So, I've recently encountered problems with sleeping. I get to a half-lucid state, then when I start falling deeper into sleep, I get slightly overwhelmed and start having irregular breathing patterns. Essentially, I start hyperventilating. As if I'm out of breath. I wake up as if I'm terrified. This goes on about every night. Sometimes I stay up all night because I give up, and other times, I stay awake so long that I pass out from being so tired.

I've had sleep apnea since I was a little kid, but I mostly outgrew it. Could this problem be starting up again because of stress or having a guilty conscience? If it is, that'd be settling to know. I haven't been this stressed in a long time, so it doesn't seem farfetched that this is all stress related. I also think (more like hope) that it's just my conscience getting to me because a decision I made years ago caught up to me in a detrimental way recently. If that's the case, I have a lot of hope that this can be resolved rather easily. If stress doesn't cause irregular breathing patterns in sleep, then I fear that this could be a worse condition. Any thoughts?