Help.."mini" panic attacks as i fall asleep

[curranimal]

Hi, i am a 23 year old man whose had bad anxiety and panic attacks for a while now. I found a method that has pretty much eliminated my panic attacks, every once and a while ill have a panic attack but lately ive been having these what i call mini panic attacks almost right after falling asleep. literally a couple minutes after. its almost the same feeling as a panic attack  normally would be with the drop in the stomach and adrenalin rush then the rapid heartbeat. sometimes they happen once and sometimes they happen multiple times in the same night. I rarely(only once or twice) have waken up in the middle of the night with them, only right after i kind of drift off it hits me like a frieght-train. I have had my anxiety and panic attacks under control for a while now but these new sleep feelings are drivin me crazy and bringing up some of those feelings i thought id kind of left behind... =(  any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

[aimsie20]

Hello ! Don't worry, it's nothing but stress ! I might only be 11 but i've been though it before. When you wake up suddenly and your heart is racing and your to afraid to go back to sleep in case you " Die " or you have another panic attack. But you might want to go to the docter incase it might be something else but because your still young I doubt that you will have anuthing wrong with you :) Do not worry ! I go to a phycologist and she has really helped me so if your feeling panicky after you wake up in the night imagine your walking down a dark corridor then you see a door framed by light, you walk towards it, turning the door knob and gazing out at the beautiful garden with bright flowers surrounding it and big curtains of ivy hanging down. You stare out at the waterfall that lands into a deep, blue lake, nothing can hurt. Now sit down, anywhere you like and imagine there is a light beam shooting out of you  It can be your favourite colour if you want ) and your slipping further and further away, nothing can harm you. Hope this helps :) Good luck !

[Cadwallader]

Ps. Re my last post my problems have all started since having surgery and being on intravenous diazepam for 3 hours. Interesting that surgery is connected to your problem also.

[Cadwallader]

Several years have passed since your post but it's the closest thing I can find to my problem. Your description fits exactly what I have. I don't suffer panic attacks but have developed an unpleasant sleep disorder that I can't seem to do anything about. As you say as soon as I fall asleep (and I can be very tired and relaxed) it's as if someone has switched a bright light on in my brain and I am brought rushing back to full wakefulness. At first I panicked a bit but after a while I got used to trying to return to sleep with the minimum fuss. This happens for hour after hour falling asleep within a minute and waking up a few mins later. Took a Valium last night which I suspect just masks the problem. I can see no correlation to anything that I'm doing or is going on in my life. Just wanted to let you know you were not on your own. Ps I am 51 and had this for the past month.

[MereMMM]

This is happening to me now - are you better and what did you do to get better? Thank you!

[guinea54]

I might be going through the same thing. I am not sure.. I hope someone can read this, my life has been ruined from anxiety since 2009..Over the years I have had different worries and different symptoms.. but my main fear and concern was always the heart.. Here is my latest symptoms.. I used to get this during the day too, but now mostly happens at night

  Symptoms-
  Right before I fall asleep or laying down trying to sleep.. I get this weird feeling that i can't describe. It sort of feels like a panic.. but it really is hard to define the feeling.  Its like a feeling of dread that you know "its coming". It almost feels like a battle in your head and body.. and sometimes it feels like you can't win the battle at all and it takes over..  I will start feeling that (nervous / panic)'ish  feeling and get very hot.. even maybe start sweating.. than it hits like a point of no return and my heart just starts racing..  A regular and steady but very fast pulse..  when that happens I don't know if i conditioned myself to relax and than it goes away pretty fast... or its a heart arrhythmia that stops.. but sometimes it doesn't stop and i get more nervous and i start sweating even more and feeling hot.. even feel a little bit like i can't breath..  usually these attacks don't last long.. they seem like mini attacks.. even the long ones i don't think last more than 10 mins or so lately..  does this sound familiar to anyone?   My big concern is if it is a panic attack or a heart arrhythmia  like SVT or VT.. atrial flutter etc.. But i always feel when its coming.. I feel that nervous feeling, butterflys sometimes.. feel hot, sweat,, and THAN my pulse seems to start going fast.  Ive done so much researching about heart rhtym disorders and its all so vague.  My big thing years ago was PVC's or skipped beats.. i used to get them and worry about them.. before that it was dizziness... than other times id fall asleep and get jolted awake like an electric shock..  Now my big thing, and the worst one yet are these damn episodes where my heart races..

[jgrantholland]

Hey im jus starting to thru the Samething cant sleep for nothing feel all anxious and nervous soon as i fall asleep sensation go thru my body im back up.feeling all tingly and stuff did u find a cure please let me know im really scared

[sierrasong]

I should have mentioned that I'm also a life-long sufferer from panic and anxiety disorder.  One of my surgeries was an emergency (talk about stress) and the other was exploratory for cancer. So my stress, anxiety and fear index has been off the charts for the past year in addition to the normal disorder!!

[sierrasong]

Imagine - I'm not the only one with this strange phenomenon!  For me, the tiny attacks are somewhat infrequent - perhaps a few times a month.  I'll be just on the verge of sleep and, as so many have mentioned, have the sensation of falling and feel panic and/or brief but profound feeling of depression.  I know they don't last long, so I self-talk and tell myself that I've had them lots of times before and nothing bad has EVER happened.  I remind myself that they go away quickly and they do.  They are distressing, no question about it, but I've managed to talk/think my way through them.  I am so relieved that I'm not the only one who experiences this.

I am 63 and have had two surgeries this past year and, over that time period (April through November), the mini-attacks have gotten somewhat worse.  The residual side effects from the anesthesia (April surgery) coupled with pain pills (hate them, but needed them) in combination with my regular meds (Remeron and Xanax .25, TID) threw me into a major case of insomnia for about 10 days.  That was resolved by upping my Xanax at night (didn't really want to, but it did the trick and I was able to ramp back down very easily), but I think the whole experience simply exacerbated the mini panic/depressive pre-sleep episodes.  Since my second surgery (three weeks ago), I haven't noticed many episodes.  I think this is because I had a MUCH better experience with the anesthesia (NO residual side effects - anesthesiology is as much an art as a science and the doc this last time was simply awesome).  Just my two cents.