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I stop breathing

Posted , 8 users are following.

caroleanne1951
caroleanne1951

my husband told me that I often Stop breathing for quite long periods during the night. He says almost a minute! Then I do a loud gasp and start breathing again. I am not snoring at all, I don't smoke, am a very light drinker and am not tired during the day. Could this be sleep apnea ?

1 like, 14 replies

14 Replies

  • lorraine28330
    lorraine28330 caroleanne1951

    Posted

    hi , 

    this is sounds like sleep apnea. It can be very serious as for the time that you stop breathing you don't get oxygen to vital parts including your brain.

    please please call your gp and get an appointment if the receptionist says there isn't any, tell them you will be going to your local a&e to get it sorted, sometimes they suddenly find a space for you. 

    They will organise some tests for you to make sure that you get the help you need.

    please do this today, don't leave it as it may get worse.

    all the best

    • caroleanne1951
      caroleanne1951 lorraine28330

      Posted

      Thank you Lorraine, I have an appointment to see my GP on 11August. She is away on holiday and that is the earliest available! Not good but fingers crossed I keep going until then.lol x
    • lorraine28330
      lorraine28330 caroleanne1951

      Posted

      well done, my only other suggestion would be if it gets any worse between now and then either go to a walk in centre if you have one near or an a&e unit, it's best to be sure rather than wait and get worse.

      all the best

  • lily65668
    lily65668 caroleanne1951

    Posted

    Yup - that's sleep apnoea all right! I'm glad you've started the process of getting it treated as you shouldn't let it go on indefinitely.

    However, it's nothing to panic about. You won't die - unless you were to get completely drunk and/or take a large dose of sedatives at night, of course! It's a longer-term problem in that if it goes untreated for too long it will push your blood pressure up, and this in turn will eventually cause kidney damage.

    When you get referred to the sleep lab they'll be able to assess whether it's serious enough to warrant a CPAP machine (or the more modern version, the name of which escapes me). In some countries - like the one where I live - they insist on surgery but I've known a couple of people who've had that. One said it didn't make any difference, the other said it made the problem worse! But as far as I know they don't push for surgery in the UK. My own sleep apnoea was brought down to more manageable levels just by losing 8kg (18lb).

    • caroleanne1951
      caroleanne1951 lily65668

      Posted

      Thanks Lily, and for the correct Spelling lol 😀I must say I thought it looked wrong when I wrote it! I am trying to lose some weight at the moment as I put on Over 2stone after a foot problem stopped me being able to walk any distance. I am sure that has not helped. I never get drunk or take sedatives so I should be ok. I always thought bad snorers get it and my other half says I only snore when I have a bad cold. X

       

    • lily65668
      lily65668 caroleanne1951

      Posted

      You didn't spell it wrong - apnea is the US spelling, which is also perfectly acceptable in the UK!

      Weight gain is often one of the things that aggravates sleep apnoea, particularly in middle age (though you don't say how old you are). I also find I can help myself by raising the head of the mattress slightly, and I've trained myself over the years to sleep on my left side as much as possible. Some people train themselves not to sleep on their backs (which is always the worst position) by sewing half a tennis-ball into the back of their pyjamas! In my case, my small airway can get further clogged by thick catarrh (sorry if you're eating when reading this!) due to an auto-immune condition I suffer from, which tends to dry out all my secretions. I manage this by trying to remember not to eat dairy or chocolate in the evening, or if I forget, I take a dose of an anticongestant medicine to thin things down a bit.

      Even if your blood oxygen levels are found not to be low enough to justify a CPAP, there's often a lot you can do to help yourself.

  • linda187
    linda187 caroleanne1951

    Posted

    I have sleep apnea and apparently that is what I do.  Though I do snore.  My cousin, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), just had a sleep study done.  She is not the same as me.  They found she is a shallow breather and her oxygen level drops to 60% when she sleeps which she still has to treat with a CPAP machine.
  • grandmaw
    grandmaw caroleanne1951

    Posted

    Hi, my son-in-law had this, he ended in A & E for something else, and had to stay in

    for the night and the night nurses picked it up.  He then had tests and had to have

    his tonsels out as his windpipe was to small.  This has helped he now gets a good

    night sleep and so do my daughter. So dont stress out Caroleanne as Lorraine said go to your doctors and have some tests.  Hope this gets a good result for you

    and your husband.

  • redgill
    redgill caroleanne1951

    Posted

    Be aware that the longer you leave it, when you have an apnoea, your brain gets starved of oxygen, and cells die off, i wasn't diagnosed for 2 yrs, as a consequence of that i now suffer from short term memory loss, that is a pain in itself ! And with respect to lily65668, a person i knew did die from SA, but he was excessively overweight, prior to my c pap i stopped breathing, woke up and could not get any air in my lungs for what seemed minuets, and when i did i was gasping for air for a good 5 mins afterwards, that happened twice in 2 yrs, At my sleep study i was having apnoeas upto 54 times an hour, was then given a c pap, i now have a new singing all dancing c pap from a hospital in London which breathes with you, a machine which my local hospital can not afford. Hope all goes well for you
  • caroleanne1951
    caroleanne1951

    Posted

    Many thanks to everyone that has replied to my post. You have all been very helpful and I appreciate your time and effort. I am 63 and have never smoked although my ex husband did so I probably had passive smoking 25 years ago. I would not be surprised if I am a shallow breather as I have noticed a need to take a big deep breath when just sitting being inactive. Once after a general anaesthetic it was very hard for them to wake me up. It was several hours later that I finally woke. The next time I had a GA I woke ok, but then my oxygen SATS kept testing low. 
  • Joe131364
    Joe131364 caroleanne1951

    Posted

    It can be sleep Apnia. They gave mea maqchine to force air into my lungs. welll after three years I stopped usingit and I am still alive.

    Another doctor diagnosed me wit COPD! That evening the emergency room called to see if I had any problems breathing.Once again a mis diagnosis!

    • linda187
      linda187 Joe131364

      Posted

      My cousin has COPD and didn't know she had it.  She almost died a year ago when she got a respiratory infection and developed sepsis.  Recently she underwent a sleep study and though she does not have sleep apnea, her oxygen level falls to 60% when she is sleeping because she is a shallow breather. 
  • scousemouse
    scousemouse caroleanne1951

    Posted

    Hi

    I too suffer from Sleep apnoea. I have read the comments and generally agree with most of them. There is a great deal of difference between COPD and SA, the main one for me is the response of DVLA. COPD can be sorted by the cpap machine alone but with SA you will automatically have your driving licence revoked for 12 months. This can be reduced to 6 months if you don't smoke, have a BMI of less than 30 and your SA is being dealt with by NHS.

    Hope this is of some help.

    • caroleanne1951
      caroleanne1951 scousemouse

      Posted

      Hi thanks for your input. That does not sound good, I was very surprised that it could affect my driving licence though, I was completely unaware of that. I never fall asleep during the day, have never smoked, but am a bit overweight so losing some might sort me out . Also I do not snore which seems to be usual for sleep apnoea. 
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