Question
I’ve woken up a number of times within the last couple of months gasping for breath. It seems like my airway is blocked. I pant so hard it wakes me up. The panting is so fast that it scares my husband. I even have allergies and my sinuses are sometimes blocked. So I can not breathe through my nose, and need to sleep with my mouth open. I even have asthma but have not had an attack in months. (I do not think they were asthma attacks.) Is my throat blocked from the postnasal drip, or could it’s something more serious, like sleep deprivation?
Oh You’re right heading in the right direction along with your two thoughts on what may very well be causing the shortness of breath that wakes you up.
Postnasal drip could cause fluids to maneuver up your throat. To protect our airways, now we have sensors in our throat and bronchial tubes. Foreign matter in our airways triggers sensors to send signals through nerves connected to the brain. The brain responds by sending messages back to the diaphragm and chest muscles to cough and breathe. Naturally it wakes us up, which is an excellent thing.
Lack of sleep can even cause the symptoms you describe. You didn’t mention that your husband complains of heavy snoring, which is a characteristic of most individuals that suffer from sleep deprivation.
Other indicators that suggest lack of sleep:
- Daytime sleepiness
- Morning headache
- High blood pressure.
Another condition that could cause sudden awakening attributable to difficulty respiration is heart failure. Doctors call this paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. This symptom doesn’t occur in isolation. People with heart failure could have reduced exercise tolerance, meaning they turn out to be wanting breath with exertion, especially climbing stairs. Often the brand new ankles and legs are swollen.
In general I’d also include asthma as a possible reason for your problem. However, you said that these gasping attacks felt different and also you didn’t mention wheezing. Therefore, wheezing episodes are unlikely to trigger an asthma flare-up.
(By the way in which, some individuals with asthma don’t even realize they’re wheezing. They may only experience coughing or shortness of breath.)
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