Sounds like you might have sleep apnea. I have that myself. Drs said that when a body goes to sleep, the brain's job is to keep the major organs in oxygen. So when you do drop off, your air ways constrict, breathing slows down, causing no air to come into the body. The brain stays on "alert" not resting as it should because of the lack of air, then will send a "jolt" down to the rest of your body, causing you to wake up with with a jerk for a gasp of air to get oxygen to those organs.

I went thru a sleep lab, was told I wake up about 26 times an hour, just to catch a breath.
They prescribed me a CPAP machine and mask.

The machine pushes room air at me, my nose and mouth thru the mask, making the air ways stay open so I can get the oxygen needed to let my brain go off "alert" so I can rest properly. It took some time to get used to the mask, the way it hugs the face, but now I don't want to sleep without it, cause the same things still happen to me when I don't, the bad dreams, the "scare" that causes me to WAKE up Fast, with a gasp of air. I love my CPAP. Made the whole difference in my sleeping and resting. I noticed within the first two weeks of using it, I was feeling better, thinking better, generally just over all better.
Maybe you could ask your dr about sleep apnea. It is possible that it could be causing a lot of your anxiety. I was taking meds for anxiety, then he sent me to the sleep lab. I was able to drop the meds about the time I started feeling better because I was sleeping better.

Not diagnosing here, just offering some past history/personal experience.

Take care.

I used to get this all the time. I think it was because when I finally got in bed I didn't have the distractions of the day to mask my anxiety and I would then start having some anxiety in the form of not being able to get a deep breath. It would get me so worked up that I would get nervous and be wide awake. Sometimes I would get up and take a bath just to calm myself down. Thankfully, I have learned to relax myself with meditation, etc. You might want to check with a doc to rule anything out but I know this same thing happened to me many times.......exercising helps me tremendously as well because if I do a really good work out I sleep well.....yoga is great for getting in touch with your breath as well.....

Best to you!

I get this sometimes as well. Last night I got so short of breath I almost had my wife call 911. I also have been diagnosed with sleep apnea but I never could get used to the cpap mask. I tried for two months. My doc wants me to try again. I may need to take some meds to help me sleep with that machine. But what I had last night is not from sleep apnea cause I'm lying there wide awake and short of breath. Its like I'm breathing but its not doing anything. Is that what you are like?

that has happened to me a few times but not too often