Posted by JOG4 on October 27, 2005, at 9:52:12
In reply to Re: Please help - Nocturnal Panic/increase in anxiety » lunesta, posted by SLS on October 22, 2005, at 22:59:47
I have only nocturnal panic attacks. I start to go to sleep and then to dream and then I suddenly "wake up" but my body is still asleep, I have hallucinations at this point (from dead relatives to people I don't know standing over the bed ect.), there is a heavy weight on my chest, difficulty breathing, I can look around but can't get up. when I finally actually wake, I feel like I am extremely drunk. I think all of this stems from a fear of losing control and dying. I want to go to sleep so much but I'm afraid of something. Also, problems in my life which I ignore during the day, I think, exhibit themselves when I go to sleep in this way. I dont take any medications (because I think this just hides the problem until later), but what i think helps the most with my sleep problem is exercise in the moring to afternoon, not anytime before I go to bed. I dont eat anytime before going to bed also (which prevents heartburn, and higher metabolism at the time at which I want to sleep) . Another trick is to think of situations in which you fall asleep alot like for example I fall asleep when I watch tv, i dont mean to I just do. so I sit in front of the tv at night and fall asleep and then I get up about thirty minutes later and go directly to the bed. Also I dont set any "regimented" time for sleep. for example last night I fell alseep on the couch while watching tv at 8:00 so I got up, even though i had planned to go to sleep sometime around 11-12, and went directly to bed. I woke up this morning fully rested at about 7:30. I have had these attacks for about eight years, they increase when I worry about stupid stuff and decrease when I excercise regularly and try to stop worrying. Another trick is when one wakes up from the panic attack, to avoid having another, try to think about absolutely nothing; eventually I think this leads to your brain taking over and roming over the days events like it should normally do, instead of worrying about failing out of college or not waking up the next day or losing your job or going insane etc. it sounds stupid but this actually ussually avoids a second attack. if I then have a second attack, I ussually get up and regather my self, calm down, see how stupid the whole thing is really and then go to sleep. because in the end, I am causing the panic attack by reinforcing a pattern of thought- worrying, self depricating thoughts etc. Not to say that it is easy to stop, no habit is, and can easily be started again. anyway
hope this helps,
sorry about the run on sentences and lack of comma's and misspellings and uncapitalized "i's" but I dont have time to fix them.
Jay
poster:JOG4
thread:568047
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051024/msgs/572358.html