Is it common to have a panic attack during a sleep study?

[Gaga4gaga]

My husband was told that he may have sleep apnea and I noticed that he wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night gasping for breath and seems to not be able to go back to sleep. Last November we were hiking in Arizona in the Grand Canyon and had such a bad panic attack it took us 6 hours to hike 1/2 a mile. He had another one two days later in a tunnel and he just totally stopped driving and almost got us into a wreck. He literally would not let me drive and would yell at me that he was having a heart attack.. I finally just kept driving with him screaming at me until we emerged from the tunnel and I could pull over safely. He had never had any attacks before this. He is still angry with me and says I was insensitive for driving when he asked me not to drive but we were in a dangerous spot and I did not want to die in a tunnel or cause others to get injured.  Anyways, last night during the sleep study he freaked out so bad that he couldn't sleep at all and finally left and came home. He says he can feel his chest tightening up when it happens. Is it common for sleep studies to trigger panic attacks? Is he having sleep apnea or is it panic attacks he is having at night? Also, when he gets like this he cannot be talked to rationally and gets very angry with me when I try to calm him down.