Unable to breathe manually anymore while trying to sleep?

[Bluevu]

I’ve had this problem manifest just recently. It’s horrifying. I’ll be laying in bed, trying to force myself to breathe, when suddenly I’ll start violently gasping for air. Sometimes it’s one gasp and sometimes it’s two. My whole body gets hot and I feel my heart rate quicken drastically. It’s troubling and has caused me to lose so much sleep. My limbs have also felt very strange (aka kind of limp? Like they aren’t really my arms or legs. Kind of like that beginning of being drunk feeling? Like the dizziness and the constantly wanting to flop your arms to make Sure they’re still there and the like. As well as this, I find it very hard to manually swallow too. I’ll go to swallow but my body just CANT get itself to follow through, and it’s almost like choking but not quite. This whole situation is honestly very scary to me because it’s like I can’t control my body anymore. I just don’t want to not wake up one day because I don’t end up waking up from that gasping for air.

[Morpheus1517]

See a doctor to either treat or rule out an underlying medical condition such as obstructive sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome.  If you have none, look at nonmedical underlying conditions such as hyperarousal from excessive (but normal) stress and anxiety.  Your sleep can be improved by using CBT adult sleep training methods.  Much good info online.