Panic attack during the night

[LittleMissSleepy]

I woke up in the middle of last night, was really hot and bathed in sweat, which led to panic with elevated heart rate. I normally manage to control things at this point before they get worse.

However I wasn't able to calm myself quick enough this time, it turned into one of my worst panic attacks with racing heart for a while. The full nausea, tingling in both arms, tight chest etc. I managed to get up despite feeling faint.

I cooled off in the bathroom for 5 mins. Went back to bed, doing deep breathing, when the full body shakes and tension in all my muscles set in for about half an hour.

I believe this attack had been building as I've been anxious about a lot of things lately. And my palpitations were more frequent yesterday and before trying to fall asleep.

I feel really rubbish this morning. Any tips for getting over an attack in the following hours would be greatly appreciated. I think it's worst at night cos you can't distract yourself so easily without disturbing others and that makes for more anxiety.

[Reza]

Hi Miss

I am sorry to hear you had an attack while sleep . I have had panic attack for many years and had very severe one at night just few days ago. I went to bed but could not go to sleep for 2 hourse my mind was busy and finally i went to sleep but woke up with panic it was about 3 in morning i thought i am going to faint and die I can not describe it how bad it was i asked my wife to call 999 and by the time they came panic was over but i went to hospital as there was long waiting i came back home and a nurse shouted at me why you call 999 it cost 800 pound .any way thing can help

1- have shower before you go to bed
2- do not eat any thing after 7
3- drink milk with honey at night no tea coffee or fuzzy drink
5-if you have some thing in your mind tell some one about it or write it down
6- go to bed at the same time every night
7- make your room temperature mild
8-last rememebr you can win the panic battle

[haz]

Oh the ones that wake you up in the middle of the night are really horrible!

I've been getting them for years. I keep diazepam in my bedside cabinet and take one to calm me down and get back to sleep.

Haz.x

[oldtime]

My PA's occurred mainly at night. Yours is classic with hot sweats and racing heart. Mine finally stopped when I started to observe them rather than fight them or try and distract myself.

The technique is to concentrate on the symptoms that you are feeling:

Think I'm feeling hot all over - this is a rush of blood supply to my skin.
My heart is starting to beat fast - adrenalin
My chest is tight, and I'm gasping for air
I feel disorientated
I have butterfly's in my stomach
Now I'm cold and clammy and shaky.

If you have a note pad you can start writing them down, in the order in which they occur. Write the time down as well and then see how long that they last for.

Don't fight the PA let it happen and observe it.

It's seems crazy to dwell on the symptoms, but if you do this a few times the PA's will get less intense, and you will start to lose your fear of them.

When you start to recover read up on CBT, it really is the only way to overcome anxiety long term.

[haz]

I can handle the "physical" symptoms you describe above, it's the "psychological" ones that get to me. Overwhelming sense of sheer terror, feeling like I'm going to die, faint, be sick (I suffer from emetophobia). You would think after years of this I would be able to rationalise all these feelings, but when you've just been woken from a deep sleep in the middle of the night, it's very difficult I find.

Haz.

[oldtime]

The sense of terror is what keeps the anxiety cycle going. When I had nocturnal panic attacks I would wake up disorientated and feel total fear, I felt like I would die. You have to tackle it a bit at a time, when it happens get a pad of paper and write down what you are feeling. You will start to feel more in control, each attack will get less intense and suddenly the fear will just go. After a month of doing this I remember waking up in a sweat with a pounding heart and not feeling the fear that went with it, after that my recovery happened very quickly the fear had gone and the panic attacks got weaker until they stopped happening.

I also practised making my heart beat fast during the day, by walking fast up and down the stairs a few times and getting used to a fast heart beat and feeling that gave me.

[LittleMissSleepy]

I'm getting very tired from this regular visitor at 2am Mr nasty PA. Some times I manage to quash it but last night I was too slow due to sleepiness. The symptoms have changed some what. Didn't have the strength to sit up last night. So rode the sickness out. I thought I was getting somewhere with it as I hadn't been so scared by it until last night. I'm emetaphobic so the last thing I needed was to be ick. It's always worse after a day of many anxieties.