breathing problems

[danaeris]

Twice last night my involuntary breathing went to hell. You know how if you don't think about breathing, you will take nice measured breaths and be fine? Well, twice last night, once while awake, once while trying to sleep and failing, my breaths started coming short, shallow and quick. I could force myself to take the measured breaths I needed to have enough oxygen but it was not happening automatically. This was, of course, particularly distressing when I was trying to sleep!

Anyone know what this is? The only thing I can think of was that it was a panic/anxiety reaction, except I wasn't feeling particularly anxious (that I know of) at the time... but I can see that I was under a lot of stress.

Had insomnia for a large portion of last night. Might have some caffeine but I'm going to try to avoid it if possible because its bad for me and might bring out anxiety.

Um. I know there was something else but I'm blanking so I'll post this and go do something else now.

Comments

[artistic-chaos.livejournal.com]

I spontaneously developed asthma at age 26, so it's not unheard of.

[qedrakmar.livejournal.com]

sounds like athsma(sp?) to me...

[geekosaur]

Agree with the previous comment: I have been borderline asthmatic for almost 10 years, and stress definitely aggravates it. And that does sound suspiciously like an anxiety attack.

[rjpb.livejournal.com]

Most likely, if this was a single occurrence, this was just anxiety, stress, or caffeine related. If you notice this again, you may want to get checked for asthma, as people above suggested, or possibly sleep apnea.

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

Sleep apnea was my guess, too.

Q, if your lungs felt "heavy" I'd guess asthma or allergies of some kind. Regardless, whenever I have that sort of problem, I just try to stop caring about it. Like "if I die, oh well" sort of thing. Counterintuitively, it helps my heart stop racing, and my breathing re-regulate.

I do this when I get overwhelmed, as in a crowd or a noisy place, in addition to when trying to sleep (very very occasionally on the latter).