Anxiety Attack while Sleeping

[bullyman99]

Hey Gang:

Do any of you have anxiety or panic attacks when you sleep, possibly from dreaming? Have you been able to reduce the attacks or recover completely? If so, how did you do it?

A little about me: I have been stressed for the past 18 years, anxiety attacks then began and have had this for the past 10 of those years, and the sleep issues began about 6 or 7 years ago. I learned to control (the awake anxiety and stress) using the acceptance approach and mindfulness meditation (decided to do this without meds). I have been doing this for just over a year, although today I suffered my first anxiety symptoms (not really an attack, but just felt the symptoms of anxiety coming on [perhaps this is an attack?]), however the sleep anxiety has not gone away.

I get an anxiety attack 99% of the time from dreaming. I don't usually have nightmares, which could definitely cause anyone to have an attack, but my dreams are more neutral in emotion, that is, nothing bad is happening. This causes me to wake with heart palpitations and I feel it pounding in my chest. Most of the time, I'm usually able to just accept it and relax to fall asleep again (only to wake up again a couple of hours later to have another attack). Its so annoying...and its getting much harder to accept the attack cause I'm worrying a bit that my sleep disturbance is wrecking my health in some way.

Which leads me to my original questions; Does anybody else here have anxiety or panic attacks in their sleep? Have you been able to reduce the amount of attacks or even recover completely and if so, how dd you do it? Any advice I'm all ears.

Btw, I have been prescribed meds in the past (Paxil, Effexor, Lorazepam, and Remeron), it helped me deal with the awake attacks and stress in the past, but it didn't help with the sleeping attacks.

Thank you for reading.

[Hidden]

I fully empathize with you, having experienced similar symptoms.

Most of us know nightmares may make people wake in fright with panic symptoms, especially if in their dreams, past reliving of events they are not comfortable with, are played out. Dream situations that may seem to have no emotional impact whilst reflecting the story from the sub-conscience, could still hold clues within them. This translation is the difficult part -- sorting out common threads would be a start.

Stay strong!

[bullyman99 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you Zeapos, I should begin to write down the contents of the dreams. As you suggested, maybe there is something there unconsciously...Wow. Where's Freud when you need him? LOL. I guess there are times to remember that a cigar is just a cigar, and not to look too deep! Thanks again.