Waking in the middle of the night...

Just wondering if there are people on here that wake up in the middle of the night and when you even move the slightest you heart starts to pound and if you get up to go to the bathroom then it starts to race...this only seems to happen when I wake in the middle of the night...What is also weird is that I always seem to wake at the same time in the night...usually 2am...I go to bed at midnight. I have not slept the night through for over a month and have tried tylenol pm, and valerian...any other suggestions and comments would be greatlly appreciated...

Hi - I used to be just like that, the slightest sound in the night (even early evening) would set me off. I think our bodies and nerves are just so so sensitive. I also wake up at the same time each night - 12.00pm, 2am, 4am, 6am - it is really annoying and has been going on since christmas. I think our body clock resets itself and I'm not sure how to get it back to normal!!
Try not to get too scared by the panics in the night, they will ease with time.
Love Helen

Hi there, I was exactly the same some time back, the only difference now, is, as Helen has said, i don't let it scareme , if there were anything seriously wrong you would be like it 24/7. After using the bathroom, listen to some music maybe? I found by thinking it didn't matter it happened less and less. I still don't sleep all through, i wake many times, but try to turn over, think of something nice and go back to sleep. xxx

hi there,
wish i could find an earlier post of mine - it is pretty much exactly the same as yours!
the whole waking up bang on 2am every night things is so annoying, but the only way i got over it was by not getting out of bed and just forcing myself to do breathing exercises and wait until i nodded off (still panicking).
i have to admit that, when it got to about a week of no sleep, i gave in and took some diazepam. probably not the best thing to do but i slept like a baby and it seemed to break the 2am cycle. i also did lots of relaxation tapes and visualisation exercises...
henri

Hi,

I do the same thing, my wake up time is 3 am same time every night. I don't even look at the clock anymore. I try to roll over and eventually fall back asleep. Luckily I sleep with my little dog and usually pet her and that relaxes me.

Bel

When my body clock gets screwed up (usually for more practical reasons), ie sleep during day, up all night, get up in evening, asleep next morning etc, to fix it I usually stay up all night, until the following night, when I'm absolutely exhausted, then go to bed late, then up early.

Might not work if there are other issues at work, especially negative associations with specific times because yeah, the body has an amazing autonomous sense of time.

Also another trick is not to go to bed - until you are ready to sleep. I find if I go to bed a few hours etc before I'm actually ready to 'settle to sleep', I can't sleep. But if I stay up on computer, or watching TV, when I am really ready to lay down and SLEEP, its a much deeper sleep.

"Where is the honour, the courage and will? The ability to smile - confined to a pill"

Thank you all for your comments...last night I had my first night in a long while to sleep all the way through the night...lets got for 2 in a row...