JamesJ
26-03-13, 02:29
Hi all,
I thought I would pop in an post this thread as others might find it useful.
For the past 3 years I've noticed sleep issues that appear to be anxiety related, although they might not be. I'm a long sufferer of anxiety (10 years) and it's destroyed my quality of life.
These sleep issues started randomly around 3 years ago. I'll explain the first time I caught one:
At the time I was working late into the morning on the computer. I'm a Software Developer - I work from the office in my bedroom. I was getting 4-5 hours sleep a night. One day I felt tiered at 2pm, so I thought I'll stroll into bed and get an hours sleep.
I fell asleep, but then out of the blue I suddenly awoke from my sleep shortly after. I remember sitting bolt upright and feeling awful. The feelings were beyond anything I've ever felt in my life. As a long term sufferer of anxiety I've felt some nasty panic experiences, but nothing compares to what I felt when I woke suddenly from my sleep that day.
I think I honestly felt the real feeling of impending doom. I've felt impending doom thousands of times, but this was like a realization that my life was about to slip away.
The feelings I felt that day are so bad I can't even recall them because there are no words to describe them. I can describe anxiety, I can not describe this.
My girlfriend caught the moment it happened. She said I was lying in bed with my eyes open, she thought I was awake. She said when I shot bolt upright I looked as if I'd seen a ghost. She said I put my arms around her and muttered "Help Me". I remember jumping out of bed to run to the tap for water. My legs felt like they were still asleep.
It took me hours to recover from this. There was no pain, no nothing. That was 3 years ago.
To this day I have these attacks 4-5 times a week. But I've had them so many times I don't think anything will match that first experience. Most nights they happen, and I recall vividly waking up in the night, and feeling terrible feelings, but when I wake up in the morning I can't remember exactly what happened.
I've even recorded myself on camera.
One morning I woke up and thought I had the best nights sleep in the world until my girlfriend told me I was having some type of fit in my sleep and was squeeling like a pig. It baffles me. I didn't even remember having that attack. During most attacks I know I make noises in my throat when I wake up. Like "Ugh Ugh Ugh" noises. No idea why I make those noises, I think it's the panic reflex. I can sometimes make these noises when I have a really bad attack in the daytime.
It's so bad now I have an appointment for a sleep study next week. Whatever I am going through is not normal. I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to have these attacks because they are not nice.
Some nights I wake up sweating around my neck, back and chest. Literally drenched through.
Hopefully the sleep study will catch what's going on, and if it's not anxiety at least I will know what it is. I'm hoping it's anxiety during sleep because then I'll know it's nothing life threatening. What links my attacks to anxiety is the fact that G.A.D nocturnal attacks occur in phase 2 of the sleep cycle. 99% of my attacks happen within the first half hour of falling asleep. Sometimes it's 10 minutes after I drop off. This would be stage 2.
Share your experiences if you've genuinely felt anything similar. I know anxiety during the daytime can feel bad, but if you've felt what I feel most nights you will know that these night time attacks are on another level to normal anxiety attacks when you're awake.
Sorry for rambling. I will post the results of the sleep study when I get them.
This is about as close as I can get to describing it: http://www.endthepanic.com/panic-attack-while-sleeping.html ... a lot, if not all, of what is said in that article is true to my situation.
I thought I would pop in an post this thread as others might find it useful.
For the past 3 years I've noticed sleep issues that appear to be anxiety related, although they might not be. I'm a long sufferer of anxiety (10 years) and it's destroyed my quality of life.
These sleep issues started randomly around 3 years ago. I'll explain the first time I caught one:
At the time I was working late into the morning on the computer. I'm a Software Developer - I work from the office in my bedroom. I was getting 4-5 hours sleep a night. One day I felt tiered at 2pm, so I thought I'll stroll into bed and get an hours sleep.
I fell asleep, but then out of the blue I suddenly awoke from my sleep shortly after. I remember sitting bolt upright and feeling awful. The feelings were beyond anything I've ever felt in my life. As a long term sufferer of anxiety I've felt some nasty panic experiences, but nothing compares to what I felt when I woke suddenly from my sleep that day.
I think I honestly felt the real feeling of impending doom. I've felt impending doom thousands of times, but this was like a realization that my life was about to slip away.
The feelings I felt that day are so bad I can't even recall them because there are no words to describe them. I can describe anxiety, I can not describe this.
My girlfriend caught the moment it happened. She said I was lying in bed with my eyes open, she thought I was awake. She said when I shot bolt upright I looked as if I'd seen a ghost. She said I put my arms around her and muttered "Help Me". I remember jumping out of bed to run to the tap for water. My legs felt like they were still asleep.
It took me hours to recover from this. There was no pain, no nothing. That was 3 years ago.
To this day I have these attacks 4-5 times a week. But I've had them so many times I don't think anything will match that first experience. Most nights they happen, and I recall vividly waking up in the night, and feeling terrible feelings, but when I wake up in the morning I can't remember exactly what happened.
I've even recorded myself on camera.
One morning I woke up and thought I had the best nights sleep in the world until my girlfriend told me I was having some type of fit in my sleep and was squeeling like a pig. It baffles me. I didn't even remember having that attack. During most attacks I know I make noises in my throat when I wake up. Like "Ugh Ugh Ugh" noises. No idea why I make those noises, I think it's the panic reflex. I can sometimes make these noises when I have a really bad attack in the daytime.
It's so bad now I have an appointment for a sleep study next week. Whatever I am going through is not normal. I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to have these attacks because they are not nice.
Some nights I wake up sweating around my neck, back and chest. Literally drenched through.
Hopefully the sleep study will catch what's going on, and if it's not anxiety at least I will know what it is. I'm hoping it's anxiety during sleep because then I'll know it's nothing life threatening. What links my attacks to anxiety is the fact that G.A.D nocturnal attacks occur in phase 2 of the sleep cycle. 99% of my attacks happen within the first half hour of falling asleep. Sometimes it's 10 minutes after I drop off. This would be stage 2.
Share your experiences if you've genuinely felt anything similar. I know anxiety during the daytime can feel bad, but if you've felt what I feel most nights you will know that these night time attacks are on another level to normal anxiety attacks when you're awake.
Sorry for rambling. I will post the results of the sleep study when I get them.
This is about as close as I can get to describing it: http://www.endthepanic.com/panic-attack-while-sleeping.html ... a lot, if not all, of what is said in that article is true to my situation.