticed a difference on how I felt. So now I get the attacks once maybe twice a month but more so during that time of month for me meaning pms but then I am fine. I also do a 15/ 30 min walk around my block for exercise or ride my bike for both are good stress releavers. I also started painting to get my mind off things and drawing. My boss at work tells me to do Yoga but I don't see myself bending and doing those kind of stretches I'd like to do Ti Chi  So I  You Tube tichi lessons and listen to my relaxing music and do some deep breaths as well to help me relax the Anxiety away. Like you I started going to these health sites looking for answers and found some good sites like this one. So just keep looking back on this site and you'll find help. I'm 37 has had anxiety and heart fibs for a year now and it just seems like it will never go away but you do learn how to cope with it and learn when the attacks come so you can calm your self before it gets bad. Just take 1o deep breaths say the lords prayer while your doing this aloud in your room or some place quiet. You'll start to feel better as the days go by you have good days and you have bad days I noticed when I eat more healthy foods and stay away from the bad stuff I feel a lot better. So start  healthy slow then graduate to an every day thing and you'll feel the difference  Hope this helps and good luck. < is online  during the weekends if ya just want to talk to this also helps. :-)

Could you have food allergies? I feel this way after I eat anything with dairy or wheat flour. Even my nose becomes numb. I don't eat after 6 pm and I have been trying not to eat anything with dairy or wheat flour. I do eat foods with wheat in them sometimes but I try not to eat wheat and dairy together. Even though I still have symptoms they have diminished somewhat. The weird feelings make me panic and it becomes worse but I think that my underlying cause is sensitivity to some foods.

To most of you who are experiencing shortness of breath, like I did once, whether in the middle of the night or during the day, consider this solution which is unconventional, yet completely natural and worked wonders for me.

Most people have symptoms of Chronic Hyperventilation Syndrome.  I didn't think there was such thing until I studied it and found out that I had it. My symptoms were shortness of breath all the time and that was really about it. But other symptoms of CHVS include asthma, shortness of breath, fatigue, and anxiety, plus many more symptoms. So while most people are diagnosed with anxiety and stress disorders, this is usually just a symptoms to an underlying problem.

The solution that worked for me is a natural breathing retraining technique called the Buteyko Breathing Method. There's too much info to explain here but if you research it and give it a try, it makes perfect sense. The basis behind it is that most of us overbreathe which causing poor oxygenation in our blood and internal organs leading to all sorts of diseases, conditions, and respiratory problems. The best way to go through the Buteyko method is with a knowledgeable practitioner who knows a lot of the technique and various conditions.

Look up "Control Pause Buteyko" and learn how to do this to measure your Control Pause. This number will help you get an idea of where you health is and where it needs to be. I encourage everyone here to give it a try as it worked for me when I had CHVS, and I'm still training now to get rid of symptoms that have returned. But it works very well.

Beautifully written. Thank you.

maybe you have fibromyalgia. or a inner ear issue like vertigo or something. id get an anxiety something natural if u can. sorry
anxiety dos have a heart attack like feeling as im finding out and the tingling and numbness are similar dizziness and especially
gasping for air. U wake up happy?

I have the same problem 2 .I wake up at nights out of breath feeling like I am dying my heart rate really low cold sweating pains behind my neck .I suffer with the same panic attacks but my doctor told me to go for a c.t scan still.

O man I feel I have this exact thing u have .All the symptoms are the same worst experience ever. Need help bro

Hi there:

I know you wrote this but I felt compelled to write to you because I can relate with what you are saying. this is all anxiety and yes it can cause all this weird stuff. All those weird sensations are caused by your body being hypersensitive. I also believe that after having children anxiety can flare up for many obvious reasons. For example: ever since I had children I get thing where I will wake up in the middle on the night gasping for air and like fighting for my life. Nocturnal panic attacks and I never had them before them. Anxiety sucks but there is much you can do about it. When you are in high anxiety please avoid caffeine specially later during the day. I have been tracking when I get worse and sure enough I had lots that day. you have to remember that anxiety is mind/body related. Breathing is key also. Have you ever felt kind of that numb feeling? I hate that the most and is from not breathing right. Take deeps breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. Count it 1 2 3 4 in 1 2 3 4 out. Do this when you are stressed or just cause it will help. Avoid bad sugars and exercise to the point where you are sweating at least three times a week ( to begin with ) because it releases good stuff.
Be kind and forgiving to yourself and try not to sweat the small stuff. You are not alone I have experienced all your symptoms, God bless

A pinched nerve in your neck. I would go sdee a Chiropractor ASAP!