Trouble Breathing when Laying on Back

[Jelynn93]

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am currently 16 years old.

This past December (2008), I was sent to Children's Hospital for a scheduled sleep test. I was tested for Sleep Apnea. They told me that everything was fine and nothing was wrong.

I have, withing the last couple of months, realized that when I lay on my back in bed, I have trouble breathing. I can only breath in small amounts and after a few breaths I have to nearly gasp for a better amount of air. I can only breath normally when laying on my stomach or sides. I mentioned this to a neighbor I am close with and she thought, without knowing about my previous testing, that it might be Sleep Apnea.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong? Is there something I can do to ease my breathing during the night when sleeping on my back? Is there a doctor or specialist that I need to see in my area (about 20-30 minutes North of Columbus, Ohio)?

I appreciate any help that can be given.

[Steven Y Park, MD]

It sounds like you have a positional sleep-breathing problem. Many people can't sleep on their back due to this reason: on your back, your tongue falls back partially, but when in deep sleep, due to muscle relaxation, you'll stop breathing and wake up quickly. Since you wake up before the 10 second threshold that's needed to be called an apnea, you're told you don't have any sleep apnea. You need at least 5 of these total or partial 10 second obstructions every hour to get the sleep apnea diagnosis.

If your nose is stuffy, it can aggravate the problem downstream. Any kind of inflammation and swelling (due to colds, allergies, or weather changes) can also aggravate this problem. Try to avoid eating late, and definitely avoid alcohol in the future as you get older (especially close to bedtime).

If the problem persists or you have other detrimental issues that are bothersome, you may want to see an ENT doctor to make sure you don't have any anatomic issues from our nose to your throat. Gook luck.

[pstar]

If I were you I'd train yourself to only sleep on your sides.  There lots of ways to do this ie, sew a tennis ball in a front shirt pocket and wear the shirt backwards etc.  Google it for more ideas.  After a while you'll learn to roll from side to side instead of staying on your back and maybe that will be the end of that.

[Jelynn93]

Wow! That was very useful information. I understand now why I wasn't diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. I will be sure to watch the issue and take your suggestions. Thank you for your help.

[Jelynn93]

This could be true, I never thought of it being something that pops up randomly.

I do not have a video recorder and my digital camera that has video taping ability runs on a battery that is charged with a charging base.

I think that I should mention it to my doctor the next time I am in.

Thank you for your help,
Jennifer

[LiSaVfree]

Hi Jennifer,

I'm no expert, but I can't help but wonder if you might sleep just fine on some nights (with sleep apnea), and then not so great on others. Maybe the night you had your sleep test done, you happen to have a good night's sleep.

One thing I did was to digitally record myself while sleeping so you can listen to your breathing during the night. You have to put the recorder close to your nose (I taped mine to my pillow) in order for it to pick up your breathing. Then, you could share this with your doctor instead of having another sleep test done. Hope that helps!

~LiSaV