Nocturnal panic attack

[Scooter86]

Hey folks,
Well it seems my night time panic attacks are back. Last nights was one of the worst - I guess I’m wondering if anyone has experienced what I went through. Basically what happens is I go to bed and wake up about 2 hours later, I’ll roll over and immediately my body starts buzzing. I can feel it in my arms, legs, torso and lips. Normally I would get up at this point and move around, go to the washroom, grab some water.

Last night I decided to lie in bed and do some deep breathing to try and calm it. As I was breathing the buzzing got worse until it almost felt like I couldn’t get a full breath. I jumped out of bed and wandered around the house, I kept pacing but it felt like my airway was closing. Like no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t take a full breath. Almost like when you get the wind knocked out of you. I feel like this lasted for around 10-30 seconds. Then my stomach flipped and my breathing returned. My whole body felt weak and for the rest of the night I was tossing and turning.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Any similar symptoms? It’s the trouble breathing that scares me the most.

Thanks
S

[ankietyjoe]

Yeah sounds very familiar. I had this hundreds of times in the past.

The breathing issue is just very tense muscles and not dangerous.

Try not to place any meaning into it, it's just another form of anxiety and will come/go depending on how much you react to it. Getting up and having a pee/getting some water is probably the best thing to do, at least I found it was. Your body is full of adrenaline so just laying there will most likely just make you focus on it more. It takes a good 10-15 minutes for the effects of adrenaline to come down.

[Tinystrength]

Speaking for myself breathing exercises don't work. When I'm at my peak panic I actually have to focus on not inadvertently hyperventilating which it kind of sounds like you did while deep breathing. If you're going to do that make sure you breath in slow, slight pause, then exhale slow. If you just start mouth breathing big inhalations and exhalations you'll quickly flood your body with too much oxygen which will give the sensation of suffocating (light headed, shaking, tight chest).