Sudden attacks of shortness of breath that usually occur when patients are asleep in bed. The affected patient awakens gasping for air and tries to sit up (often near a window) to relieve the symptom. PND is one of the classic symptoms of left ventricular failure, although it may also occasionally be caused by sleep apnea or by nocturnal cardiac ischemia.
A type of shortness of breath distinguished by the individual awakening from sleep with an inability to breathe.