Suffocating/drowning feeling while trying to project?

[Pharoah]

So for the past week or so, I've been having a pretty serious little problem.  I go to sleep like I normally would, not attempting anything special, just sleep.  I wake up several times within the first 2 hours of falling asleep so I prefer to use those periods for attempts/exercises/etc. But here is what happens (in the real-time space of about 1 second):  I am sleeping > I wake up just enough to be consciously aware but not actually being fully awake > realize that I'm in the perfect mental state to try something > realize I can't breathe/haven't been breathing > Experience a sensation like I'm suffocating/drowning > become violently afraid of impending death > wake wide-the-f*-up > am sorely disappointed by another missed opportunity, also panting heavily.

My question is if anyone else experiences vivid feelings of suffocation or drowning when balancing between wake and sleep, and if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on how I can better understand whats happening and correct it?

I just started reading Astral Dynamics last night and Robert Bruce mentioned something along the lines of the physical body experiencing elevated heart rates and other physical symptoms while attempting conscious projection.  That's all fine and well, except that MY physical symptoms result in my subconscious preparing to fight for it's (my?) life, thereby ruining my progress.

[Pauli2]

It's your chest and throat chakras that grow and constrict your breathing. It will eventually cease.

[Summerlander]

Nonsense. It is probably a panic attack during deep sleep paralysis or you are probably focusing and attempting to control your breathing during that stage. Another possibility is that you are somehow inducing sleep dyspnoea. Does it only happen when you are trying to induce an OOBE? And since such condition is usually associated with maladies in the medulla oblongata and pons, I'm going to ask you, in the most optimistic way possible, if you suffered a blow to the back of the head recently or something.

[Pauli2]

nonsense

[Pharoah]

o.o

NONSENSE!

But on a more serious note I think both of your replies hold some merit.

@ Pauli, I like your theory the best and hope that that is the case.  That would indicate that there is some level of chakra activity going on that I don't have to do a whole lot of work for

@ Summer, I don't usually suffer from panic attacks so I don't really think that I would be subconsciously having any, especially at a time when I'm working towards a goal that excited the hell out of me (in a good way).  It does only occur when I wake in the middle of the night and realize that my mental state is ideal for OBEs.  And fortunately there is no head injury (that I know of )!  I do think that your thoughts on breath control may hold some merit.  I do sometimes feel as though the simple act of breathing is a disruptive physical activity.  Sometimes when I am trying to listen really carefully or concentrate on something, I find after a moment that I have been holding my breath, so that could be the cause right there. 

Thanks for both of your ideas!  This is pretty helpful.  Now I just need to figure out how to reverse a lifetime of regarding breathing as a disruptive occurrence.

[Bedeekin]

Sounds like sleep apnea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea

[Tee1234]

So for the past week or so, I've been having a pretty serious little problem.  I go to sleep like I normally would, not attempting anything special, just sleep.  I wake up several times within the first 2 hours of falling asleep so I prefer to use those periods for attempts/exercises/etc. But here is what happens (in the real-time space of about 1 second):  I am sleeping > I wake up just enough to be consciously aware but not actually being fully awake > realize that I'm in the perfect mental state to try something > realize I can't breathe/haven't been breathing > Experience a sensation like I'm suffocating/drowning > become violently afraid of impending death > wake wide-the-f*-up > am sorely disappointed by another missed opportunity, also panting heavily.

My question is if anyone else experiences vivid feelings of suffocation or drowning when balancing between wake and sleep, and if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on how I can better understand whats happening and correct it?

I just started reading Astral Dynamics last night and Robert Bruce mentioned something along the lines of the physical body experiencing elevated heart rates and other physical symptoms while attempting conscious projection.  That's all fine and well, except that MY physical symptoms result in my subconscious preparing to fight for it's (my?) life, thereby ruining my progress.

It actually does sound like it could possibly be a mild case of sleep apnea but thats probably worse case scenario.

Sounds goofy but you might be congested as well. When you drift off to sleep and become aware that your not breathing right you might manifest some pretty nasty ideas that make it alot worse than it really is. Ive been there before. Ive had dreams of being choked and underwater n suddenly awake to realize its just that my nostrils are blocked. Kinda like those nightmares came just to wake me up to tell me Im not getting enough oxygen.

Id get some afrin and put a squirt up each nostril before bedtime and see what happens. If all goes well and you breathe fine.. at least you can debunk the sleep apnea idea. If that dont work and it keeps happening Id get checked out.

[Lexy]

do you have any fears like you might die if you leave your body?

[Summerlander]

During sleep paralysis, your breathing is on "autopilot", but, if you become aware of this you may instinctively try to control it and this may cause dissonance. In apnea, air doesn't pass through the airways because efforts to breathe are absent for short periods of time. The brain may fail to send the signals to the diaphragm and chest muscles that maintain the breathing cycle when that happens. Nothing to do with Chakkras in my opinion.

[Pharoah]

Well, I didn't have any breathing problems last night which was a first in a few weeks.  Hooray.  I instead woke up with agonizing pain in my teeth as though someone drove a nail into my gums.  I sat straight up in bed and immediately tasted blood and felt as thought I was missing a few teeth.  After I woke up a little more, I realized there was no pain, and that all my teeth were fine, and nothing was bleeding.  I don't remember what I was dreaming that might have caused this.

Later into the night I woke up in 0 gravity mode.  My arms were floating up above the bed by a few inches and I couldn't control them.  I felt tingly like when a body part falls asleep and you have to squeeze and rub it to get the blood flow back, but without discomfort.  When I looked at my arms, I was certain it was my actual physical arms, but I don't know why they would be floating about.  I thought "Oh I get it!  Astral projection! Weee!"  I tried a few exit techniques but nothing seemed to work.  I don't remember anything after that.