View Full Version : Woke up thinking I was dying.. First time this has happened...
Went to bed last night feeling really good after a good therapy session yesterday morning.
Anyway so about 2.30am I literally jolted awake and felt really dizzy like really dizzy and almost felt out of breathe and just plain weird... I honestly thought I was about to die!
I grabbed my other half and said I'm dying I'm dying and literally it passed in under a minute and I went back to sleep... I have woken up this morning just feeling plain weird and a bit scared of what on earth happend as I've never experienced something like that before...
Has anyone else? I'm assuming it's a classic anxiety symptom but just took me by surprise :(
It sounds like a sudden panic attack - in these the feeling you are dying can be strong. Many people feel they are having a heart attack, etc. It's good that you've got someone to hang on to, particularly if they understand and can be with you until it passes.
Did it happen when you turned over in bed? And really spinning vertigo?
I just woke up and I was spinning... I suffer with dizziness and vertigo and it just felt like a very severe dizziness and felt out of breathe to... Wasn't very pleasant :( I just thought like I had died and my body knew it was happening so jolted me awake :(
BPPV affects me like that
I've been tested for BBPV and that came up negative... So not sure what this was :(
Err this is really playing on my mind :( I can't stop thinking how awful I felt....
A couple of times I woke up with severe vertigo that I literally had to be still for 4 hours. I couldn't even more, or let alone, lay down because I would go straight to the toilet and throw up. I was a bit out of breath too.
Is it possible that you had bad dreams that woke you up?
Have a word with your doctor, might be an ear problem:)
Probably just anxiety playing tricks on you. You're stressed, no doubt about that, I've seen your posts and threads, and even if you don't really feel anxious AT THAT moment, believe me, your subconciousness still is, and it might take weeks for you to feel normal again. And you're even more vulnerable during sleeping, when the subconciousness has more power. Don't worry about it, best you can do at that time, is just ride it out, use controlled breathing with diaphragm and wait until it passes. :)
I've had labyrinthitis on and off for years, and a few months ago I woke up in the middle of the night so dizzy it was terrifying. It went after I sat up for a few minutes. I actually had an mri with contrast after that and nothing too weird jumped out at them. Had another few bad dizzy episodes since.
They don't think I have labrynthitis either :(
I'm to scared to go to sleep now...
Don't be scared to go to sleep. Almost everyone has sleep disturbances at some time in their life, and usually they resolve without any special treatment.
Although we move around during the night, for part of the time in the night our movement is paralysed. This shuts off when we wake up, but sometimes it is possible to wake suddenly when the paralysis is in effect. It only lasts a few seconds, but it can cause a terrifying feeling. Despite that, there is no real danger.
Thanks guys, my anxiety seems to be at a slightly higher level than normal.
I ended up having a really bad vertigo spell at work this morning.. there really hard to describe but I have no idea what on earth is happening! I will just be sat at my computer - moving my eyes but not my head - my ears start to rumble and I get this intense dizzy spell its horrible, it just feels like severe vertigo for about 10 seconds - then the anxiety symptoms start and I get burning down my neck and need to go to the loo... I have no idea if this vertigo is an anxiety symptom or what is causing it but its scaring the shit out of me!
Hey fedup, that sounded like a nasty experience :(
Remember that it's really common for vertigo to trigger dizziness and panic, it's an unfortunately natural reaction in your body. The key is to try and remember that, and not let the panic grow bigger or dwell on it past the event.
If you're still seeing your VRT therapist I'd talk to her about the rumbling sounds and the dizzy spells.
Hi HoneyLove - it wasn't a nice experience at all. I am not seeing my therapist anymore as they think its down to my neck possibly. I do however have her email so I may drop her a message just saying what's happened and whether its worth going back again. I am getting better at accepting its nothing serious but its just horrible and I do sit here fearing it happening again... My anxiety is so much better than before as I spell like that this morning would normally leave me to being in a state of panic for the rest of the day but I am actually feeling ok now and trying to get on with it :)
I just have no idea what on earth could be causing it - it seems to tie more and more up with menieres with the rumbling sound but its the fact it happens for such a short duration which suggests its not.
How is your dizziness?
I was scared of sleep for years, thinking my heart would give out in the night. I now think: 'so what if it does?' I can do absolutely ZERO about it, and I'm wasting my life worrying about this huge WHAT IF.
