sleep apnea or just forgot to breath?

[Kallygirlie]

so at 3am this morning, I woke up to my boyfriend coughing really bad. Not the normal cough but like he was short of breath. I started smacking him to get him to wake up and set up (smacking sound harsh but he's not a light sleeper). He sets up in med and starts coughing even worse still sounding like he couldnt get his breath. So started rubbing is back to get him to relax a bit. He then got up and went in the bathroom (still coughing). He came back to bed and I asked if he was ok. He said yeah I'm fine so we fell back to sleep. I just talked to him on the phone now that I'm at work. We both had totally forgotten we woke up in the middle of the night until we started talking about how each of us slept. At first I thought I had dreamt it. he proceeds to tell me that he couldn't breath and when I started smacking him it alerted him because he wasn't realizing what was going on yet. He said it almost felt like something was obstructing his airway but he couldnt figure out what it was. This has never happened before and he normally sleeps with no problems. He's going to get his yearly physical soon anyways so I tol him he needs to tell the doctor about this. so what do you guys think this could be? Like I said, hes never had a issue falling asleep and staying asleep and this is the first time this has happened but stopped breathing in the middle of the night is a huge cause for concern.

[CHANDLERS WISH]

I always heard it was more of forgetting to breathe, the fact he was coughing and couldn't breathe could be bugs in the bed, asthma, allergies in other words, dry throat.

If you woke the first time and it happens again, you will wake again..

Definately he needs to speak to his Doctor and maybe prob the pillow up and sleep with his head up instead of laying perfectly straight may help as well.

Hard to say but My Dad, used to just stop breathing through his snoring and Mum would hear the sound that alerted her to the breath stopping.

CW