Anyone else experienced this? I keep waking up with jolts of extreme anxiety. Loosing sleep from it.

[autumnphyre]

You know when you're falling asleep and you suddenly wake up again because you've stepped off a curb in your dream, or fallen off a cliff and it jolts you awake?

Well I seem to be getting it from the other end - I will sleep for 4 or 5 hours then get a huge surge of anxiety which wakes me up. I feel sick and panicky, and then struggle to get back to sleep because I'm so anxious. This started back in April for a couple of weeks when I initially woke up having a full blown panic attack after only 90 mins sleep. Barely slept that week and for the next couple of weeks I'd be woken up after about 4 hours sleep from these anxiety jolts. It seemed to eventually get easier and thought I had it under control. Went back to getting 8 or 9 hours sleep and now its started back up again.

I've been using breathing exercises to try and control it, trying to use CBT techniques from about 3 years ago when coping with stress/ocd/eating problems, and making lists of whats bugging me to try and find the source of it, but I can't seem to pinpoint the exact stressor that's causing it.

Its really starting to get to me. Does anyone else get this? How do you deal with it?

[mimii]

Hi I only wish I had the answer to the lack of sleep problem I rarely get more than about 5 hours sleep last night had dream the doorbell was going and dreamt I got up and rushed downstairs, I know why because this happened few weeks ago it's obviously still on my mind, if its not worry keeping me awake it's either my bladder or the hubby doing his megapig impression xx

[autumnphyre in reply to mimii]

The lack of sleep is annoying but its more the anxiety that wakes me up.

[dizzychar]

I get this a lot too, don't no why it happens, but it's very annoying when it does happen I try to calm myself by looking on my phone or watching something funny on TV, then I usually drift back off, doesn't always work though x

[autumnphyre in reply to dizzychar]

Im glad Im not alone. Might try turning on my computer next time. Im usually so anxious that moving feels like a huge effort.

[Hidden]

Are you sure it's not your mind waking up before your body?..I used to get sleep paralysis where my body sometimes got "cut off" from my brain before i actually fell asleep, & that is very very scary stuff..All people have their bodies ability to move disconnected to a degree for safety reasons while we're sleeping, for when we're dreaming..So if the timings out maybe your mind is actually waking up before your body, & causing you to panic..I could be totally wrong & probably are, but if you worry about something it will usually seem worse..The trick is to realize that no matter how bad it seems at the time, nothing physically bad has happened so try not to worry about it in future..Honestly Iv'e had feelings of belts of electricity coming up from my feet, partial OBE experiences, visions (with my eyes closed), all sorts of weird & wonderful experiences..Iv'e done loads of mindful meditating etc, & now I'm fascinated by it all..The cure for stress ocd & eating problems & all unwanted emotions/feelings etc, is mindfulness training/practice & emotions/feelings control practice/training.

[autumnphyre in reply to Hidden]

Im pretty sure its not sleep paralysis. I've just woken up from it again this morning and i could move instantly. Its more the sort of huge anxiety you get before you go and perform in front of a big crowd, or go in for that big interview - like I feel sick and my limbs are shaky. I tried to control my breathing but it wasn't working today.

Do you have any more information on this mindfulness training please?

[gracesgrandma]

Hi I had this and I when I looked into it I found out that it is possibly due to sugar levels crashing and for me when I looked back into what I had eaten and when I had last eaten it did correlate and now I make sure that I don't go to bed hungry and make sure I have a mint to eat when I wake up and it has helped. It hasn't cured the disturbed sleep and lack of sleep but has nearly stopped the night time terrors, as I called them, and that is for me a huge step forward. Good Luck x

[autumnphyre in reply to gracesgrandma]

ooh thats definitely something to look into. My chocolate consumption at night is something i need to deal with >_< thank you I hadn't thought it could have that strong effect!

[Terri28]

I too have had these symptoms happen actually just last night and this morning I felt I would wake up from a jolting body and it may sound weird but I hear the jolting cracking sound in my head/body it's so horrible I'm looking for ways to overcome this as I panick soo much.. Hope you feel better and take care!

[autumnphyre in reply to Terri28]

yeah i had mine again this morning. Im trying a bit of everything to get past it. Focusing on my breathing helps initially. So i'll get breath all through my nose - try and ignore everything and breath in for 4 and out for 6 seconds, for as a long as I can until I feel calmer. Then I get up and write a list of everything thats bothering me and why - the same things keep coming up but one thing will have more points than the other. So once I have all the whys i try and think how I can deal with them/rationalise my thinking about them.

Its sort of working at making me calmer but still going to sleep with anxiety and still waking up from it but got to start somewhere I guess.

If you find anything that works for you please let me know. Best of luck

[Terri28]

Good for you.. & thank you for sharing about how you write how you feel down I haven't done that so I will definitely try that out in hopes of it working cause it really sucks to keep dwelling on my symptoms all day long.. I will definitely let you know of anything that works to stop us from feeling this way. Thanks again & take care!

[Misty_le_Tyne]

I get exactly the same thing. Mine used to be worse than it is now; I'd wake up sweating and feeling guilty about stuff. Now I just wake up (too early to get up) every morning with dull feelings of guilt and worry (I haven't done anything worse than a normal person-I know it's my anxiety that makes me worry). I tend to read my Facebook feed till I feel normal but it doesn't always work. I had counselling for my anxiety about 10 years ago which actually made this go away until about 8 months ago when a trigger brought it back. I got my anxiety counselling through my doctor. Maybe this could help your underlying symptoms?

[autumnphyre in reply to Misty_le_Tyne]

I went back to the doctor in the autumn when I had a break down and it turns out I had PTSD! Just reaching the end of my therapy which seems to have helpsd.

[milliedavis17]

i get this often but i can feel something waking me up and it really makes me jump its asif its a person but i don't feel a hand i also wake up feeling anxiety . I also experience pain in my dreams but when i wake up it disappears asif nothing happened

[Marko25]

ive been suffering with a similar condition - only bad when im under extreme stress - may b related to chemical exposures - mental status manifests itself until heart gets damaged - must change environment or move to a new location - may take 2 months or more to recover