How to deal with night anxiety? Advice please!

[natswright]

Hiya folks, first a little background. I'm recovering from serious covid and pneumonia. I was hospitalised. I'm just about 3 months post discharge now, but the recovery has been quite traumatic at times.

I've suffered anxiety for my breathlessness and the like. More recently I was managing with meditation, until I came off my blood thinners. Then I got anxious about that and about not sleeping as I kept waking up.

I can stop the attacks sometimes, by nose breathing, however one of the main and first anxiety symptoms for me is the feeling of a blocked nose. In effect, I cannot nose breath slowly, because my nose feels blocked.

Can I do the breathing exercises with my mouth?

In the daytime I can distract myself, but at night, it's much harder to distract, without fully waking up. The you try to get back to sleep, but cannot and get anxious that you will suffer lack of sleep.

Any tips and advice for dealing with night attacks? daytime is more manageable as I can usually just get on with something and distract myself.

[Hidden]

I'm not an expert but would meditation help at all. I know it's just a temporary but just wondered if something like this could benefit you? Just a thot.

[natswright in reply to Hidden]

I do use meditation, but most suggests nose breathing, and when I get anxious, my nose gets congested, it's the first sign!

I had some success with positive affirmation last night, as I went to bed, I felt a little anxious, so I looked around and called out, "I see no danger, I'm safe." Would you believe it worked!

I managed to sleep from 9pm to 4.30pm, which is plenty sleep for me. Even when I woke up, I actually fell asleep again! Meditation works better during the day, but I tend not to get anxious during the day now.

It's just specific triggers that set me off, and I have been improving as I slowly recover from my illness.

Much of mu anxiety comes from overthinking symptoms, and in an ironic twist, i've used a fitbit to monitor myself for the last 3 months. Some has been useful, but in a way, some of this monitoring causes anxiety. I've decided not to wear it for now, and trust how my body feels. It will tell me if I need to rest!

[Hidden]

Why not try the mouth breathing and see if it works for you and see how it goes.

My nose is broken so I am not great with breathing through my nose and I'm ok with mainly mouth breathing...

Only thing I can say against i think if I do manage to breathe through my nose I seem to be able to take deeper breaths.

Good luck and take care.

[natswright]

Thanks, I read that mouth breathing could make anxiety worse, but guess not. Distraction nearly always works for me, which is why during the day, I can distract myself and suffer few issues. I have a feeling I have cracked the night anxiety for now, by tricking my flight or fight response. When I feel an attack, I simply say, "I See no Danger" a few times, and look around. Seems to do the trick!! Meditation can be hard when you start to panic!

[Hidden in reply to natswright]

So it works, that's great!

How did you find out about it?

[natswright in reply to Hidden]

Youtube videos! Covid really messes with the autonomic nervous system, plus when you get seriously ill, you fear a lot, especially when you live alone!

[Hidden in reply to natswright]

Its brilliant you finding that, its sometimes a tricky thing to do. Shows if you keep looking and researching you can come up with something positive .... i exercise and it sorts me out.

Im really happy you have found something helpful.

[natswright in reply to Hidden]

I cannot wait till I can exercise properly again, but I still have several months to go, while my lungs heal from covid and pneumonia.

[Hidden in reply to natswright]

Id hate not being able to do it, ive done it all my life.

I hope you get better and can get back doing it real soon.

[natswright in reply to Hidden]

Me too, I was a decent (for my age of 50) 5k runner. Covid decimated my lungs and I may have permanent scarring. I'm due an x-ray soon

[Hidden in reply to natswright]

Im 52 and cant do it like i used too because of arthritis but i still do it, sometimes it feels like a chore now because i have to do it.. i did the fitness instructor courses i loved it that much. Im not in the shape i used to be but im ok for my age.

Lets hope your x-ray gives a good result for you

🤞 if they are scarred can you still do some exercise?

[fabricator in reply to natswright]

hi, i had a really bad chest infection, which caused my anxiety to raise it's head, i too suffer with sleep and intrusive thoughts waking me up, horrible i try to ignore them but their loud, put on medication but couldn't hack it, i will try what you said... hopefully we will see some light soon....

[Friends31]

How are you getting on now? I suffer from really bad health anxiety but my doctors won’t do further tests like scans or anything

[natswright in reply to Friends31]

Much better. My body has continued to heal and I have far less anxiety. I also do a worry diary each day which helps.

[Friends31 in reply to natswright]

Can you share some of the stuff you done which helped?

[natswright in reply to Friends31]

The best thing was CBT or Cognitive behavioural Therapy. I do a worry diary each day, and this really helps. Sometimes my symptoms are bad and I still get the odd bad day after poor sleep, but most days are pretty good actually.

Improving health has of course helped, if I was not getting better, i'd not have improved with anxiety. I just get mild anxiety on occasion now.

Beyond that, there is not much you can do. Be kind to yourself, write down achievements for each day, no matter how small. Focus on the positive.