I have had your exact symptom of waking up gasping for air, and the rest of my body is freaking out, too.

I was diagnosed with MS-related central sleep apnea. The more common sleep apnea, obstructive sleep apnea, is when you stop breathing because of an obstruction in your airway. Central sleep apnea is the result of having your brain fail to signal your body to breathe, and in MS it is because of damage to the portion of your brain that controls that sort of thing.

As a result I am now on O2 at night. It hasn't happened to me since I started the O2.

Thank you so much for this post.. It's definitely something I am going to write down to ask my new doctor (when I find one).

When these happen and I try to explain it to my boyfriend when I come out of these spells, that's much like what I tell him.. 'it's like my body is forgetting to breathe and am on the verge of falling out my brain wakes me up like "HEY YOU"RE GONNA DIE_WAKE UP!" and then all heck breaks loose'

This all makes sense..

And also backs my theory on me knowing my body better than most doctors

Thanks again!

AynaDee, My nighttime wakeup emergencies were very much like yours, except that my trigger to wake up was the sharp pain in the middle of the abdomen. Actually the pain was in the area of the diaphragm, where we breathe. I think my events were also triggered by something in the Central Nervous System failing to signal me to breathe, so that then I had this acute pain which MADE me wake up.
During the more severe of these episodes I would say to my husband, before I was fully awake, "I have died." or "I am dead." I didn't say "I'm dying". I WAS dead, in the opinion of my body. sometimes this would be so extreme that I would throw myself out of the bed and somehow end up against the wall a few feet away.
The Central Nervous system being damaged is a problem! I don't have this type of pain signaling any more at night. Maybe because older people sleep lighter than younger ones. Maybe I do not go into that very deep sleep now.