Sleep apnea ?

I'm not sure if I have sleep apnea because this doesn't happen very often but sometimes I wake up in the night and I'm not breathing and I start gasping for air until I start breathing normally again. I'll gasp so much that my throat will hurt the whole morning. This only happens maybe once every 6 months so not very often and I have no idea what triggers it. It will just happen randomly . I've told my doctor about it and all she said was that it was unusual to be happening to me since I'm young and not overweight. It really scares me though like is it possible to die from that ? I'm scared my body won't know to gasp for air one day when I'm sleeping . Even though it doesn't happen often I still worry about it a lot. Does this happen to anyone else ?

Hi

I have not had that problem myself but I would ask your doctor to refer you to get a sleep study which will be able to find out what going on.

Hibee

Your Dr. is wrong Brandii17. Being thin does not rule out Sleep Apnea, there are many people who are thin and have Sleep Apnea. If you were to go into a Facility that treats sleep apnea you will see all body types.

Having Sleep Apnea events means you briefly stop breathing and your heart stops when this happens which puts a person with sleep apnea at a higher risk for a heart attack if left untreated. You can wake up each time you have an event but usually it's easy to fall back to sleep. Depending, it is possible to have multiple events a night which can cause sleepiness during the day.

It is common for those to snore and/or snort then gasp which will also cause a person to wake briefly. Headaches in the night and or morning headaches is also very common. If you snore or sleep with your mouth open this can cause a dry, sore throat which may or may not be related to sleep apnea. Snoring doesn't always mean a person has sleep apnea.

I have had sleep apnea for 8 years so I am quite familiar with this topic