Stress Center Peer Support

So I'm one of those people that have the spontaneous panic attacks at night. For some reason last night my body continuously jerked me out of sleep. Meaning I would have huge muscle twitches in my legs or entire body that would completely jerk me out of my sleep. The more it happened the more anxious I became about not being able to sleep. The only other time I have ever had problems with it was after the delivery of my daughter. I literally did not sleep for 3 entire days in the hospital because my body would not quit jerking and the sleeping pills they were giving me would not help. So now my fear is I will go home tonight and the same thing will happen and I will get no sleep. It didn't matter how much positive self talk I did or how hard I tried the breathing methods, my body would not calm and let me sleep. In the end my stomach was extremely sick and I got only an hour of sleep, and I'm sure my husband is exhausted. Funny how this works, years ago my anxiety was focused around my health, now it's ONLY focused on the fact that I can't sleep and now I'm terrified of the night time and completely psych myself out before going to bed at night. I've now been on Wellbutrin for 4 weeks, and it seems to help my mood swings but has not done away with most of my anxiety. I'm only on week 2 of the tapes because I haven't made enough time to get any further.

Firstly I must say I can relate to this.

Panic attacks are a thing of past for me but back then I had very weird thoughts and symptoms.

I remember one of the symptoms at the time was that as I was trying to sleep at night, something in my mind would go off (not physically but mentally) and subsequently I would become fully awake. I had no physical symptom (which is the weird part), Just became fully awake all of sudden for a few times every time I tried to sleep which was strange and very annoying as I couldn't sleep properly. I don't know the scientific reason but my theory is that when we are anxious our nerves are by far more sensitive and as such they react in a very violent and unnecessary way. I think the reason behind it is to do with survival. If we constantly are anxious and think danger is near the nerves are always on alert so with or without a physical symptom they give a strong reaction.

What I suggest is throw out the positive self-talk and what not. It never worked for me to be honest anyway. It is a phase of time you are going through. It's annoying and I understand that but it is a phase. Not dangerous and not permanent. What you should do is over time try to calm yourself down. It will take months but the long-term effects are calmer nerves. Try to slowly add exercise to your daily routine, do things that you enjoy and calms you down. The nights can be annoying but once you change your life-style during the day and become more relaxed (and this will take time and is not an overnight fix) you will find that you will be much calmer at night and get better sleep.

God bless you all.

I can relate too because what you are describing exactly happened to me too. Please try to make time to do the program...it is really good and helped me so much. My husband once commented that insomnia was my trigger for panic attacks, and he was right. Insomnia makes anxiety worse, but it is not surmountable. You need to start convincing yourself that it doesn't matter how much sleep you get. I know it is not fun, but you have survived so far. Things aren't perfect, but I think what Helpless7 is getting at is that it is only a season...it will pass. When you are in the middle of it, it cannot pass quickly enough. But you will just have to be patient with yourself, tell yourself you will get through, it is OK to have insomnia, it is OK to be really tired. Change your goal to being really relaxed at night...not the goal of sleeping. Use the relaxation tape all night to achieve the goal of being relaxed at night. You can do it! If sleep comes, it is a bonus. I have to say, the positive self talk works wonders for me, I wouldn't throw that out the window, but you have to do it all day long, not just in the night when you wake in a panic. Try to under-react to insomnia as a minor annoyance. Get up, go make some tea or read something calming.

SleeplessMom and Helpless 7 - It was wonderfully uplifting reading your comments to Melissaannb. The truth is I want instant results and that is not realistic. I have a perfection issues and to admit that there is a problem (Heavens No!)and to then have to deal with it...That creates even more anxiety for me.
It takes time. This didn't occur overnight so the healing is not going to either. Thanks again for mentioning that. I needed the reminder.
Hang in there Melissaannb. It took me some time to start relaxing and sleeping through the nights. God Bless.

I have been through this before (the not being able to sleep part) and what helps me more than anything is not to *try* to sleep. It's worse when you try, you get upset that you can't.

Keep telling yourself you don't need to sleep, even read or watch a movie or something instead of going to sleep.

Once you get a good night's sleep you'll be able to, and it will happen.

There's also some Magnesium powder called "Natural Calm" that helps with muscle pains, and also helps to relax you. Might want to give it a whirl.

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Thank you all so much for your replies. It is 3:00 here and while I have only had an hour or so of sleep lastnight, I'm not completely exhausted yet, but I do feel the anxiety starting to build for tonight. I will try to keep myself calm. You are all correct in that it does get worse the more you try to convince yourself to sleep. I would be fine if it weren't for the fact that my own body jerks me out of my sleep. It's amazing that anxiety can affect your body even after you are sleeping so much so that it can trigger your body to keep you awake. Thank you again for all of your comments.

Melissa I think the best thing you could do is just busy your mind so you don't think about it. I have been trying to do this for my impending jury duty, the date keeps getting closer and closer, I had rescheduled it out for 6 months and now it is finally the month I have to go, I'm just trying to occupy my mind with other things, because in the end it's the anxiety and thoughts inside of us that are driving us mad!