Panicky, Sleep Deprived, Breathless, Anxious, Smoker

Posted on Wed, 12 Oct 2011

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 Answered on

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : when i am drifting off to sleep i have recently started waking up suddenly as if in a panic like my breath has been taken away. i am 28 and a smoker of 5 to 10 cigarettes a day.i wonder if this is anxiety based as it seems to occur more when i worry about it, if that makes sense

Answered by Dr. Pragnesh Vachharajani (14 minutes later)

Hi,

Thanks for posting your query.

There could be many reasons for this.

The commonest reasons includes

1. As pointed out by you "anxiety".
2. Digestive problems.
3. Some respiratory problems.

As observed by you, this happens when you are under stress or anxiety, this reason makes more sense. At time of stress when you are feeling low, you tend to have problems like this. At this moment any minor aliment seems big.

As you are smoker, gastric problems are frequent and smoking can lead to increased secretion of acid in the stomach, and at times leads to development of this kind of symptoms due to regurgitation of food back in to food pipe specially after a large and fatty meal.

The best thing for you is to visit your Take light diet, do regular exercise and have proper sleep.

Try to fine out the reason which makes you anxious. Avoid having soft drinks and coffee etc, which can lead to increase problems due to stimulation of brain.

I hope this helps you and makes you understand things properly.

If you have any follow up queries, I will be glad to answer them.

Regards

Dr.Pragnesh

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D