View Full Version : Scared to sleep. Does anyone else get these "night jolts" and have any idea on how to
Hey guys and girls, not sure if this is the correct place though.
I'm a 23 year old, relatively healthy (I smoke, but I am quitting in 4 weeks! Have also cut down drastically from 15 to 5-6 a day in this process) Male and suffer from anxiety as do many others on here. However recently I've been having these "night jolts" again. I found that description online and it seems very apt. It's hard to describe and for the last 2 years or so I've gone through phases of 2-3 months of having them, then nothing for a few months and then having them again.
What happens is as I lie in bed trying to sleep no matter where my thought process is (I can be thinking of anything, from something I read in the newspaper, to a TV show, to something on Reddit etc) I'll jolt up in a panic and it's hard to describe, but my heart rate is racing and it does feel like I've been on the brink of death. It terrifies me. I tend to take deep breathes and quickly snap out of it, but then they happen again until I think I get to the point where I'm too exhausted from it and just sleep.
This doesn't happen to me at any other time of the day, whether I'm lying down watching a film, or reading a book in bed, only on a night when trying to sleep. I have got good at coping through the days with my anxiety to a point where it's nearly negligible, however these night jolts scare me to death (ha) and I am afraid of going to sleep every night because of them.
Sometimes I have them when my girlfriend is around, though these are usually less common and may only happen once in the process of getting to sleep rather than 4 to 5 times and more oft than not it doesn't. So I'm attributing it to my anxiety rather than another medical condition.
However I was wondering if anyone else suffers from these, and if so, how do you cope with them when they're really bad? My exams are coming up and it'd be useful to sleep for them (I'm not stressed about these as I've already passed the year even if I do badly in the exams, and it doesn't count towards my final mark). I will be making a trip to the doctor soon about this, as my anxiety was diagnosed many years ago and was attributed to my Dad's death when I was 14 (was 16 when diagnosed), but I haven't seen a doctor about it since and this is a new symptom that is terrifying.
That happens to me too, I wake sometimes in the middle of the night in a panic. I spent the day at the other house I own with my fiance and I fell asleep on the couch. He was sitting at the other end and I woke in a panic. I remember shooting straight up and grabbing the back of the couch and after a few seconds I started to laugh and asked him if I had a look of terror on my face. I think he said I did. It's happened to me so many times it's no longer a big deal. Once my heart stops pounding I'm able to go back to sleep. :D
Hey guys and girls, not sure if this is the correct place though.
I'm a 23 year old, relatively healthy (I smoke, but I am quitting in 4 weeks! Have also cut down drastically from 15 to 5-6 a day in this process) Male and suffer from anxiety as do many others on here. However recently I've been having these "night jolts" again. I found that description online and it seems very apt. It's hard to describe and for the last 2 years or so I've gone through phases of 2-3 months of having them, then nothing for a few months and then having them again.
What happens is as I lie in bed trying to sleep no matter where my thought process is (I can be thinking of anything, from something I read in the newspaper, to a TV show, to something on Reddit etc) I'll jolt up in a panic and it's hard to describe, but my heart rate is racing and it does feel like I've been on the brink of death. It terrifies me. I tend to take deep breathes and quickly snap out of it, but then they happen again until I think I get to the point where I'm too exhausted from it and just sleep.
This doesn't happen to me at any other time of the day, whether I'm lying down watching a film, or reading a book in bed, only on a night when trying to sleep. I have got good at coping through the days with my anxiety to a point where it's nearly negligible, however these night jolts scare me to death (ha) and I am afraid of going to sleep every night because of them.
Sometimes I have them when my girlfriend is around, though these are usually less common and may only happen once in the process of getting to sleep rather than 4 to 5 times and more oft than not it doesn't. So I'm attributing it to my anxiety rather than another medical condition.
However I was wondering if anyone else suffers from these, and if so, how do you cope with them when they're really bad? My exams are coming up and it'd be useful to sleep for them (I'm not stressed about these as I've already passed the year even if I do badly in the exams, and it doesn't count towards my final mark). I will be making a trip to the doctor soon about this, as my anxiety was diagnosed many years ago and was attributed to my Dad's death when I was 14 (was 16 when diagnosed), but I haven't seen a doctor about it since and this is a new symptom that is terrifying.
That happens to me too, I wake sometimes in the middle of the night in a panic. I spent the day at the other house I own with my fiance and I fell asleep on the couch. He was sitting at the other end and I woke in a panic. I remember shooting straight up and grabbing the back of the couch and after a few seconds I started to laugh and asked him if I had a look of terror on my face. I think he said I did. It's happened to me so many times it's no longer a big deal. Once my heart stops pounding I'm able to go back to sleep. :D
Mine surprisingly never happens in the middle of a night. If I wake up to go to the toilet or wake up because of a noise, I never have trouble getting back off. It's just the initial drifting off stage.