Your attitude needs to shift to this: I may die in my sleep tonight, it's extremely unlikely but if that's my 'fate' (I don't believe in fate by the way), then I'm going to live the rest of my life to the full RIGHT NOW, and enjoy every last minute.
I was thinking that too about menieres, especially with the low rumbling sound you mention. The vertigo from it can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. Just keep an eye on it, and yeah get in touch with your therapist if you can.
That's really good news about the anxiety levels. That's how it happened for me too, eventually you just stop being so phased by the dizziness and accept that it's nothing bad. It's hard with this kind of illness, but you'll get there :)
My own dizziness gets better all the time! I'm glad to say. I still have some issues, but it's beginning to resolve a lot.
I get this its quite scary if I cant shake it off ill play on my phone to help take my mind off it until it passes that works for me dont worry it always passes :)
Linda01818
11-04-14, 12:11
Err this is really playing on my mind :( I can't stop thinking how awful I felt....
Hi,
I know I'm a little late on the draw here with chiming in, but this exact thing happened to me last night and I was searching for others who have experienced the same thing and found your thread. And I too can't stop thinking how horrible and weird I felt. I've never felt anything like it in my life and I'm sitting here crying because it scared me more than I think I've ever been scared, ever. You said this in another post:
"I just woke up and I was spinning... I suffer with dizziness and vertigo and it just felt like a very severe dizziness and felt out of breathe to... Wasn't very pleasant :( I just thought like I had died and my body knew it was happening so jolted me awake :( "
That's what happened to me EXACTLY. And I was convinced that I had been slipping away (dying) in my sleep and my body was like "Oh no! Hey! You're dying! Wake up!!!"
So I shot awake and the room was spinning and I felt dizzy and I couldn't focus on anything and had to sit there for a minute or two before I could get out of bed. Then I was terrified to go back to sleep all night long. I'd try to, but as soon as I would start to nod off I'd come back awake because my brain didn't want it to happen. I finally got up and took an ativan and that helped relax me enough to go back to sleep.
And here's something even more weird - once I was able to get up and walk, I went to the bathroom. The light must have bothered my eyes some because walking back out of the bathroom I think I hallucinated, I saw something moving against the wall and I literally gasped, that's how bad it freaked me out.
My gawd, what an awful, awful night and one of the most terrifying feelings I can ever remember having. And then I found your thread and what you described was the exact same thing I went through, so I had to post comments.
I'll tell you one thing (I'm still crying because I still can't get over how that made me feel) I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I think it's a form of panic (I have GAD and get the occasional panic/anxiety attacks, although they're less severe than they used to be) and I might be wigging out a little in my head right now because I'm on a couple of medications for an ailment (nothing serious) and I'm already one of those people who suffers with 'health anxiety', constantly worried about coming down with some horrible disease or not living much longer, that sort of thing. That's the only thing I can come up with as to why this happened.
Hi Linda,
Thankfully I am yet to have another episode of this but can obviously sympathise with you! It was the worse sensation I have ever felt! What frustrated me is it happened whilst I started to actually feel a bit better! I had a really bad couple of days after it to as I just wanted to avoid it happening again - thankfully it hasn't :)
If I am completely honest I started to forget it even happened and hope the same happens for you :) It seems to be a common thing though amongst us anxiety sufferers!
I am having as rubbish day today - full blown panic attack in Asda at lunchtime :( And now I keep feeling like I am about to fall to sleep which scares me that I am about to bloodie faint - I can't believe anxiety can make you feel this rotten :(
Linda01818
11-04-14, 13:26
Thank you for responding :)
Anxiety can definitely make you feel rotten. In fact it can take over your life, with constant worries, sometimes completely irrational, that plague your mind. I really should be back on anti-anxiety meds, but the side-effects terrify me because I went through it with Celexa and I don't want to go through it again. My doctor recently prescribed me Lexapro and I stopped it just a few days in because I got those all-too-familiar visual disturbances, it completely killed my appetite and my head was spinning so badly I couldn't even drive to work. I'm afraid of those things and already having health anxiety, I think any pill I take is going to send me to the hospital with crazy side-effects.
I'm a mess :(
I'm glad you haven't experienced that again. And I hope to heck I never do again either because I spent my entire morning crying because of it. I'm okay now, but I still shake can't that feeling.
One thing I've learned in my years of dealing with this is it's scary how powerful the mind is. I can literally control your physical being.
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