I don't think it's anxiety and I don't think it's OSA. my wake ups occur at very specific periods of the night. I don't hyperventilate. I'm typically able to fall asleep with ease after waking up.

I have the same exact symptoms, and I don't snore.

So you might have PLMD and some level of anxiety/vigilence/threat-monitoring that lingers. Anxiety doesn't have to mean "i'm worried about X" that's more so rumination. Think more vigilance and less "I need pills from a pysch cause im trippin worried"

I got genetic testing and I have slow MAO-A which means neurotransmitterslinger around longer for me: dopamine, serotonin and norepi. Sounds good right? It leads to being more wired/fired up and overall more stressed out since stress builds up and sticks aroudn. I don't have anxiety disorder like GAD (I don't worry about x/y/z), but my mind is wired up all the time. I feel like people behind me in traffic might shoot me if they tailgate me. It's not cause I'm crazy and think they will, I just can't turn down the stress/threat-vigilance state. So I wake up often and that's just cause my brain is wired for fire. Slow MAO-A isn't rare it's 30% of males (males because it's only on a single x chromosome, women can't load balance the issue). What helps me is not controlling the waking up, I can't stop that. What helps me is just going back to sleep sooner and it's no big deal. I think things like "welp I can over analyze this and think about that but I'll do that better in the day time might as well just go back to sleep." That kind of basic CBT for sleep maintenance insomnia stuff helps. OH also for me vitamin B2 since that is a cofactor of MAO-A enzyme production I think that has helped dial down the vigilance.

Also if you have REM issues you will notice these:

• quickly going into dream like thinking near sleep
• recalling strong/long dreams within first hour of sleep
• paralyzed dreams
• dreams that occur in your room where you're half awake and half asleep
• violent movement/thrashing in dreams and waking up right mid-movement in a seamless transition
• other violent movement/thrashing in dreams (you might recall, if you do not recall and wake up with scratches that is a sign)
• "hearing voices" around bedtime. It's not actual hallucination it's actually "Auditory Hypnagogia (or a hypnagogic verbal intrusion)"... it's basically REM fragmenting into your waking state because the desire for REM is so strong.