I normally don't have breathing problems other than seasonal allergies and sometimes getting out of breath if I do a lot of physical activity since I don't do it often. But last night I woke up in the middle of the night and rolled over and all of the sudden I felt like someone was suffocating me. I wasn't short of breath, but I felt like I couldn't get enough air into my lungs. It was a little warm in the room and very dry. I thought at first it was just due to the dryness in my nose and throat. But I got up and got a drink of water, used some nasal spray because I was a little congested. But as soon as I laid down again I felt like I couldn't breath. Then I started to panic thinking I was having a heart attack though I had no pain or any other symptoms. I sat up for a while, then laid down with two pillows half sitting up. I finally fell asleep again. Woke up a few more times as usual. I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep at night and staying asleep so waking up a lot isn't unusual. But I've only had this feeling one other time last week, but that one wasn't nearly as bad as this one. That night I got up to go to the bathroom and had a drink of cold water and felt better. Last night though it lasted much longer and was more severe. My husband suggested maybe it was due to peri-menopause. Or stress. Which we've had a lot of this year with him getting laid off and not knowing what the future is going to hold. Yesterday I was reading an article in the paper about how bad the job market suddenly got in our area. And how many thousands of jobs in his field have been lost and how many more in the fields he was thinking of trying to move into are going to be lost. Then since we live in a townhouse where the rent is high, well not real high but high enough if he can't find a decent job we might not be able to stay, so I started looking in the paper and online to see what else is around and got rather upset that anything cheaper is going to be in a bad neighborhood. Plus I work at home and so far business is ok, I work for a website, but sales are down and that worries me since I've worked here for 8 years and all of the jobs I've had before this are in his field or retail, which his field is gone, most outsourced, and retail doesn't pay enough to live on so yeah, I've had a lot of stress and yesterday was a pretty stressful day. So it could be stress related. I just wondered if anyone else ever experienced this during peri or menopause.

Hi GS,
I have no doubt that stress can make all our problems worse but I truly believe that they have to be there in the first place! I hate to see the dear ladies here beating themselves up over how they feel and their stress levels, as if it were somehow their own fault.

I can confirm that I have experienced this sensation you describe many times during the shut down process. It usually occurs in the middle of the night and awakens me at either 1.30am or the dreaded 3am. For menopausal ladies 3am is most definitely the witching hour. Yuk! I hate it. I think that we probably reach our lowest ebb at this time and poor thyroid/adrenal function that occurs with all this mess, fails to keep cruise control on our vital functions. Basically, you have probably forgotten to breathe and your fail safe mechanisms wake you to enable you to catch up on oxygen levels. Over time things have improved but it still happens to me occasionally. It is very disconcerting and kinda feels like you are dying. Whatever that is supposed to feel like. I lay the blame firmly on a stressed, menopausally confused, thyroid gland.

I hope other ladies will come in with their experiences here so that we can ease your mind and stop you from getting into a panic cycle over it.


Cheers,

XIII

I am not sure if this is the same thing or not, but I used to, and still do occasionally have that gasping for air thing going on. For me it is always just as I am drifting off to sleep, and it does literally feel like I have forgotten to breath. Crazy thing, if I am very tired and relaxed - but awake - I can feel myself forget to breathe!! It is an odd sensation.

I get the same thing along with the not sleeping sound through the night. I get that restless leg feeling only it's through my whole body. Some nights it keeps me awake hours until it settles down. This causes anxiety which can cause the breathing thing to happen. I get the anxiety attacks out of the blue day and night even when I'm not thinking about anything to cause it. Maye our brain hormones (don't know if there is such a thing) go into overdrive that brings out the things in the back of our mind without us knowing it!? Don't know if this makes any sense but what does these days.

Well I feel better knowing I'm not the only one. But I'm still kind of afraid to go to bed tonight. That was one of the scariest feelings I've had in a very long time. I just felt like I couldn't get any air into my lungs. I wasn't huffing and puffing or breathing hard. I just rolled over and it hit me like a ton of bricks, no air. At first I thought my sleep mask slipped down over my nose but it was still in place. So I have no clue why it happened but I sure hope it doesn't happen again.

had this just last night!......I have been somewhat congested and so that did not help breathing out of my mouth all night, I could not sleep anyway, but when my mind TRIED to drift I noticed I wasn't taking a breath!...this kind of freaked me (thinking I might die in my sleep) so it gave me an increased anxious feeling to add to my sleeplessness.....

Oh, and I thought all these crazy symptoms had gone after I stopped my periods - 20 months ago - but, oh no, here comes more to worry about!

Caz

I think you should get a sleep study done. You might have sleep apnea.