nocturnal panic attacks.

[Kierstennotsojoy]

Has anyone ever woken up from a dead sleep and just went straight into a panic attack? I do and I've watched it the past couple of nights and it's happening at the same time, every night. Does this happen to anyone else?

[Rubicon]

Yes they come to me more so at night than during the day. I haven't been officially diagnosed with a panic disorder but I have been suffering from panic like episodes for the past five years. In the first few years they came mostly during the day however in the past year and a half the panic comes almost always at night and wakes me up from sleep. It starts with just me normally waking up from sleep and right away I feel that something is wrong. Either I have tingling and buzzing (restless type) feeling in my body core and radiating to my arms which is usually followed by knots in the stomach with full blown panic/anxiety episode coming on within a minute or two by which point I have issues breathing, dizzy spells, feeling of doom, and I just end up pacing around my house at 3am in the morning, drinking some milk and trying to calm myself down so that I can go back to sleep. It happens at various times during the night, sometimes shortly after falling asleep, sometimes at 3am, sometimes at 5am. It's always the worst when it happens on a work week day because it takes me hours to usually fall asleep after such episode and then I'm a walking zombie at work the next day. Lucky, these episodes only come to me every few months so things are still manageable if it happens once in a while. Although it didn't help me with a full blow panic attack, I find that taking magnesium helps me fall asleep a lot quicker after an episode.

[Kierstennotsojoy]

Now. I'm to the point of sleeping for 3 hours because I'm scared to have an episode. As long as I stay up and keep calm, but when I lay down that's when it hits me. It's like I'm scared to relax because then I put my guards down.

[Leacock]

Hi Kierstennotsojoy,

I very well understand what you go through. I have been there at some point too. They would hit me in the midst of my sleep, waking me up for no apparent reason. I was able to get over it by applying a few tricks which I think might help. When you get a panic attack, I suggest you get up and out of bed. In rare cases will you fall asleep immediately after the attack. You might consider giving yourself 1 to 2 minutes lying in bed to see if you are lucky enough to fall asleep. If this fails, fully wake up, splash some water on your head, drink a glass of water or two, check on the dog, cat or parakeet. Do ordinary things to help you wake up but don't turn on the Telly. Return to bed when you are ready to sleep..this helped me get over my fears. Just a tip.

[Davit]

During REM sleep you replay your whole day and shift pieces of short term memory into long term. Any negative thoughts will trip Amygdala to panic. It is worse because REM sleep is hard to wake from because you are not supposed to. REM sleep is pretty consistently around the same time. Getting up and doing something positive resets Amygdala to a more positive mode. Don't wait till the middle of the night, reset it before bed by doing and thinking something positive. Get a positive routine to condition Amygdala. Challenge any fear or negatives when they happen during the day. Go to bed happy.