I have recently found myself waking up suddenly at night with a choking sensation and rising bile?

Question

a very scary experience for me and more so my wife who says i snore and often seem to go several seconds without breathing. I'm worried cos its just started recently and i cant lay my finger on the trigger. The last time i found myself retching deeply which only aggravated the sense of asphyxiation. Anybody with ideas?

Answer 1

From the sounds of things, you experienced a gastric reflux.  You really need to see the doctor and have an upper gastric series done, as well as some other testing to get the bottom of things.  If you are overweight, or carry your weight around your middle- as in a pot belly, that wouldn't help matters.  In addition to making reflux more likely, overweight folks also tend to suffer from sleep apnea, which your snoring and the wife saying you go several seconds without breathing suggest is highly possible.  For that you need a sleep specialist to do a sleep study and monitor you while you sleep.  In the meantime, until you can get to a doctor I have a few suggestions for you to help.  First, do not eat within several hours of going to bed.  Raise the head of the bed up several inches, so your head is elevated at least 6-8 inches or more.  Sleeping in a recliner type position is good.  Make sure your pillow is providing you support at the back of the neck, but not causing you to drop your head down to your chest.  If the snoring gets too bad, your wife may be able to convince you to shift by lifting up on your lower chin a bit.  That should get you to swallow or shift position and take a breathe.  Go easy on highly spiced items at night as well, and also the alcohol.  These things won't cure what ails you, but should help some.  A liquid anti-acid by the bedside will also help with the reflux sensations, so you don't retch and have trouble breathing due to that.  A swig of that can help a lot and preserve the esophagas as well from the acid burn.  And do go see your doctor at the earliest opportunity.  

Answer 2

It might be GERD or you have been eating and drinking tooo much recently

http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=gerd+sy...

Answer 3

stop gettin drunk before going to sleep.

Answer 4

Allergies, or sinus drainage probably.  If not, have your doctor check you for a throat obstruction.  You could also be developing Sleep Apnea.