Waking up in the middle of the night and realizing that you were gasping for air during sleep can be scary and something you shouldn’t ignore. It can be a sign of a serious health problem. And if you do find yourself waking feeling short of breath, don’t assume right away that it’s sleep apnea. “Gasping at night can be caused by a lot of things,” says otolaryngologist Omar G. Ahmed, MD, who specializes in treating sleep disorders at Houston Methodist Hospital.
The key to finding out what’s causing your nighttime gasping is to see a sleep specialist, who will perform a physical exam and ask a lot of questions. How long he you been gasping at night? How often does it happen? He you gained weight lately? Do you he any major health problems?
A sleep specialist may suspect sleep apnea as the cause of your gasping, but you might be surprised by the variety of other potential causes.
Obstructive Sleep ApneaObstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the most common form of this nighttime breathing disorder, occurs if your tongue and other tissues in the mouth fall backward and block your airway when you lie down for a snooze. Each time that happens, you stop breathing for up to a minute or more, and it can happen hundreds of times per night. You may not wake up, but a bed partner will likely be wide-eyed at your snoring, as well as frequent gasps for air.
If a doctor suspects you may he sleep apnea, they will order a sleep study, which can be done at home, though tests conducted in hospital sleep clinics provide more information. While you sleep, you’ll be connected to various monitors that measure your breathing, oxygen levels, body movements, and other factors that offer clues that you he sleep apnea. “We want to find out if obstructive sleep apnea is occurring, and if so, how severe it is,” Ahmed says.
If you are diagnosed with OSA and you’re carrying some extra pounds, “the most important thing you can do is lose weight,” says sleep specialist Priyanka Yad, DO, of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Comprehensive Sleep Center, in Hillsborough, NJ. Dropping 10% of your body weight, she says, can reduce episodes of sleep apnea by up to 50%.