Red81, that's exactly how it happens to me too! It's like I'm suffocating in my dream and on some level I can tell that in "real life" I'm not breathing enough. Very often I can't get to sleep in the first place because just as I relax into "oblivion" on the edge of sleep, I'm jerked awake with the need for air.

I don't feel a sense of constriction in my throat at all though. It's just a feeling like my automatic breathing isn't happening properly. We're not supposed to have to think about breathing - it's automatic right? But when I have these episodes, something is not happening automatically.

Sometimes I also have the feeling that I can't get enough air in my lungs to satisfy my body. This is different from the forgetting to breathe thing. I just have to keep taking really deep breaths - the maximum I can force into my lungs, and yet it seems like not enough. Does anyone experience that?

But the first poster on this thread mentions a feeling of obstruction in the throat - as I recall - a choking feeling - right? I just know that thyroid problems can give that feeling. Do you have the feeling of "forgetting" to breathe too?

:)
Diana