Shortness of breath after waking up, what's wrong with me?
Posted , 3 users are following.
I took a nap in the afternoon and woke up out of breath. I've had similar cases before but I managed to breathe right after I got up.
However, this time I couldn't breathe no matter what, I was gasping for air and tried to call for help, luckily it only lasted for a few seconds. It was seriously terrifying, I thought I was about to die.
I'm 15 years old this year and I seriously hope it's nothing serious.
Additional info that may or may not be important: I had a stuffy nose before I slept :P
0 likes, 1 reply
lily65668 uhhsera
Posted
Hi uhhsera,
This is sleep paralysis (SP) and it's nothing at all to worry about. Most people have a few episodes in their life but around 5% of the population - including me - has SP on a regular basis.
When we sleep, we alternate between periods of deep, non-dreaming sleep and periods of REM sleep, during which we dream. REM stands for the rapid eye movements that can be seen in someone who's dreaming. And we all dream, regardless of whether we remember our dreams or not.
When we're in REM sleep the brain secretes a hormone that paralyses all our voluntary muscles, to stop us jumping up and acting out our dreams. In some of us, the brain routinely gets it slightly wrong, and either continues pumping out the paralysing hormone for a minute or so after we wake, or - more rarely - starts before we're fully asleep. That's what you were experiencing.
The hormone doesn't affect the muscles controlled by the autonomic nervous system that we need to keep us alive, e.g. the heart, the diaphragm (for breathing), the ability to swallow our saliva automatically, our intestines etc.
In waking life we use two different sets of muscles for breathing. The diaphragm and abdominal muscles maintain automatic breathing under the autonomic nervous system, which continues day and night, even when the paralysing hormone is working. However, during the day we're able to override these functions and take an extra-deep breath from time to time, by using the muscles that expand our rib cage. These muscles aren't controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which means they're paralysed when we're in REM sleep or SP.
That's why you felt as if you couldn't breathe. If we feel we can't breathe properly, for whatever reason, our first reaction is to try and take an extra-deep breath, using our voluntary muscles. When we're in an SP state this doesn't work, giving us the false impression that we can't breathe at all. The muscles that work our vocal cords are also controlled by the voluntary nervous system, which would explain why you couldn't call out.
Don't worry about this. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with you, and it's not connected with your stuffy nose either. It's just something that happens to everyone from time to time. It may be that you're going to have this for life, as it normally starts between the ages of 15 and 25. (I was 23 when I had my first episode.) But it doesn't necessarily mean you're stuck with it, and even if you are it's not something that's going to impact on your life. It's been 51 years since my first episode and I'm still around!
One way to avoid this is to try not to nap during the day, and avoid long morning lie-ins. Easier said than done when you're 15, I know! The reason for this is that our periods of REM sleep (during which the natural paralysis occurs) get longer towards the end of the night when we're not so tired, ditto when we nap during the day.
If you have any more questions, feel free to post here again and I'll try to answer them. I'm a former neuro nurse, btw, as well as having had SP for most of my adult life, so I know a bit about it from both ends.