panic attack while sleeping?
last night, something weird happened to me. i was having very strange dreams – that i tend to have when i am very tired.
i really don’t know if this was a dream or not but i think it was real, i remember suddenly waking up trying to gasp for air and i was trying to clear my throat and i couldn’t breathe and then i finally could.
i also remember something happening in my dream and i remember panicing and then waking up suddenly because i was so afraid.
is this all normal? can it happen? or was it all a dream?
Negative emotions (like sadness, stress, anger, etc.) causes your Serotonin production to be low; when your Serotonin level is low, you are more prone to getting Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Depression, etc.
Medication like Antidepressants (SSRI – Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) helps to boost Serotonin level.
But there are natural ways to do it without medication. There’s this strange herb called "St John’s Wort" – it is said to be more effective than Prozac. No, it is not for mild depression only and ignore those sayings. In fact, it does help anxiety and panic-attacks as St John’s Wort works like prozac. Other natural ways will be exercise, diet, more exposure to light, etc.
The problem is that, even if your Serotonin is balanced… you have that "learned behavior" in your mind. You need to break that initial cycle to destroy that learned behavior – Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) does this. A technique that you can use without CBT will be Distraction… There are several other techniques to help cope them!
Ok, to use Distraction: Firstly, try to….
Extracted from Source.
Comments
Comment from GG
Time February 12, 2010 at 8:21 pm
sounds like a panic attack…..try breathing techniques, prayer, meditating, and relaxing. dont stress your own self out. these are brought on by you so you control this. dont let these ruin and run ur life
References :
Comment from Maggie
Time February 12, 2010 at 8:26 pm
It was not a dream. I have suffered from panic attacks since I was a little girl. I have learned to control them and not let them control me, but I don’t think that I will ever be free from them. I do have panic attacks in my sleep and wake up like you said, gasping for my breath, I feel a sense of drowning. I do believe that it has something to do with having a weird dream, most of the time I don’t even remember what the dream was about. Then sometimes it has to do with, maybe my husband is going to do something, go somewhere during the day, and I go to bed thinking that I am going to be by myself without him, and it scares me to death. That is when I will wake up gasping for my breath. I had a nervous break down when I was only seventeen years old. I had my son who was one year old. I do not even want to remember what I went through. I did not even leave the house for one full year. The Doctor gave me for almost six month shots of vitamin b12 and calcium. Little by little I have learn to live with these panic attacks, They won’t last long, no more then maybe ten or fifteen minutes. You just have to control your thoughts when you feel a panic attack coming on and tell yourself, " It will not kill you and it will pass shortly.. Good Luck
References :
Comment from Clayton B
Time February 12, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Negative emotions (like sadness, stress, anger, etc.) causes your Serotonin production to be low; when your Serotonin level is low, you are more prone to getting Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Depression, etc.
Medication like Antidepressants (SSRI – Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) helps to boost Serotonin level.
But there are natural ways to do it without medication. There’s this strange herb called "St John’s Wort" – it is said to be more effective than Prozac. No, it is not for mild depression only and ignore those sayings. In fact, it does help anxiety and panic-attacks as St John’s Wort works like prozac. Other natural ways will be exercise, diet, more exposure to light, etc.
The problem is that, even if your Serotonin is balanced… you have that "learned behavior" in your mind. You need to break that initial cycle to destroy that learned behavior – Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) does this. A technique that you can use without CBT will be Distraction… There are several other techniques to help cope them!
Ok, to use Distraction: Firstly, try to….
Extracted from Source.
References :
http://PanicAttackResearch.blogspot.com
Comment from sheilanagig25
Time February 12, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I tried using skullcap to sleep, and wound up with panic attacks. It’s normal in the sense that it happens and isn’t normally harmful. That kind of thing can stick with you for a long time after it happens. I’m not bothered by the ones in my sleep so much as the ones I have when I’m awake.
References :