It's the worst thing I've ever experienced and no one I know, not even my girlfriend knows I suffer from these because to people who don't suffer similar or the same things it's hard for them to understand and may think I'm crazy a little if I tell her I feel like I'm dying 2-10 times a night when I try and sleep. She does know about my Anxiety though, and I can manage that usually okay.
Maybe listening to a relaxation mp3 before you go to bed will help. It does sound similar to what I experience. I wonder if it's related to that common feeling people get when they're drifting off then get a feeling of falling and jump awake, does that ever happen to you?
Mine surprisingly never happens in the middle of a night. If I wake up to go to the toilet or wake up because of a noise, I never have trouble getting back off. It's just the initial drifting off stage.
It's the worst thing I've ever experienced and no one I know, not even my girlfriend knows I suffer from these because to people who don't suffer similar or the same things it's hard for them to understand and may think I'm crazy a little if I tell her I feel like I'm dying 2-10 times a night when I try and sleep. She does know about my Anxiety though, and I can manage that usually okay.
Maybe listening to a relaxation mp3 before you go to bed will help. It does sound similar to what I experience. I wonder if it's related to that common feeling people get when they're drifting off then get a feeling of falling and jump awake, does that ever happen to you?
Yeah it's similar to one of those definitely. I think they're called Hypnic Jerks? I definitely have had them in the past, though they're not as common occurrence as these night jolts are. Very similar though in a way so could be related.
What I've been trying to do recently is put on something that focuses my mind. It tends to be a documentary or a match of football or something. Something I can visualize whilst I drift off. However whilst this cuts the amount I have down in a night, it still doesn't stop it entirely. I may try some relaxation mp3s! Thanks for the advice :)
You're welcome :D I hope it goes away soon. I haven't had it happen in quite a while.
Yeah it's similar to one of those definitely. I think they're called Hypnic Jerks? I definitely have had them in the past, though they're not as common occurrence as these night jolts are. Very similar though in a way so could be related.
What I've been trying to do recently is put on something that focuses my mind. It tends to be a documentary or a match of football or something. Something I can visualize whilst I drift off. However whilst this cuts the amount I have down in a night, it still doesn't stop it entirely. I may try some relaxation mp3s! Thanks for the advice :)
Whitetrash
13-04-13, 20:39
Like Hypnogogic hallucinations? These suck!
In the past I found getting rid of all stimulus before bed was a great help, getting into a good settled and relaxed sleep routine is a good way forward.
Like Hypnogogic hallucinations? These suck!
In the past I found getting rid of all stimulus before bed was a great help, getting into a good settled and relaxed sleep routine is a good way forward.
It seems to onset at the same time these Hypnogogic Hallucinations would, maybe a little earlier. However it's definitely quite different. Whatever it is makes me feel like I've just died/been on the brink of death and it's within a split second that it happens. There's no visual or auditory symptoms, I just snap up with my heart pounding after it feels like it stopped and I also slightly hyperventilate. I can't even have the composure in that split second to realize what it is to keep myself down and trying to drift off.
What your having is called night terrors, I used live with that from childhood to my adult life. Can be very terrifying, like your dying, then rapid fast pounding heart rate!!! Same thing. Start eating Hershey's special dark chocolate, it will suppress the trigger of any panic attacks, anxeity completely! I'm 4yrs free of all night terrors! I live a normal healthy life now.The only thing is, its a daily regiment each day of eating it.must be maintain! If not? Your terror will come back again! Please do not be skeptical, like many other's are with out even trying it first! Your choice, live with your terror? Or a normal healthy life. Remember, its dark chocolate! not milk chocolate, it will not do a thing for you. Just trust me. It beats being on some nasty harmful drugs that harm your body. Like I said I'm 4yrs free of the terror! and going on 5yrs now, Just please try it before knock it. K,
What your having is called night terrors, I used live with that from childhood to my adult life. Can be very terrifying, like your dying, then rapid fast pounding heart rate!!! Same thing. Start eating Hershey's special dark chocolate, it will suppress the trigger of any panic attacks, anxeity completely! I'm 4yrs free of all night terrors! I live a normal healthy life now.The only thing is, its a daily regiment each day of eating it.must be maintain! If not? Your terror will come back again! Please do not be skeptical, like many other's are with out even trying it first! Your choice, live with your terror? Or a normal healthy life. Remember, its dark chocolate! not milk chocolate, it will not do a thing for you. Just trust me. It beats being on some nasty harmful drugs that harm your body. Like I said I'm 4yrs free of the terror! and going on 5yrs now, Just please try it before knock it. K,
It doesn't seem to link with night terrors, unless they can occur in the very early stages of falling off. I thought night terrors were more a case of something that happened before you started dreaming but were still asleep? I had looked into it as a possibility though.
