Heart starts beating rapidly when falling asleep, shortness of breath?
Something strange has started happening recently that I've never experienced before. When falling into that unconscious state about to fall asleep, my heart suddenly begins pounding at maybe 150bps, shaking my entire body. I suddenly feel light-headed and dizzy, so I turn on my lamp and sit up for a while. It also becomes hard to breathe in deeply. This was also accompanied with me suddenly jolting up as flashes of images unexpectedly entered my mind, of, for example, my dog dying, or the wind pushing me over the rails of a cruise ship.
This has happened for the past two nights, and has caused me to become very conscious of my heart beat and breathing. Now I am too scared to fall asleep and am forcing myself to stay awake till very early hours of the morning until my body cannot take it and I quickly fall asleep.
Has anyone ever experienced the same thing or know what this is? How can I stop this from happening?
Just a bit of background:
I am a 17-year-old girl, was diagnosed with GAD a few years back, however I have always been a generally anxious person since I was very young. Not on any medications. Usually drink herbal tea which relaxes me and helps me sleep, but it did not work this time. I've never had such trouble falling asleep before, apart from occasional overthinking keeping me awake during times of stress.
