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!

[samchad91]

I am the exact same. Everytime I try to get to sleep my mind wanders to horrible thoughts and I panic like crazy. I don't like going to sleep in a quiet/dark room anymore as my mind just gets worse so I try to put cartoons or something on to take my mind off it, but now these cartoons trigger these thoughts when I'm not even in bed and they're on in the living room. Sometimes I think I'm crazy but other times I feel like if I don't panic these things will happen. It's so irrational, I don't like to talk to anyone about it but it's starting to get silly as its every night, even when I've had a great day or if there's something brilliant happening the next day, it just plagues my nights so much that I dont want to go to bed or even try to sleep. A truely horrible feeling.

[Sarahhen]

I'm 16 and i had one of these just yesterday. It happens a couple of times and it wont let me sleep and its like just when you're about to start a dream your heart goes boom and your heart rate increases and its very scary :( I had sleeping problems of all kinds since i was 14 and i got used to it to the point where i know if it will or will not happen that particular night. but thank god, im a Muslim and in Islam there is an explanation to about everything. this is why when these things happen to me at night i take certain measures to protect me from these things. Al7mdillah    

[misshans]

So glad I'm not alone in this. I'm a 19 year old female and have had these attacks coming on gradually for several months now. Last night I hardly slept at all because they were so constant. I don't have anxiety generally and never have a specific fear during these attacks, like I'm having a heart attack or am going to die, but rather this knot of panic energy in my chest (near my heart, I think) that jolts me awake when I start to drift off. I'm so horrified of even trying to sleep because I don't want to face another night of this. At first I thought these were spiritual attacks but I'm starting to think there is a medical problem behind this. Question for others who are suffering from this, do any of you struggle with eating disorders or OCD, have food allergies or years of unexplained nausea and dizziness? Just trying to find some common ground with others who have these attacks.

[lovely8814]

I am a 24yr old female I recently started having panic attacks about 4 months ago, they scared the hell out of me at first & I thought I was dieing, went to the doctor did all the normal health tests & he said it was just anxiety. after I realized what they were I began to be able to control them, but after i got them under control i started having them in my sleep!! i will wake from a dead sleep sweating with my heart feeling like it's about to beat out of my chest. how do u control something when your unconscious??? help please i don't want to resort to medication.

[ohsnapitsnidia]

omg i totally feel all of you! i had like a huge panic attack a month ago and ever since ive been diagnosed with anxiety disorder. i get like 5 hot rushes everynight, kinda like aniety attacks and they really scare me, i dont know what to do to stop them. anybody know what to do. im only a 17 yr old female and i barey sleep at night because i get them so often, and when theyre gone i feel scares to go back to sleep. what can i do ??!!!

[Marpluck]

I had these symptoms too. Usually before I sleep. It helps to walk around the house. I notice it tend to happen on days where I consume chocolate or coffee. I also feel like I need to take a big breath orburp to get better.