Feel like I’m dying when falling asleep

I experienced it for the first time after smoking hashish 4-5 years ago and thought i was having a badtrip. Now i can go month without symptoms and then, out of nowhere it comes back for a day or two, sometimes more and with variable intensity. Most of the time I have trouble taking deep breath and a pressure on my chest. as soon as i feel like i'm falling asleep, my body is in distress and i feel like i will die if i don't wake up. I wake up with my heart beating fast and breathing like i'm lacking oxygen. it's truly an horrible experience and most of the time i just fall asleep of exhaustion around 5-6 am . However, i'm glad I found people who experience the same thing. I've been looking for it for years and it's the first time multiple people seems to have exactly the same thing. With time I found out, talking to someone about it during it helps a lot. For me, it's reducing my stress and anxiety wich helps a lot. Sometimes I'm wondering if its not some ptsd of my badtrip or a really rare and precise sleep disorder. I have yet to talk about it to a doctor but I will try since it's really concerning. Good luck to all of you guys!

so has anyone gotten an actual diagnosis for this, or figured out how to describe this to a dr without sounding like a loony? like " hey doc, i feel like im dying when i sleep" first time i went to the er they looked at me like i was an idiot. my dr actually chuckled out loud and just said "no you dont, you just feel dizzy". what should i tell them to make them listen?

hey i have almost exactly the same problem as everyone else here in a sense. it gets so bad i rush to emergency sometimes to check my heart and my breathing because the anxiety and paranoia right before bed wakes me out if any kind of pre-slumber feelings i may experience. i always feel like i am dying right before i go to bed. compulsively checking my pulse. my chest gets heavy, my jaw locks, my limbs go numb, then they start to hurt, i get light headed and dissociate. its horrifying i dread sleeping. its been horrible, its crippling i'm exhausted. i get fatigued quickly no matter how much rest i get. within 8 hours of working i am whipped out. even if it is minimal work. i cant sleep unless i take medication. i have constant chest pains im scared to sleep. sendhelp. i wish i had advice for you other than take w steong enough sleeping pill and try and have a good cry.

I get this too. I have been told its sleep paralysis??? Looked it up then let me know if you's think it fits?

i have the same things that you all described. It will happen for a few nights and then not come back for a while. It will happen after i have fallen asleep. Sometimes i see and hear things. I wake up feeling like i am dying . I feel like something dark is trying to pull me away but i fight so hard to not be taken. A lot of times i scream and my husband has to "wake" me even though i am standing up and running around lots of times i make it to my kids rooms and tell them i love them like i am leaving!! its miserable! I've wondered if it could be hormonal bc sometimes it happens more around my time of the month. Also i have wondered if it could be sleep apnea?

I have experienced many of the symptoms that each of you have stated. It's worsening now and I'm waking up screaming, not from any dream but a feeling that seems as if I'm dying. At first I thought it was a heart problem because whatever it is makes my heart rate go through the roof. I saw a cardiologist and had a sleep study, wore a heart monitor and nothing. No episodes to capture. They are random, not driven by stress or a lack of sleep and its making me fearful to lay down and close my eyes. The scary part is outside of this forum, doctors have not diagnosed this and I don't know what to do. I am going to get my potassium levels checked so thank you for that advice. Prayers to everyone on this post!

exactly same thing experienced it like 5 times whenever i go asleep so any updates on that

Wow i have all these symptoms plus violently biting my tongue and cheeks when a shock wakes my rite back up. 5 years now. Sometimes takes me hours to get to sleep.

Just came to say that I'm glad i found this discussion board. This happens randomly and i don't know why. But it always makes me have a bad panic attack which adds to the dread. Reading this has helped and I'm glad I'm not alone with feeling like this. someone mentioned a tension headache, and i get that with this too, but only briefly, like my head is being squeezed.... And the thing about acid reflux, I'm thinking it could be that too. Only because I'm having that right now.

I am a 25 year old male, generally healthy, not overweight or anything. Much like everyone else ive had several recurring episodes in whereby i am overcome by abject dread distinctly associated with the feeling of dying just as i am on the brink of falling to asleep. Sometimes it is accompanied with a feeling of being shocked with a current throughout my body occasioning me to jerk up. Just before this happens veritably sure i feel my essence/soul being pulled from me and instinctively causing me to fight it. At times the panick is so great i find myself rushing out of bed, stumbling to the ground, crawling as though i am dying. This is not sleep paralysis, it is something much more, and the distress upsets our sleeping patterns. For those suffering i found that watching something or reading until i drift off unknowingly has helped in a few cases.