"I wake up and it feels like my heart has stopped" [Archive]

alabamatrucker

11-11-2008, 02:33 AM

Dr Steve

11-11-2008, 12:16 PM

Dear Dr. Steve,

Im 26 yr old white male. I smoke and drink 1-3 drinks per week. Im in okay health except for depression and chronic back pain due to nerve damage and a spinal fusion. I was taking methadone tablets for well over a year and i asked the doctor to change me to suboxone because i heard doctors had also started using it to treat long term pain patients. It works great and doesnt have any side effects for me. Anyway 1-2 times per week when im asleep i wake up and i cant breath and i feel like my heart has stopped . I have to sit up in bed to get my breathing started again and what not. This has been happening for well over 5 years. Even before i started taking alot of meds. What the hell is this? Its scary and im afraid im gonna die in my sleep. Thanks in advance,

Jerad

Medications- Effexor-150mg once a day (depression)
Neurontin- twice a day ( Nerve pain damage,mood stabilizer)
Prilosec- twice a day
Melatonin- 10mg per night for sleep
Suboxone- 2 8mg tablets (Nerve pain damage, long term pain medication for chronic back pain due to spinal fusion and nerve damage.)

Jerad:

I am a big fan of suboxone, actually, and will be doing a whole segment on it on the next live "Weird Medicine" show. It has been a huge boon for patients and providers alike, when used properly.

Since the sleep problem occured prior to taking these meds, I think it's pretty safe to assume that it's not due to them.

Two things come to mind (and there may be more):

1) sleep apnea
while most people are not even aware that they have sleep apnea, quite a few wake up with it occasionally and complain about feeling like they've stopped breathing while asleep. The good news is that your body is programmed to wake you up (or at least change your sleep state) enough to kick start your breathing mechanism again. Although untreated sleep apnea can cause significant medical problems, you won't just forget to breathe in your sleep and die (unless you are so sedated on medications that you can't wake up...that'd be death from overdose, a different animal altogether.

2) hypnopompic or hypnogogic episodes
this may be a hallucination caused by disorders in either emerging FROM sleep, or descending INTO sleep. People experience hypnopompic episodes (emerging from sleep) as sleep paralysis, or all kinds of weird symptoms, not unlike yours. They also experience hypnogogic episodes (falling into sleep) as a "jerking" or sudden "jolt" that wakes them up.

I would see your primary care provider and tell him/her about these episodes; a simple sleep study may be able to dope out what the problem is. Basically you go in at night and go to sleep. they'll monitor brain waves, breathing, pulse and a few other parameters and come up with a diagnosis.

Hope this helps!

your friend,

Steve