Well, I'm not a medical doctor, so my answer is going to be based on personal experience and comments from doctors I have consulted because I suffer from kind of the same thing. The initial answer would be stress. At least is the most common thing to cause this wake up panic. All humans have instincts, and we all share most of them in different levels. One of these instincts is a wake up reflex when we are under stressfull situations. Let me explain why: As you know, humans (homo sapiens) have been around for more than a 100,000 years, but we have been living in controlled, civilized environments for less than 2,000. Before, we were living outdoors mostly and continually fighting for survival. Predators (bears, lions, snakes, wolves, etc) chased us, hunted us and many times the situations ended, for instance, with a human up on a tree and let's say a bear waiting in the ground. Well, to make the story short, sometimes the predator would wait for hours, a whole night....and of course the human individual will get tired and start to fall sleep. Well, under these stressfull situations, the wake up panic reflex was born. You start to get sleep, and start slipping of the branch and BOOM the reflex wakes you up, and saves your life. When you are tranquil, quiet and peaceful (no predator around) you sleep fast and tight, when you are stressed (yeah, money, job, love and family problems are mind predators)......BOOM the wake up reflex comes to the rescue. As I said, stress could be the problem, I would recommend what I do....yoga, meditation. But of course if the problem persist and it's chronic consulting a doctor is always good. Everyone needs to sleep, and lack of sleep brings worse problems. Hope this helps!!

It could definitely be stress. However, if this continues, you might want to talk to a sleep doctor. You might have sleep apnea - a sleeping disorder where you actually do stop breathing while sleeping. Needless to say, this is a serious disorder that needs attention. Fortunately, treatment may be as simple as wearing a breathing mask while sleeping.

I also am not a physician, but it sounds very much like sleep apnea. You need to request a sleep study from your doctor. They will monitor you at the hospital over night and send the results to the speciaist you doctor has sent you to. There can be a few reasons why you have this feeling. Sleep apnea occurs in some over weight people. Aslo in some people with a deviated septum (misaligned nose). The normal respirations a person takes should be 12 to 16 breaths per minute. Some people have very slow respirations and just forget to breath. If you do have sleep apnea, the sleep study specialist can prescribe a c-pap device to wear that will eliminate your problem. You wear this while you sleep and works very well. Try really hard to sleep on your side, as sleeping on your back intensifies this problem. Hope this helps. Sharon