Waking up jolting from a deep sleeping

[rachae1]

Hi,

I had my first panic attack 4 weeks ago and since then I have felt tired, lightheaded, spaced out hot and bothered. I have had an ECG done and blood tests and they are all fine. Dr thinks its all down to anxiety.

Whats bothering me the most is I seem to get the worst of it when I sleep. I have been waking up every 2 hours with what I can only describe is the feeling of electricity running through my body and my heart beating out my chest. I am now starting to develop a sleep phobia because I don't like the feeling when it wakes me up.

I am soo tired in the day and I think the spaced out feelings is due to the lack of sleep im getting. I was wondering if anyone else has had this?

[Diane O'Brien]

Hello Racael

Yes, anxiety definately affects our sleeping patterrns, I notice especially after a busy day I can jerk myself awake. I think its because our bodies try to relax but our tired minds are still working overtime.

I don't know wether you are on medication to help you sleep as the doctor knows u are suffering from anxiety. Try to have evenings as relaxing as possible, if you have got something on your mind before you go to bed write it down, put it in a envelope, don't open the envelope until the morning and say to yourself I'm not gonna think about this until I open the envelope. Perhaps warm milk or some slow beathing exercises before u retire to bed may help.

Take care and sweet dreams.

Diane xxx

[jill]

Hi hun,

to the site.

When I was acute, I had this alot, ohhh boy, did it scare me and like you I feared to go asleep, not understanding that my fear to sleep, would fuel the problem.

Hunny, I know you are scared, but this symptom is common with panic, anxiety, here is whats written about it,,,,,

Insomnia, or waking up ill in the middle of the night, jolting awake, bad or crazy dreams


What you feel:


You may feel fine and be able to quickly fall asleep but then wake up a short time later. Once up, you can't easily fall back to sleep because your mind is racing or you are too ill. Or, you may have a hard time initially falling asleep and when you do, you wake often and again have a hard time going back to sleep.



Just as you are dozing off to sleep, you feel like you hear a lot bang, buzz or shot, and that jolts you fully awake. Or, as you are dozing off, you feel like you are falling and that frightens you fully awake. Or, you are just dozing off and your body radically twitches awake.
You may wake up in a panic and recall the dream you just had as being bizarre and totally crazy. This usually has you spending some time trying to figure out what caused the bad dream and what the bad dream is trying to tell you.


What causes this:


Stress is one of the main factors associated with sleep disorders. When the body is stressed, natural sleep patterns become disrupted. While there are many types of sleep problems, the ones mentioned are common for those experiencing anxiety disorder.
Because sleep is controlled by a functioning of the brain, an over stimulated nervous system will interfere with the brain’s normal functioning, thusly, producing erratic and odd responses when we want to fall or stay asleep. Similar to ingesting caffeine, high stress biology will keep you awake, and it can do so in a number of ways.



Examples include:




Immediately falling asleep only to wake a few hours later all revved up and ready to go. You then have difficulty falling back to sleep, even though you may also feel exhausted. Your mind may race and you may experience a number of anxious thoughts that continue to disrupt your sleep.
You have difficulty falling asleep and when you finally do, you wake a short time later and can’t go back to sleep.
As you are dozing off, you are suddenly jolted awake by a sound, twitch, a bang in your head, etc. This makes falling back to sleep difficult.
You may have a bad or crazy dream that jolts you away, and sometimes in a full panic
You wake up regularly and continually have to go to the bathroom.
You may be chilled even though you are well blanketed. Or, you may be sweating profusely even though the room is cool.
There are many other types of disruptions, however, they are all related to an over stimulated nervous system. These symptoms may also vary from one type to another type, and so on. They will also come and go, and sometimes persist.
The best remedy for these symptoms is rest. When you are experiencing regular sleep problems, it’s important to get as much rest as you can. That means taking time out of you schedule to do so if you have to. When my sleep became problematic, I made sure to get to bed earlier than normal and to do so for a number of nights until my sleep patterns returned to normal.
You may have noticed that the more sleep difficulty you experience, the worse you feel and the more difficulty you continue to have. This can become a vicious circle if not deliberately stopped. Rest is the only thing that will do this.
None of these symptoms are important, only disruptive.

When I was acute, I used to here the sound of crashing plates, ohh I know, sounds strange, anxiety has many, many, strange symptoms, but this sound would jolt me awake, with fear.


The hardest thing when you get into this vicious circle with sleep, is to change your mindset on it. The more you fear it and don't want it, the more it will stay. Changing the way you think about your sleep patten, is not easy, it takes alot of hard work, time and the right support.

To help yourself know and understand, this IS part of your illness, this IS an anxiety symptom, be kind to yourself, you ARE unwell right now

I know this may sound strange to you, BUT, try and except that its happening, give yourself good reasons for it happening, eg, **I am worried about myself, its only natral, when I learn about panic anxiety, this symptom will pass, it will NOT happen every night**

This site is such a great place to be, there is lots of things to read, not only on threads, which there are lots of threads regarding sleep, but other things too.

Please take time to read through the site, read first steps how to cope which is on the left hand side of this page.

YOUR ARE NOT alone with this hun, there are lots of nice people here who know what your going through and will help and support you.

Hope this helps

YOU TAKE CARE

LOVE JILLXXXX

[Diane O'Brien]

Thanks for that Jill. LOL Its not even my thread. Sorry Rachel

[EmmaJane]

Welcome to the site Rachel

[lesleya]

Hi hun
I can sympathise with you with the 'jolts' i get them in spates and the more anxious i am the worse they are and more frequent they are. I can be feeling really relaxed and sleepy and ready to drop off and all of a sudden i jump out of my skin (or it feels like it) and my heart feels like its coming out of my chest and feel like ive stopped breathing....its scary. But when it happens now it doesnt scare me as much eventhough i hate them and it feels awful i get comfort from the fact that i know its caused by anxiety now. I used to lie awake scared to sleep in case it happened again, and i was shattered the next day, so now i have a drink next to the bed, a comedy dvd in the player to watch to cheer me up and take my mind off, or i have my laptop next to the bed so that i can log onto nmp and play a game...they really help take my mind off things too. Most of the time i end up falling asleep in the middle of them .....annoys the hubby sometimes the tv on but hey hes snoring from when his head hits the pillow and keeps me awake
I hope you find a way to cope with it to help you, you need your sleep.
Take care
xxx

[barrowcumbria31]

i also have this esp since changing meds cos of trying for baby and only being allowed to be on low dose aswell. I wake up pouring with sweat though. Sometimes 3x in the nite. Its bloody awful. I can`t even sleep in til later than 8am aswell. Even at weekends when , for once my hub doesnt wake me up with his radio alarm thats set half hr b4 he will move his backside