However this said, I'm willing to try anything so dark chocolate it is!
xleannexwrightx
13-04-13, 23:21
Hello, Im sorry to hear you are going through this. A year or so ago I was experience the same thing and posted a similar thread... part of my post included this description of how I experienced the night jolts :-
'Im lying in bed and im constantly jolting up gasping for air, then it feels like my heart stops. I kept feeling like someone was suffocating me, and it kept happening through the night, didnt sleep till gone 5am :( its really draining on me now, ive had it before but not as bad as last nite, i literally believed i wasnt gonna wake up today and that i would have died in my sleep because i could barely breathe' .
I can empathize with what you are going through. Sometimes I had, what felt like, 'electric' shocks running through my brain and as if it paralyzed me momentarily and my body was shaking scared of it, I thought I was having seizures and went to the doctors many times about it. They gave me sleeping tablets to help me catch up on my sleep and said it was just anxiety, but this didn't help me solve the problem.
I'm sorry I can't give you solution, the only thing I could do was to just accept it happening.... try not focus on the fear and just change your attitude to 'ok its happened now, I am ok, I have always been ok just after one happening, I will try and go back to sleep now, I wont be scared'. The more I tried to fight and avoid it from happening (I myself lost many hours sleep and couldn't switch off because of the fear of the tremors) the more frequent the 'shocks'/'zaps' occurred. I still to this day have sudden jerks in my sleep, but I am not longer scared of them, they are more of a nuisance as they wake me up! Or its usually when I'm just about to drift off to sleep. If you can practice accepting them to lessen the fear, then you can experiment on different ways to minimise them happening a lot easier.
I hope you have a good sleep tonight and many nights to come.
What your having is called night terrors, I used live with that from childhood to my adult life. Can be very terrifying, like your dying, then rapid fast pounding heart rate!!! Same thing. Start eating Hershey's special dark chocolate, it will suppress the trigger of any panic attacks, anxeity completely! I'm 4yrs free of all night terrors! I live a normal healthy life now.The only thing is, its a daily regiment each day of eating it.must be maintain! If not? Your terror will come back again! Please do not be skeptical, like many other's are with out even trying it first! Your choice, live with your terror? Or a normal healthy life. Remember, its dark chocolate! not milk chocolate, it will not do a thing for you. Just trust me. It beats being on some nasty harmful drugs that harm your body. Like I said I'm 4yrs free of the terror! and going on 5yrs now, Just please try it before knock it. K,
----------------------------
I have never had the jolting part, it sounds another horrible part of anxiety disorder. But I will definitely be trying the chocolate.
I get this. It's called "nocturnal panic" - look it up because there are some good articles about it online. I've found that understanding what it is has alleviated my anxiety of it and I haven't had it so much lately. However sometimes I'll get it all night long as soon as I fall asleep and eventually fall asleep due to exhaustion like you mentioned in your post. Supposedly it happens because you have trouble letting yourself get in the super relaxed sleep state - your body subconciously notices when it starts to relax and it jerks you awake. I notice when I'm awake and anxious that it feels uncomfortable trying to get relaxed and my body tries to fight it, so I can definitely see why this would also happen when I'm asleep. Anything you can do to work on relaxation will help - yoga is great, relaxation techniques etc. I think it's about forming new habbits and letting yourself relax.
---------- Post added at 13:53 ---------- Previous post was at 13:15 ----------
This is quite a good article http://www.ehow.com/about_5410253_nocturnal-panic-disorder.html
Hello, Im sorry to hear you are going through this. A year or so ago I was experience the same thing and posted a similar thread... part of my post included this description of how I experienced the night jolts :-
'Im lying in bed and im constantly jolting up gasping for air, then it feels like my heart stops. I kept feeling like someone was suffocating me, and it kept happening through the night, didnt sleep till gone 5am :( its really draining on me now, ive had it before but not as bad as last nite, i literally believed i wasnt gonna wake up today and that i would have died in my sleep because i could barely breathe' .
I can empathize with what you are going through. Sometimes I had, what felt like, 'electric' shocks running through my brain and as if it paralyzed me momentarily and my body was shaking scared of it, I thought I was having seizures and went to the doctors many times about it. They gave me sleeping tablets to help me catch up on my sleep and said it was just anxiety, but this didn't help me solve the problem.
I'm sorry I can't give you solution, the only thing I could do was to just accept it happening.... try not focus on the fear and just change your attitude to 'ok its happened now, I am ok, I have always been ok just after one happening, I will try and go back to sleep now, I wont be scared'. The more I tried to fight and avoid it from happening (I myself lost many hours sleep and couldn't switch off because of the fear of the tremors) the more frequent the 'shocks'/'zaps' occurred. I still to this day have sudden jerks in my sleep, but I am not longer scared of them, they are more of a nuisance as they wake me up! Or its usually when I'm just about to drift off to sleep. If you can practice accepting them to lessen the fear, then you can experiment on different ways to minimise them happening a lot easier.
