Nocturnal Panic Attacks

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I'm interest to see if anyone else suffered with nocturnal panic attacks, and how you cope with them.

First time I had one I was whilst I was studying at University. Must have been about 24 ... so 6 years ago maybe. I was under some stress I'm sure, but I remember waking up with a feeling of terror. Confusion to the point of not knowing what or who you are, and a feeling that you're going to die right now.

Imagine the worst thing ever. Then multiply it by 1000. You're about there now.

I then had them on and off throughout the weeks but they were most prevalent when I stopped smoking. Infact, I believe this has a lot to do with nicotine because today I have hardly used my nicotine replacement therapy. I use a nicotine spray in the mouth, but used it about 3 times today. Much less than usual. And, I had a nocturnal panic attack. First one in about 6 months. But eventually they go away for months then come back again.

They are very disturbing because today I had one out of the blue.

As others know I have came off Lorazepam cold turkey, and quit my SSRI's. Been off them nearly 2 weeks. Stopped smoking for about 4 weeks now. But as I said the not smoking defiantly plays a part here.

I am going to document todays experience - happened about hour ago - because no doubt when I fall asleep again and wake up I will forget it.

The experience:

Ok, so today wasn't eventful. Kinda stressed out that I don't have a job, but nothing really unusual. Spent the day on the computer programming and learning. Nothing new there, I've done this for years.

At about 1am I was watching a hacking documentary. Was very interesting, but I could feel myself falling asleep. Soon as I started to close my eyes I felt like I was in another reality. It felt like I was just resuming a dream I had already had. Very odd, but I put it down to tiredness. I managed to close the lid on the laptop and fall asleep.

Next thing I know I was aware of becoming awake, but still asleep. Sort of felt trapped in my body. At this point I was too confused to realise anything and was still stuck in my dream. But, I could see my girlfriend next to me and became aware of surroundings. Very hazy and blurry, and even now I'm starting to forget the event - which is typically what happens. It was about 1:34am (I know because I had to open laptop lid for light because I was scared to death), so 30 minutes after falling asleep give or take.

* The time these attacks occur is important, because every time they happen, they've bin with an hour of falling sleep.

I fought my way out of it and was shook up for a good 45 minutes. When I first snapped out of the dream I was sweating, fast heartrate, intense feeling of impending doom - literally feels like its game over. You even sort of let go of reality and let it take you, which is scary.

For some reason I was scared my heart was going to stop. I started mumbling "oh no, no".

Very surreal and scary experience. I've literally had them over 100 times, and still as scary as the first. I am a sufferer of server anxiety in the day time, and I still never felt nothing like this.

I'm calm now, well 95% at least. I would love to know if anyone has experienced these and what they are. All I can find on Google searches is nocturnal panic attacks, but the majority of the results no where near describe what I go through. I've only found a few people who truly suffer with these nocturnal attacks.

Look forward to some replies.

It's probably sleep paralysis. I have it. I actually had the most serious episode (a full five minutes of REM hallucinations and complete body paralysis) I've had in years this morning so it's funny someone brought it up on here. Do these articles describe what happens to you? (not everybody has hallucinations with it by the way.)

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/sleep-pa ... tions.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/sleep-pa ... ptoms.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

It used to scare the f*** out of me before I knew what it was. But now that I know, it's actually kind of interesting when it happens. I like to marvel at what the human brain can come up with. It usually takes me a second to remember I have it when it happens though. This morning I thought I had died and my ghost was stuck in my body. Then I remembered...silly brain.

Well, I have to go to bed now. Chances are I'll have a recurring attack. sigh Honestly, I've tried everything from breathing exercising to incense burning to relax before bed for these things. Nothing works. My best recommendation is to (while it is occurring) remind yourself that nothing can hurt you and that it will be over in a minute. You'll still experience some instinctual panic/fear, but try not to focus on the fear and it will fade.

I really wish I could block them out like that. They symptoms are almost identical to sleep paralysis, which is what I guessed a while back. I actually had an sleep study, but my doctor messed up the appointment so now I'm back on the waiting list for some months.

