I am a 48 year old man and I have struggled with cholesterol management for a number of years. 18 month ago I started to experience waking early in the morning gasping for air and experiencing a rapid heartbeat. Initially, I thought this was stress related and after a couple of months it went away. At that time I had recently stopped taking Lipitor due to some cognitive problems I was having and I didn't imagine that Lipitor would be implicated. However, I recommenced Lipitor last christmas and once again experienced cognitive problems and breathing problems and ceased it accordingly. I had a number of tests including a sleep study which revealed "significant sleep disordered breathing which was confined to rapid eye movement sleep" I am sleeping well again and not having these experiences. Has anyone else had this difficulty? My only other explanation is that it might be related to an allergen.

When you first started, Ian, I first thought of sleep apnea but Lipitor may be the culprit. I too, have trouble sleeping and come to think of it, it has been since starting Lipitor. I know we can't blame everythiong on Lipitor - but - I am currently on the drug and preparing to discontinue it in the next three weeks. For now, I'm going to make a list of the ailments I have and see how each is affected once I've been off Lipitor for several months. Who knows? I could be writing a book!

you may wish to read dr graveline's recommendations for discontinuing statins before doing so.