I hope you have a good sleep tonight and many nights to come.
This sounds exactly like what I get. I seem to go through phases of having them and then they'll disappear and I won't get one for a few months. I seem to be fortunate in one way that they've never woken me up though. Thanks for your advice, it's very much appreciated and I shall take it on board. I'll beat this and get good sleep soon! Unfortunately not tonight as I've had 3 so far so I've got up and I'm pottering around trying to see what else I can find to beat it! Thanks for your kind words too. I'm glad you've found a way to cope :)
I get this. It's called "nocturnal panic" - look it up because there are some good articles about it online. I've found that understanding what it is has alleviated my anxiety of it and I haven't had it so much lately. However sometimes I'll get it all night long as soon as I fall asleep and eventually fall asleep due to exhaustion like you mentioned in your post. Supposedly it happens because you have trouble letting yourself get in the super relaxed sleep state - your body subconciously notices when it starts to relax and it jerks you awake. I notice when I'm awake and anxious that it feels uncomfortable trying to get relaxed and my body tries to fight it, so I can definitely see why this would also happen when I'm asleep. Anything you can do to work on relaxation will help - yoga is great, relaxation techniques etc. I think it's about forming new habbits and letting yourself relax.
---------- Post added at 13:53 ---------- Previous post was at 13:15 ----------
Thanks a lot! I've been looking for a name to put to it. However I'm unsure if this is exactly it as this seems to wake people rather than effect them when they're drifting off. It does seem very similar, maybe they're just a lot more common in waking people up so they don't really mention the other stage. Mine also don't last as long as a normal Panic attack, or not as long as the daytime ones I've had in the past.
Sounds similar to what I get. I've had them drifting off. Think it's just to do with that transition between being alert and relaxing and switching off that your body is reacting to. It's telling you to wake up because subconsciously you don't want to give up control.
I've had the hypnic jerks when falling asleep (a jolt of varying intensity, sometimes with a twanging sound or a flash of light, but no sense of panic). I've never worried too much about these, as I only get one or two, and actually feel more relaxed afterwards.
I've also had a sudden feeling that I can't breathe, with some sudden panic, and a desire to move or sit up to get some air. It may be sleep apnea, but it only seems to occur in the semi-conscious period just before sleep. These are more scary, and can disrupt sleep.
Adb, it would happen with me in early most the time, once in a while late at night ad well. It still come's down to a panic arracks, whether its night or day. I' m very glad your going to try it Adb, it works on the very first day, that's how fast & effective it works! Even a good friend of mine at work told his sister, which she suffered from day time panic attacks for yrs, and try the dark chocolate regiment, happy to tell you she is now 4 months free of any panic attacks and give up her 2 medicine she was taking. Even my girl friend would talk in her sleep loud and throw her body around cuz of her dreams got her to eat dark chocolate, it help her stop talking in her sleep. To put it short, how I came about this, It's a God answered prayer 4 yrs ago. Now can so many be so skeptical of his help & love?
---------- Post added at 21:30 ---------- Previous post was at 21:26 ----------
PS, sorry on a couple miss spell words on my post.hard yo work with a phone sometime's.
This is anxiety and as you can see from all the posts it is very common with anxiety sufferers. It will pass with time as you become less scared of them....which seems weird as they are now making you worry.It is your body relaxing and your heart slowing down as you fall from wake into sleep. Your heat has it's own natural pacemaker which makes it jolt to get it's natural rhythm. As you drop off to sleep your heart slows. If you are anxious then your heart has to slow further hence the ectopic beats (jolts).
Adb, it would happen with me in early most the time, once in a while late at night ad well. It still come's down to a panic arracks, whether its night or day. I' m very glad your going to try it Adb, it works on the very first day, that's how fast & effective it works! Even a good friend of mine at work told his sister, which she suffered from day time panic attacks for yrs, and try the dark chocolate regiment, happy to tell you she is now 4 months free of any panic attacks and give up her 2 medicine she was taking. Even my girl friend would talk in her sleep loud and throw her body around cuz of her dreams got her to eat dark chocolate, it help her stop talking in her sleep. To put it short, how I came about this, It's a God answered prayer 4 yrs ago. Now can so many be so skeptical of his help & love?
---------- Post added at 21:30 ---------- Previous post was at 21:26 ----------
PS, sorry on a couple miss spell words on my post.hard yo work with a phone sometime's.
Thanks for your words. It's very reassuring to know I'm not alone when it comes to this type of anxiety. Scouring the internet months ago I couldn't find anything about it, but I may have been searching for the incorrect things!
I shall try some dark chocolate today and see how it changes things over the next week. Last night was a bit better than usual after I'd been jolted the first few times, however I only got about 4 hours sleep because it took me a while to fall off.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.