Adrenaline RUSH waking me up, SCARY

Hello,

I am super new to this forum. I have had sleep apnea since 2014. I have a mixture of OSA and Central.

When I first started to see symptoms of sleep apnea, I would get what I call "adrenaline arousals". This has happened to me at various intensities, but most notably 3 different times of high intensity.

An example of the arousal would be: me waking up from sleep, heart beating out of my throat, high blood pressure in my face, 10,000% positive I was going to die at any second, needing to call out for help to whoever could hear me yell.

This "adrenaline arousal" would only happen when I was not using the CPAP machine. The arousal would dissipate in intensity after about 10 minutes.

I went to the hospital for this during the most intense episode, and was held overnight for observation, but found no problems.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks In advance

Are you on CPap now?

I don't know if I would call it an adrenaline arousal but a similar thing happens to me occasionally...
I have found that when I wake up in such a state that it has been in the middle of some serious apnea events.

Not at my computer now but I could look a few of those up and post the charts later.

The episodes you describe sound like what I used to experience with apnea events. You said it only happened when not using your machine. That's exactly why since 2006 I have not once slept laying down without my machine. (I have slept sitting upright or in my recliner without it.) I'm too scared because of how frightening those times were. Hopefully you are able to confirm your are getting effective treatment with your machine so you can avoid those episodes in the future.

Fourtay wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:31 am

Hello,

I am super new to this forum. I have had sleep apnea since 2014. I have a mixture of OSA and Central.

When I first started to see symptoms of sleep apnea, I would get what I call "adrenaline arousals". This has happened to me at various intensities, but most notably 3 different times of high intensity.

An example of the arousal would be: me waking up from sleep, heart beating out of my throat, high blood pressure in my face, 10,000% positive I was going to die at any second, needing to call out for help to whoever could hear me yell.

This "adrenaline arousal" would only happen when I was not using the CPAP machine. The arousal would dissipate in intensity after about 10 minutes.

I went to the hospital for this during the most intense episode, and was held overnight for observation, but found no problems.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks In advance

If you really are concerned, don't you think using your XPAP correctly every time you might go to sleep or rest could be a good idea. Your body is telling you that you are in danger if not surviving. Sometime it may not work in time.

And No I haven't since starting XPAP 13 years ago, before XPAP yes. Jim

My cardiologist suspects that apnea was an immediate and direct precursor to my recently diagnosed atrial fibrillation. Eventually, my heart became irritable, easily aroused, easily aroused by adrenaline during times of stress. See where I'm going..........? I am now on a low dose of metoprolol, an adrenergic blocker, to keep my heart's receptors from being flooded with too much adrenaline.

Why do you toy with your health? It would be like me deciding to go a few days without the metoprolol just for spits and giggles. Live on the edge. I could understand if your prescription were dead wrong, or the machine delivering it. Are you there yet? Has your CPAP variant experience been so awful that you would rather take your chances with heart problems...or worse?

Julie wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:29 am

Are you on CPap now?

Yes, thankfully I am on CPAP/XPAP now. I believe it is Auto-PAP, 5-20 pressure. They never really dialed in the pressure setting.

The CPAP saved my life 100%. I also do not sleep ever without the CPAP as I am too afraid of these types of arousals. I am glad to hear that others have experienced these.

I still have a good amount of fatigue and heart palpitations, but the sleep apnea seems to be under control.

I use to wake up 4-5 times a night with my heart racing and not able to catch my breath, it was so freaky and the reason I got tested for apnea.... I do still wake up with mild attacks but not as intense after starting XPap... I am moving to an ASV tomorrow for complex apnea and hope it takes them away completely...

Your pressure setting is pretty low, try raising it to e.g. 7 and see if you feel any better - you may well be inadequately treated.

Welcome to the forum. You'll learn a ton here.

I used to have episodes exactly as you describe. They happened before I started xpap and for a couple years while I was on xpap. Later it was found that my pressure was not high enough and that I was still having too many apnea events. My AHI was in the 3-5 range at the time which the doctors said was good and adequate. After finding this forum we got my AHI down to around 1 most nights with higher pressure. I no longer have those episodes, palpitations and many other things are gone or resolved.

Hopefully you have talked to your doctor and looked at your overall health. As far as xpap treatment goes, the members here are pretty good at analyzing your machine data and helping guide you toward optimal therapy. Hopefully all you need is some minor therapy adjustments.

Rob K wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 17, 2018 4:33 pm

Welcome to the forum. You'll learn a ton here.

I used to have episodes exactly as you describe. They happened before I started xpap and for a couple years while I was on xpap. Later it was found that my pressure was not high enough and that I was still having too many apnea events. My AHI was in the 3-5 range at the time which the doctors said was good and adequate. After finding this forum we got my AHI down to around 1 most nights with higher pressure. I no longer have those episodes, palpitations and many other things are gone or resolved.

Hopefully you have talked to your doctor and looked at your overall health. As far as xpap treatment goes, the members here are pretty good at analyzing your machine data and helping guide you toward optimal therapy. Hopefully all you need is some minor therapy adjustments.

Thank you @Rob K
Thank you @Julie

That makes a lot of sense.
They diagnosed me with a mixture of Central and Obstructive, I use an Amara View mask from Phillips Respironics.

On a side note:
Last night I woke up, bad dreams as usual, never good dreams. But last night, I woke up, I was in between sleep and awake, well, I was totally awake, but I could fall back to sleep at any second if I wanted to.
The weirdest thing was happening to me in this semi-sleep state, I would stop breathing.... and then I would realize I was not breathing and start again, the CPAP didn't do anything, just me realizing I wasn't breathing would start me breathing again.
It wasn't an obstruction in my airway at all, I would just stop taking breaths. Maybe its all in my head, has anyone else experienced this?

I have attached an imgur link to my CPAP data report here: https://imgur.com/a/9KgXJyQ

I was unable to upload the pictures to the forum directly as they were too big and was giving errors. I will try more later.
I will ask my doctor on Friday if I can increase my auto-titration settings up from 5-20 to maybe something like 7-20? or 7-15?

Thank you soo much for your guy's feedback! This is a life saver.

I have been getting a slightly milder version of what you describe lately. And the arousal seems to persist through the day. Getting worried about it.

Why are you not raising your min. pressure (so low) as advised? That should help with arousals and you'll know then if anything else might be a problem or if things are 'solved'.

Fourtay wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 12:23 am

I will ask my doctor on Friday if I can increase my auto-titration settings up from 5-20 to maybe something like 7-20? or 7-15?

I think the minimum of 7 is probably a good idea...the maximum setting probably doesn't really matter because I don't think you are going anywhere near the max. So it probably wouldn't matter if it was 15 or 20...just because it can go there doesn't mean it will go there and if it never goes there it's a moot point.

Your screen shots were saved in a format that made them just way to big to attach.
To do attachments you would need to resize the image file to something smaller in size...but you wouldn't lose the ability to read.
You wouldn't be resizing the letters...just the overall image file.

I had some persistent heart palpitation issues until I got on magnesium supplements. Because of the heart stress apnea sufferers are often low on magnesium.