I do not have the hallucinations though, I never have. They are just awfully scary. I'd rather have a constant panic attack for the entire day, than have even 1 of these sleep episodes.

So scary. How do you cope? Do you still get scared when they happen?

I'd like to be all tough and sh** and say no, but that would be a lie. Yes, I do get scared. It's simply an instinctual response to the situation. I cope with it a couple different ways. 1) After it occurs, I know what it is and I calm down fairly fast once my "rational brain" takes over again. 2) Since I am a spiritual atheist (one who believes in no gods, but keeps an open mind regarding the universe, it's contents, and the human mind) it's a near religious experience for me. I know it's just neurons in my brain firing, but like I said, I love such things. It amazes me that the brain can do something so powerful as to overpower your mind's own will. Anyway, I guess that doesn't help you much. Just remember that it's electricity in your brain, and nothing more. Like The Raven. Tis the wind, and nothing more. lol

I've had them before. I wake up in a full panic, my heart racing super fast, feeling sick, sweating, trembling but no issues breathing or any chest pain.

Can't remember the last time I had one but they are terrifying to wake up to.

When I wake up feeling panicked, it usually goes away pretty quickly after sitting up.
I have had a few instances where I felt messed up still afterwards. If it's really early in the morning, I usually just go watch TV for a bit. If it's after dawn I go outside and walk around a bit.

When I saw the title of this thread, it reminded me of the time about a decade ago when I had really bad panic attacks at night for about a week. They would start right when I laid down in bed and persist for about an hour usually. Had me sitting on the floor rocking in the fetal position. And the worst part was then I felt messed up all day afterwards.

I also listen to music to calm myself down before bed if I have had an episode. It at least helps me get to sleep again and lessens my anxiety. Tonight it's some ambient celtic/folk music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ_gZ-h2X9Y

I don't know if it's a hypnagogic experience or not. I've heard of so many similar but varying experiences.

From my own experience I generally didn't experience disorientation during hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations. I always knew where I was and who I was. Other people experience disorientation. They forget where they are or even who they are. Some people have paralysis with hallucinations, some with no hallucinations, and I tended to hallucinate without paralysis. That's how it was back when I experienced it anyway.

That's just hypnagogia though. There are also night terrors. There are also false awakenings that seem like hypnagogia. I had a false awakening that I was convinced was a real awakening with hypnopompic hallucinations. I figured out that it was a false awakening later.

You're description is so vague and there is so much variation among seemingly similar things. It's weird that it happens within an hour after falling asleep. That's just weird. It makes it sound like something other than a hypnopompic/hypnagogic experience. It sounds like a hypnagogic or hypnopompic experience in some other ways at the same time.

This is so confusing. Sleep is confusing. I'm just comparing things to what I've heard about, experienced myself. or read about. I don't actually know anything about this any more than you do.

Maybe it's something different than sleep paralysis. Maybe it's sleep paralysis.

That doesn't offer anything at all does it? This post is just a waste. It's sizable post that says nothing. Maybe yes maybe no is the same as not giving an answer at all.

The only reason I'm not deleting this post that says nothing is because it's my thoughts. On top of that it took more effort to write this post than usual because I'm in a sleep deprived state. How can I delete something that was so hard to write (even if it would normally be easy to write)?

It sounds like sleep paralysis. It doesn't sound like sleep paralysis. I'm sorry for such a useless statement.

I've had some in the past that are similar to what you describe.

From what I've learned over the past couple years, they're caused by salicylate acid sensitivity & build up. Read the thread in my sig for info on that and how I detoxed the acids.

the only nocturnal panic attacks i ever had were about the possibilities of having diurnal panic attacks the next day regarding having further nocturnal panic attacks the next night , but since i never had diurnal panic attacks about having further nocturnal panic attacks the day after i had those nocturnal panic attacks about the following days potential diurnal panic attacks, the whole idea was called into question and then i dismissed it all as pointless consideration.