I often wake up in the middle of my sleep breathless and grasping for air. A month ago, this happened again and this time it was more severe and my chest felt painful.
I am currently under respiratory care and I had a sleep test done. The results were negative and my doctor recommended me to see a cardiologist.
What do you think is my problem? What should I do?
Dr Stephen Lee, Specialist in Ear, Nose & Throat Surgery, Raffles Hospital
I would agree that the initial thought would be to suspect Sleep Apnea as the probable cause for the problem. However, the negative sleep test does seem to exclude this condition.
It is then necessary to consider other possibilities. One such cause could be hyperactive airways. This describes airways reacting to any kind of minor stimulation. Your respiratory specialist would likely have excluded these conditions in her examination.
One other suspect could be a post-nasal drip arising from conditions such as sinusitis or allergy. This may be nocturnal in nature, and could trigger those attacks you mentioned.
Sometimes, acid reflux from oesophageal or gastric conditions could also trigger these spasm-like reactions that you mentioned.
I do agree that it would also be worthwhile to consult a cardiologist to exclude any heart related problems.
If consideration of all the above still does not yield any useful outcome, maybe it may be worthwhile to repeat a sleep evaluation.