Confused awakenings am i alone?

[Carlton]

Several times a year I wake up during the night in a confused distressed state. I've recently been diagnosed with OSA but reading trough this forum I've not come across any similar problems. Am I alone with this one?

[jdacal]

If you mean jumping up in bed, feeling anxious and not knowing what startled you. Then yes, that is what my OSA would cause me to do. The worse part is not knowing that it's OSA and wondering what's wrong with you to make you do that during the night.

Once I found out I had OSA then those episodes where not nearly as scary.

Its stopped with the CPAP therapy.

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP

[rock and roll]

I've had this occationally and I think it's normal occationally. I never really related it to OSA or SA,but I suppose it could happen especially early on in treatment.

[dsm]

Several times a year I wake up during the night in a confused distressed state. I've recently been diagnosed with OSA but reading trough this forum I've not come across any similar problems. Am I alone with this one?

Carlton,

What you have described fits very well with what happens when breathing has stopped & despite the body trying to suck in air, it can't get it & the brain starts to send wakeup messages & the heart starts to race in response to the alerts & diminishing oxygen in the blood.

I can easily see someone at particular stages of OSA waking up in a state of anxiety/stress.

On a hunch am guessing you might be a 'younger' person (under 45-50) ?

Cheers

DSM

[Carlton]

yeah younger i suppose 35 but rather be 21. Anxious when this happens yes similar to state of shock not quite myself is an understatement. Nearest I,ve heard to what i describe is parasomnias (prob spelt wrong) and don,t know much about what they are. Research into sleep disorders and OSA,s seems to be much more advanced across the atlantic than in the UK so anybody with any knowledge or anything similar please post

[dsm]

<snip>
the UK
<snip>

PS I see you are from Kent? - which part ?

Along long time ago I used to Live in Hawkhurst near the Kent Sussex border, just up from Battle. But am guessing (another hunch) that you are close to London ?

Cheers DSM

[Carlton]

Yeah nearer to London not the nice part of kent anyway. Gillingham in medway

[dsm]

Yeah nearer to London not the nice part of kent anyway. Gillingham in medway

Kent is a fascinating county with a remarkably varied history. It is where the Saxons were first granted land by the unfortunate celts (late 4th century) who subsequently got over run & pushed out by these new 'friends'. In this sense it is the ancient heart of Anglo-Saxon England and thus the birthplace of the Anglo-Saxon desire for political equality that not even the Normans could squash - so it can be argued that Kent is where modern political democracy originated from, survived, flourished (despite the number of later kings who tried to squash it ) and was eventually taken to many parts of the world but particularly the US.

Living near Battle (the actual site where Harold Godwinson & his Anglo-Saxon army took on William & his Normans) started me on a an interest in the history of the region. But rural Kent was & I guess remains 'the garden of England'

Cheers DSM

[ozij]

Carlton,
TAS (Talk about sleep) has a number of sleep forums, dedicated to sleep problems other thatn OSA.
http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/message-boards
You might want to take a look at this forum Parasomnias.

Click on the blue text.
O.

[dsm]

Carlton,

Some more thoughts re your experience.

These events have been pretty scary ?, Am guessing that in not comprehending a likely cause it has made them especially scary.

It is highly probable they have developed a 'life' of their own in your mind and
you perceive them as somewhat like 'demons in the night'.

Bear in mind that you have been diagnosed OSA and as somee other posters have pointed out, they too have had similar reactions.

If any of what I have said rings true, you need to speak to whoever is best to convince you of the cause so you can put any fears to rest. Until you can bury them they may still bother you. OSA can create exactly what was happening.

Cheers & good luck - you will find the people here very helpful & interested.

PS Never made it to your part of the county, the nearest I would ever have got was going to Tilbury to catch a ship to Australia (a long time ago). Am guessing that is about 16 miles or so from where you live. The English side of my ancestors originated in Dorset. Have lived in a few places in the south west & southern counties incl Middlesex (the big L )

[Margaret]

Carlton
I can relate to your problem. But rather than several times a year, it was more like several times a week that I was aware of anxiety. Quite common for me to suddenly sit upright, swing my legs off the bed and fall asleep sitting on the edge of the bed.
Fortunately (after 10 years, I suspect) I was diagnosed with very severe OSA (up to 89 episodes / hour). I have been on CPAP therapy for nearly 3 months now and am a new person.
Don't delay. Do whatever you have to do to get the most suitable treatment for your OSA. You won't regret it.

The internet allows us to talk to these wonderful people in the US so distance is not a problem. But be warned of all the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's they use in their strange 'English'. And they use abbreviations for everything eg. LOL. I can only guess at what they mean and I'm probably wrong most of the time. But despite these strange aberrations they will go out of their way to answer your questions .......so.......stick with the forum.

Margaret from DownUnder (my ancestors left England 150 years ago)

[WAFlowers]

Several times a year I wake up during the night in a confused distressed state. I've recently been diagnosed with OSA but reading trough this forum I've not come across any similar problems. Am I alone with this one?

During an apneic episode your O2 level in your blood falls, possibly dangerously. Your body reacts much like this:

I need to breathe.
I can't breathe!
PANIC!!!!

Then you get a shot of adreniline to kick-start your breathing. Your heart starts racing and your blood pressure climbs. You are aroused from your sleep enough to start breathing again (which really messes up your sleep architecture, causes sleep deprivation and all sorts of nasty secondary effects such as type 2 diabetes, increased appetite leading to weight gain, memory and cognitive problems, anxiety, stress, cardiac problems and I could go on).

If you were aroused enough to become concious of what is happening, you could feel as if you were having a panic attack because you have all the physical symptoms of one.

Until I was diagnosed with OSA I just figured I was having nightmares but for some reason could never remember my dreams.

P.S. You're not alone in this.

[DrDroopy]

For years I have woken up several times a week with what I could only describe as panic attacks. I would be disoriented and believed I was dying. My heart would be racing and I would be sweating. Often I sat up in bed or even leapt out of bed and raced across the room. I usually would have dreamed I was choking on something or that I swallowed something that I needed to get out of my throat. Prior to beginning CPAP treatment, I went to see a psychiatrist about it. He prescribed Prozac. I told him that I had been diagnosed with OSA and that I had hoped that maybe the CPAP treatment would resolve the problem but he reassured me that there was no connection and that I would need the medication. Still, I put off starting the medications to give myself a chance to see what happened with the CPAP. Funny thing -- it turned out that once I began CPAP, the nighttime panic attacks ceased entirely. My dreams -- that I was choking -- turned out to be quite correct as I WAS choking. In fact I would not have ever thought to ask my doctor to have me checked for OSA if it had not been for the severity of the panic attacks and the dreams. I do think that this problem of nighttime panic attacks can be related to all kinds of things and I would not be a bit suprised to learn that for others, CPAP does not alleviate the terror. (In fact, some might suggest that CPAP is its very own form of nighttime terror!) I have nothing against mental health therapy or taking the meds and would have done so if the attacks had not let up, but I am very glad that they did go away with CPAP.

[dsm]

I need to breathe.
I can't breathe!
PANIC!!!!

Bill,

Very well illustrated

Cheers

DSM

[snoozeandlose]

I must have had a couple panic attacks misdiagnosed also. But it all certainly fits and makes perfect sense. So I took a lot of Buspar for naught. Hey I think you Brits are the ones with strange spellings. My son lives in NZ and has converted to your version of English which is probably correct.