scared to sleep at night

[sarah_lou]

hi i am so scared to sleep at night as i wake up out my sleep and i feel like i had stopped breathing before i drift off i get heart palpitations and scared stff that i have some kinda heart problems ive been back and forth to the doctors they have listen to my chest check blood pressure doc says im having panic attacks im not convinced myself and some times im half asleep and half awake and my body twiches i just cant work it out i cry before i go to sleep and im scared stiff any advice welcome thankyou xx

[Donny]

Used to have this problem. Scared to go to sleep incase I did not wake back up.

I used to take the house phone to bed with me which gave me some comfort incase I need to call for help.

[sarah_lou]

hi donny thats the same as me did you ever find out what it was xx:weep:

[rb1978]

I used to have a similar problem...just as I was drifting off to sleep I would suddenly wake up gasping for air. One night I remembered it seemed to take forever to catch my breath and I was convinced I would die. I live alone too so that really didn't help.

I found my meds were aggravating it and once I sorted that out it almost stopped. I was taking two tablets which were sedatives and one was dissolvable Mirtazapine that you put on your tongue and it dissolves. With me, it was drying my mouth and throat out and causing me to have to catch my breath and cos of the sedative tablets I wasn't waking up until I was on the verge of suffocating.

I remember telling one doctor I was sure I would die in the night and he thought I was mad because he seemed to think my body's natural defences would kick in and wake me up. Which they were doing.

It's hard to know what to suggest other than looking at ways of calming yourself before sleep - maybe going to bed with some soft music on or listening to spoken word - something that eases you into sleep?

[Janina87]

i have also had the same problem i take propanodol and told my gp that i was having these episodes of waking up of a half sleep not being able to breathe and stuff like that she said to try and take my tablets before 6 ish is those can give you nightmares which she described mine to be x hope you get sorted x x