Is this Apnea and paralysis together??

[Gianluigi]

I am now 39 years old and the first times I experienced what I will describe I was 18ish. Back then I went to the doctor and she had me do some test to my head and found everything normal (probably back then these problems were not fully known yet?). Gladly they do not happen often anymore, on the contrary...(before the last week attack it maybe happened 1 year before). Maybe that is the reason why I don't go to the doctor...doing tons of expensive tests and I have to be lucky to be the right month or year when the synthom appears. But for sure every time it happens I am 100% sure my life ends there...I say goodbye to everyone in my head. That's what happens:

I wake up anytime during the sleep (last time I was lying in bed with my wife and I dozed off, after maybe 3 or 5 minutes it happened...can you reach REM in such a short time?). I am wide awake and I don't feel strange presences or hallucinate like I read it happens for sleep paralysis. I cannot move any part of the body and unfortunately that includes diaframa, well except my eyes. So I am stuck in bed able to look around and not able to move or breath. With a huge effort I manage to move a little part of the body or maybe very slightly rock side to side (maybe not even an inch). In my head I hope that help moving maybe a nerve I am pinching or something...more likely I call it desperation. In my last episode, since my wife was sleeping next to me, instead of moving I concentrated the effort in asking for help...not a good idea. I managed to whisper very low (and of course she didn't hear it) help twice and that used all the oxygen I had.
So if I really had apnea shouldn't I start breathing alone when I wake up? On the other hand, paralysis is consequence of a defensive system that protects the body during REM, but that defense blocks the body and not the breathing system.

Does someone recognize this situation from personal experience? And how dangerous is it? I mean, there will be the day that I will not restart breathing?

[avi123]

Most humans can't hold breath for more than 4 minutes without incurring some kind of brain damage. The fact that this has not happened to you means that you're ok with this "apnea". Could it be a dream after waking from a REM sleep while one of your limbs went to "sleep"?

[Gianluigi]

I am 100% sure every part of me is awake and I am fully aware of the surrounding. Once I fell asleep while sitting on the couch with my legs stretched out on a chair (just to say that avoiding sleeping on my back, as I read on the web, doesn't help me) while I was watching a soccer match. I woke up in paralyzed way and heard a goal on tv. When I finally got my breath back and could talk, I told my father what I heard on tv and he confirmed it had happened.

What really sux is that I get so scared and freak out, that I never remember what I do to get my breathing going again or if it starts on its own.

[DoriC]

Gee, I'm hoping someone (maybe RG) can remember a discussion here on that very same phenomenen. I tried to do a Search but I'm probably using the wrong words. I'll keep trying.

[DoriC]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=64405&p=601032&hili ... is#p601032

Here's something I found!

[BlackSpinner]

Most human can't hold breath for more than 4 minutes without incurring some kind of brain damage. The fact that this has not happened to you means that you're ok with this "apnea". Could it be a dream after waking from a REM sleep while one of your limbs went to "sleep"?

Ignore the jerk who gives very bad and incorrect information.

[Gianluigi]

To Doric

Yup, this agrees with everything I read in the web. And both (web and the thread you linked) specify that breathing is not affected by the paralysis. That's why I was wondering if there was some Apnea too. But if there was apnea too, it shouldn't happened once in a long time since apnea is not a seldom event (but I don't know much about either apnea or paralysis).

[chunkyfrog]

I had exactly the same feeling when I slipped on the ice many years ago, falling and striking the top of my head
on the wheel of my son's Mustang. It seemed like the longest time that I could not--breathe--or move.
I though I was dying, but in a little bit, I was breathing again; and could once again move.
I don't even recall having a knot on my head. Weird.

[DreamLady]

I had the very problem you describe early on in my experience with OSA, I just didnt' know that OSA was causing it. It's a combination of sleep paralysis, apnea, and anxiety. You fall asleep, have an event (perhaps a sleep onset central apnea), you awake in a very strange state of hyperawareness, then panic when you realize you're not breathing. It then feels as if the non-breathing episode lasts for about an hour, but is probably in actuality just seconds. I always managed to wake up and breathe, and was relieved to find I wasn't really gasping for breath like I thought I would.

Now (20 years later) I know my body was trying to tell me something and I was refusing to listen. Unfortunately, I managed to train myself never to sleep on my back, because that's when these episodes occurred. I say unfortunately, because that resulted in my OSA going undiagnosed for a further 20 years.

[avi123]

Google: Atonia

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art ... lekey=9811

[Gianluigi]

Thank you DreamLady. So it really might be a case of paralysis combined to apnea. I guess next step is to go and test if I really have sleep apnea...even though I really don't see any sign of it.