Panic Attacks While Sleeping

Panic attack is a condition wherein a person suddenly experiences short periods of intense anxiety, fear, physiological arousal, trembling body, and pounding heartbeats.

Millions of people are affected by this condition that suddenly occurs and leaves the person totally shocked and miserable. Moreover, this condition that occurs while sleeping is a worst of a kind as it causes an interruption or disturbance in the person's sleep.

This condition is upsetting as it occurs when the body is in the resting mode. Its occurrence is as a result of extreme stress that an individual goes through the day. Many times, a person cannot find an outlet to his/her grief and it is let out in sleep.

They are also caused when a person faces separation anxiety due to the loss of a loved one or a change in a fixed lifestyle. The symptoms are very much similar to those of the regular panic attack. These attacks do not harm a person physically but they do look very real and troublesome.

A person experiencing a panic attack while sleeping may wake up in mid-sleep with totally terrifying feeling and tremendous anxiety symptoms for no specific reason. Anxiety that is usually related to stress, headache, sore muscles, shoulder and back pain, pounding and hasty heartbeats, nausea, feeling of vomiting, and excessive sweating may also appear.

These symptoms may also vary from person to person. Some people start feeling that they are just about to die, they stop breathing, and also feel that they are contracted with a deadly disease.

Some people wake suddenly from deep sleep, pace back and forth with tremendous restlessness. They can't sleep with persistent fear of recurring panic attacks which disturbs their sleeping pattern and makes them vulnerable to insomnia.

As the affected person is very scared and stressed out, it is important to evade his/her fear of falling asleep as well as provide him/her a good stress buster. Psychotherapy and especially the cognitive behavioral therapy is the best suggested treatment along with trying to maintain the mental health.

Meditation, listening to music, indulging oneself in a captivating pastime, learning relaxation techniques like yoga and stress management, joining a recreational center, exercising in the gym, spending more time with family and friends, and such easy ways are great relievers that reduce the stress up to a great extent.

In many a cases, wherein people fear to sleep and are affected by insomnia, getting rid of the condition gets equally important as it can lead to stress and then eventually to panic attacks and many unpleasant health conditions.

This condition is the main symptom of some huge disturbance in one's lifestyle that he/she needs to find out and evade as soon as possible. Keeping troubles to one's own self has never helped anyone, talk the troubles out, and find their solutions rather than waiting.

Disclaimer: The mentioned particulars are for informative purposes only, and should not be used as a replacement for expert medical advice.