Spybee007

Hey all - I am still trying to quit drinking completely. I have really slowed down, averaging a binge maybe once a week to once every 2 weeks and the amount I drink in my binge has gone down from 12 beers to maybe 7-8. I know I need to stop completely.

Recently, I notice after a binge and during my hangover when I go to sleep, I wake up gasping for air right when I'm about to fall asleep. I had a binge 2 weeks ago and this lasted almost a week after, then as I was 13 days sober I think it stopped and I didn't notice it. I drank Monday and Tuesday night (hungover) I had it happen again. I went to the doctor last week and they are ordering a sleep study.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? It's freaking me out reading all the bad things sleep apnea can do to a person's cardio health and I think this is the last straw, I have to quit if this is what is going to happen everytime I drink. I'm 35 and have been drinking heavily since I was 20. I've been to the doctor several times and just recently blood work came back normal. I had gastritis from drinking for 8 months and now that's cleared since I slowed down, but drinking gives me health anxiety big time!

ScottFromWI

Yes, it's possible that drinking is causing all this. Have you shared your drinking habits with your doctor? I used to get those weird gasping for air moments too, right after falling asleep, when I was still drinking.

Bottom line, if you keep drinking bad things will keep happening. And usually the bad things get worse over time. Spacing your binges out will not help, quitting entirely is the solution. Sounds like you know that too, right?

Nonsensical

I have sleep apnea. Drinking didn't cause it. Drinking just helped me sleep through it.

I've had a CPAP for 10 years. Love that thing and love my great sleep.

Spybee007

Thanks for the replies. I am on board to stop completely.. It isn't hard right after a binge, but it gets hard after 2 weeks when I'm feeling better.. I somehow forget how bad I felt after and where I was (anxiety/health wise) 2 weeks before, when I vowed to stop completely.

My doc knows my drinking habits completely, I never have a problem being honest with anyone about how much or how long I have drank. You're right about bad things happening, before it was me doing something stupid and regretting it the next day, now in my 30s it has become heath scares. When I was in my 20s I was invincible, now I see it catches up to everyone, even me.

We'll see how the sleep study goes, I may just get this when drinking.. I had an echo cardiogram and stress test done as well and they came back good. I'm wondering if anxiety is causing me all these symptoms..

ScottFromWI

Health anxiety is a very real thing...i'm a sufferer myself. Looking back at your posts here over the years you have definitely asked lots of health related questions and seen a lot of doctors for different types of testing.

You would have to see a psychologist or counselor to be sure of course, but health anxiety can absolutely cause you to feel or manifest physical symptoms, I did it all the time. I would google symptoms of all sorts of different ailments and convince myself I had them. I used to chronically check my pulse all day long, test my blood pressure several times a day, etc. Once I even started testing my blood sugar multiple times a day but of course being anxious increases your blood sugar...

At the end of the day though, the drinking has to stop first. You cannot treat anxiety or any other psychological disorder until you quit. Alcohol itself is a very powerful CNS depressant and it literally changes your brain chemistry - which is exactly what therapy or meds do too. So no healing in any of those areas can happen until alcohol is out of the picture. And frankly, there is no "test" you can have done that will tell you this...you simply have to accept that drinking is not an option for you anymore.

Forward12

Alcohol can for sure cause sleep apnea when you are drunk as it's a strong central nervous system depressant, when sober, you may still have it, or perhaps not. The sleep study will show this.
I know many times I had my then partner wake me from my passed out drunken slumbers a few times saying I stopped breathing for a good minute at a time, scary stuff.

sg1970

I don't know if I had sleep apnea but my wife said I would stop breathing during the night. It scared her so badly she woke me up several times. I also snored so badly that no one else could sleep if I was around. Since sobering up I quit doing both of those things.

The best thing you could do is stop drinking completely. I'm certainly not telling you not to have the sleep study done. But in my opinion if you have it done while you are still drinking isn't it just taking a chance on putting a bandaid on the real problem? Similar to when I went to marriage counseling while still drinking. My marriage didn't get better till I stopped completely.

CreativeThinker

My AH has sleep apnea and it worsened when he was drunk. One morning, after a heavy night of drinking, I woke up and nudged him...no response, nudged him again and called out his name... no response, began shaking him and loudly calling out his name...no response. I honestly thought he was dead. Just as I was about to call 911, I tried one last time to wake him and he woke up, gave the deepest gasp I've ever seen and he was back!

I often wonder what might have happened if I hadn't been there. Ugh! We scheduled a sleep study and he began using a CPAP.

Marissa41

My AH is the same way. I did call 911 once. By the time the ambulance arrived he had finally woke up. I thought he was dead too! Scary. He does have sleep apnea and snores so loud I can't sleep! But of course he doesn't think it has anything to do with drinking.

Hope your test goes well!

Nonsensical

Before I was being treated for sleep apnea if I went to bed sober my snoring/snorting would wake me up.

If I went to bed drunk my snoring would wake everyone else up.

Now we all get to sleep.

DesertDawg

Hey Spybee, your symptoms are EXACTLY the same as mine were when I was drinking. I am a also bit overweight, but not obese, which is also a contributor to sleep apnea. The waking up gasping for breath right as I was drifting off to sleep is very familiar. Anyway, guess what...it went away and never returned when I stopped drinking. Yet another reason to quit to add to the pile. Best of luck to you.