This is the most scary symptom I had during the course of my illness, at this point its gotten a lot better and I have a very reduced 1 slight wake-up in a night if that at all... but at the height of my illness I couldn't figure out what was happening to me. Everyone else thought I was crazy.
I'd fall asleep, and as soon as I'd drift off to sleep I'd awaken because I'd literally stop breathing. I would completely stop. I could not figure out why all the sudden my body was doing this. I thought it might have been caffeine before bed time but it was not. It also was not that I gained weight or anything like that. It was simply the lyme. My question is why, why does this happen in lyme disease.
Posted by lymebytes (Member # 11830) on :
My father has this due to Lyme. He is investigating it pretty seriously now because this particular symptom is not getting better in spite of the fact that he is getting better in other ways. There is more than one type of sleep apnea... there is "mechanical" sleep apnea and "neurological" sleep apnea. Neurological sleep apnea is associated with Lyme. I'm unsure whether mechanical sleep apnea is associated with Lyme. My father has both; he has had difficulty ridding himself of either, but has investigated and tried a myriad of things. If you'd like more information about what he is doing to try to correct this problem, please PM me.
Posted by AmyPW8 (Member # 11504) on :
Clint,
I had a very similar experience when I had gone into acute symptoms, and I did not know what was wrong. But that happened to me all night for several nights in a row. I was afraid of going to sleep for fear I would stopping breathing and not wake up.
It was a couple of months after that that I actually saw my LLMD for the first time. I think it was the Cat's Claw that probably helped me then. Since starting abx it hasn't been happening very much.
Posted by disturbedme (Member # 12346) on :
Yes, lyme can cause it.
I don't know if I have apnea or if it is the cause of what I experience, but it seems like it... and yes, it is scary. And I'm only 24.
It doesn't happen every night, thank goodness... when I was sicker, it would happen at least once a week, etc. It scared me and got to the point where I was afraid to even go to sleep at night.
What I experience is waking up choking or coughing. It feels like I may have swallowed some spit and it went down the wrong way during sleep. But sometimes when this happens my throat is very sore afterwards for a short while as well.
It comes and goes. And I still don't know what to think about it or if it really is apnea or that maybe I am just swallowing spit the wrong way. Posted by gemofnj (Member # 15551) on :
Wow, I had that too, but NEVER before I had lyme. Just like disturbed describes..
It has subsided, thank goodness.
You wake up shockingly not being able to breathe. Pretty frightening!
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