How to get rid of air hunger when trying to sleep?

Question

I have had this on and off for ages now, but it has only just started to affect my sleeping pattern. This type of air hunger is more of an irrational feeling which makes you breath in heavily and yawn a lot trying to catch your breath. It seems to occur when I am consciously thinking of the way I am breathing, and for some reason, this is what I do when I try to get to sleep. This leads to the air hunger which in turn leads to an increased heart rate. It seems stupid, but its really annoying and I can't seem to stop it. Does anyone have any ideas? breathing exercises? At the minute, all I can do is get up and read or do something to make it go away, and by then I'm awake again so don't end up getting to sleep till about 3 in the morning from going to bed at 11. :(

I've only had it the past few days because my parents have gone away for a couple of days and left me home alone so i'm not in the normal routine. So it'll probably go away again once everything's back to normal.

Answer 1

Hi. I have suffered with what you describe since I was in my late teens. I felt as if I had to consciously draw every breath. Horrid. The more you think about it the worse it gets. I described this to my GP who said it was a form of anxiety attack, even though there was nothing I was aware of that was making me anxious or worried. It seems to last between 3-10 days each time it happens. There is nothing much I can advise to help it go away quicker, just try to remind yourself it's all in the mind and hopefully it will soon go.  

Answer 2

so you're parents are away? are you now in charge of the house? if so, the responsibility could be causing you to worry, which is affecting your ability to sleep at night time... make sure you are as relaxed as possible before bed, take a bath and chill out, and you will hopefully stay chilled out and drift off into a peaceful sleep in bed.

Answer 3

drink water herbal tea...

Answer 4

I've experience something similar myself a few times but in my case I think it was because the room was too warm and I was slightly overheated.

Answer 5

drink lots of water...2litres should do it