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Have any of you had panic attack-like symptoms from sleep apnea/UARS/lack of sleep?

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singingkeys +0 points · over 4 years ago Original Poster Sleep Commentator

I'm referring to racing heart randomly throughout the day on certain days, blood pressure spikes, flushing red face even when blood pressure isn't high, feeling a little dizzy when you take deeper breaths, of course falling on your face tired, feeling like you can't breathe enough and like your body is "too tired to breathe" if you don't force it to and that sort of thing. Sometimes even when I'm awake, it feels like my body just wants to stop breathing similarly to an apnea while I'm upright during the day - "too tired to breathe" and I have to force it to do so anyway.

My in-lab study was only about 3 hours. Low AHI 4.7. High RDI of 18, indicative of UARS automatically. About 50 RERAs during that 3 hours. Only got about 7 minutes of REM sleep per the in-lab study. CPAP in auto mode with minimum 7.6 or7.8 and max of 9cm seems to work great and gets 0.5AHI with barely any apneas/hypopneas. Sometimes RERAs and centrals register even when under lower pressure. No central apnea noted in in-lab study. Home sleep study showed 5.2AHI. SPO2 monitor confirmed heartbeat going up and down throughout the night. Home sleep study revealed apneas as long as 85 seconds and averaging 20-30 seconds, but my blood oxygen never seems to drop below about 93% or so. In the in-lab study, they said my O2 levels were fine. No restless leg syndrome note. On camera every night, I open my eyes and jump awake every 20-30 minutes at least. The motion sensor catches it every night. I can't figure out why. Has to be UARS. AHI numbers on APAP (Air Sense 10) are 0.5. Some nights it has controlled it so well that I had 0 events for the entire night for a flat 0 AHI.

Can my CPAP treat UARS specifically or not really? I've been worked over for every kind of health problem, blood test, heart issue, etc. They put me on Metoprolol to control heart rate/blood pressure and mask the symptoms, but I'm wondering if it isn't sleep-related. Anyone had anything like that? I have given up on my GP doctor as of yesterday. Neon greenish urine color on a daily basis, anxiety/shaky-like symptoms, felt like it was hard to inhale and hard to get enough air. Friday I had pain in my lower back area, lower stomach area and both sides on the front. GP doctor has brushed it off and was actually "sighing" at me yesterday because they weren't LISTENING and as a doctor all that they could see and think of was, "Well, we can increase your dosage of the Metoprolol" to mask the symptoms that they can't figure out. My face was flush red with a single massively deep-looking wrinkles/dark marks about 2 inches underneath each eye and almost halfway down my face. They said blood pressure was perfect. Before, they said my adrenal levels were borderline. No explanation for rapid heartbeat, sometimes higher blood pressure out of nowhere, etc. Even very odd reflex "jumps" that seem to originate from my core/possibly lower back in response to the back of my head unexpectedly touching the back of a chair when sitting down or feeling a blower blowing air down on my head as I enter a store door. My body reacts as if I nearly hit my head. My GP doctor treats me as if I'm some kind of mental case because they don't understand the symptoms. Today, they finally said that it "could" be related to my sleep apnea.

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Sierra +0 points · over 4 years ago Sleep Patron

On the CPAP control of UARS, yes I believe it can to some degree control it. The RERA count should be some kind of indicator of the degree to which it is being controlled. I don't recall if you have the For Her version of the A10, but it so, the For Her mode may respond earlier and quicker and control it better.

On your other issues, with your AHI so well controlled at night, I don't think apnea can be blamed. But I am not a doctor. With the heart rate and blood pressure issues, you may want to see a cardiologist to get some testing. I take bisoprolol which is a beta blocker like the metaprolol you have been given. Bisoprolol is probably a better drug as it is more uniform in how it acts over a 24 hour period. It does a bit more than mask the symptoms. It slows the heart rate so it delivers a more powerful and effective blood flow. But you probably should see a cardiologist to determine what the underlying issues may be.

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