EvolutionHealth.care

Home
Main Forum
Anxiety
Understanding Panic and Agoraphobia
Panicking in the middle of the night, thinking about strange things?

Advanced Search Form

Panicking in the middle of the night, thinking about strange things?

11 years ago 0 +0 / -0 11214

Hi Rayzee,

Sleep is very important and complicated. Sleep disturbances can be caused by many things from sleep apnea to food sensitivities. If sleep is the main issue for you I encourage you to see a sleep specialist. They will be able to give you the answers you are looking for. It will be good to rule out any other possible causes.

Ashley, Health Educator

Here to help :)

11 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Hi.

It depends on your definition of anxiety.

If your survival instinct which we all have is strong then anything that is not normal will wake you. It doesn't have to be scary, repetitive will do. Eating late at night or slow to digest foods can start the cycling. Laying on your right side can help to empty your stomach if that is all it is. On the other hand, if it is ulcers you could be in trouble. Presumably you have checked this out already.

Davit.

11 years ago 0 +0 / -0 2

Hi guys, thank you for your replies. I was actually doing a bit better for the past week or two, I don't remember waking up much or having a stomach ache really. But then not last night but the night before, I woke up about 2 1/2 hours after I fell asleep, which is longer than normal. I had a stomach ache and woke up feeling kind of confused again because I didn't really know what I was thinking about. At one point I kept thinking of the name of this singer that I'm going to see in concert in a few months. I've been to many concerts, usually a few a month actually, and it's a very positive experience for me, so I don't think that I have any negative or worried thoughts towards the concert or this artist in general, but I just kept thinking his name over and over, and then started thinking about a photo app on my iPod that I use. Again, never had a bad experience with it, I just kept playing the name of the app over and over in my head, not even necessarily thinking about the app itself, just the name. I got up and went to the bathroom, tried to come to and calm down, and then my anxiety and confusion stopped but I still had a stomach ache. I took some Tums and had to sit in bed for a few minutes before I started to feel better and was able to go back to sleep, but I was almost positive I was going to be sick.
It's just hard telling if I have stomach aches because I'm feeling so nervous and anxious, or if I feel anxious and worried because I have a stomach ache, especially when the anxiety and panic seems to be totally random and cofusing.

What else can night panic be related to besides anxiety? I've actually been pretty sick since April, and I'm feeling better than I did then, but still not 100%. But I basically had tests for everything you can think of when I first got sick haha, and I'm physically 100% healthy.

11 years ago 0 +0 / -0 11214

Hi Rayzee,

Thank you for posting and explaining a bit about what you are experiencing. I can see how you would start to become more concerned about your symptoms. They do sounds to be pretty scary and confusing.

Night panic is very common for those who have an anxiety or panic disorder. Generally managing your anxiety and panic during the day would have an effect on what you are experiencing at night. If you have concerns that this night panic might be related to something other then anxiety you may want to talk to your doctor or see a sleep specialist. Night panic can have multiple causes so you may want to rule out any other issues.

If your night panic is solely related to anxiety then working on this program will help. You will want to start at session one and work your way through the entire program. It is work and it requires a commitment but this Cognitive Behavioural Therapy based program will provide relief. For some quick relief check out the session on Relaxation Techniques. Practising these techniques throughout the day, before bed and when you are experiencing anxiety will help to relax your body which in turn will relax your mind.

How are you feeling this morning. How was last night?

Ashley, Health Educator

Here to help :)

11 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

rayzee

I think if you look a little closer at what you are thinking of in the middle of the night you will find a connection.

You can do nothing without it going through your memory first to see if it is appropriate or safe to do it. And then the thought or action is recycled back to memory for future reference. Hence the association of one thought to another. When the search doesn't find an answer it expands looking for one or accepts there isn't one and moves on. Waking up and changing your thought does the same. As you age you have more in your memory to choose from, If it is all negative and you have been recycling negatives you will tend to bring up negatives and recycle them. Panic is a survival technique and the thoughts are all negative except the few positives that are needed to stop it. Waking at the same time has become a survival technique due to it becoming a routine. Now even when you don't wake from it you still have it, it just leaves you agitated the next day and you wonder why. Positives are shorter lived than negatives and don't wake you. They do prevent panic though if you have enough of them in your memory to call on in a panic situation.

Find a reason to think positive in a panic situation and you will recycle this positive to memory to use in the next situation. This compounds over time reducing the severity of the panic down to normal.

Panic and anxiety are necessary for our survival but they need not last longer than the micro seconds it takes for your memory to process it and find a positive reason to not panic or a way to deal with the threat. EG, an icy road or a car coming at you in your lane. Your memory is what causes you to react the way you do even if you have never been in the same situation, it looks at similar situations, picks a solution and reacts at the speed of light practically. A panic attack is when you look for a solution to a situation that isn't there and therefore can't find an answer. So your memory goes round and round looking for an answer. Some of the most tame thoughts can wake you if there is even a remote possibility that you have had a negative thought about them at some time. It will be in your memory and available.

Davit.

11 years ago 0 +0 / -0 2

I'm 20 years old, I've had anxiety since I was about 7 or 8. Occasionally I'll wake up in the middle of the night with a stomach ache and being very nervous, but maybe only once every other month or so, that's the way it's been for most of my life with anxiety. But the past 6 months or so it's gotten a lot worse. Now it's happening at least once a week usually, sometimes more. It always happens anywhere from a half hour - two hours after I fall asleep, never any later than that. Usually if I wake up in the middle of the night, I know that I'm going to before I go to sleep, because I either don't feel good or I'm super stressed about something. But lately with the increased number of mid-night panic attacks, they've been less predictable and there's nights like last night when I'm totally fine before I go to sleep and I just wake up in a panic.
I understand panic attacks at night, that they're just a symptoms of anxiety and everything, like I said before it's happened my whole life, but usually I just am nervous and have a stomach ache and I can just feel that I'm very tense. But lately when I wake up, I'm thinking about the wierdest things and it's just like it's all I can physically think about, and I just feel very dazed and confused until I cancalm down and think about something else and forget about it. The things I wake up thinking about/panicking about are things just so wierd, and not panic worthy. Like last night when I woke up, all I was thinking was Buster (my horse) and Savannah (a younger girl that rides him for me since I don't have the time to go up and ride him as much as I'd like, she leases him from me). And that's all that was in my head. I just kept thinking Savannah and Buster, Savannah and Buster, Savannah and Buster. And then I was worried about me taking pictures for her of her riding, and her putting them on her Facebook, but she doesn't even have a facebook...
I'll think about things like that when I wake up panicking. I just wake up and I'm just focusing on a certain person or thing or situation that's totally irrelevant or not even possible, and I can't think of anything else until I stop panicking, it's like my mind is locked on that one idea, and I'm extremely dazed and confused until I can calm down and unlock my mind, because I can't figure out why I'm thinking about that person or thing, and why it would be something that would cause me to panic.

Reading this thread:

today's top discussions:

This Month’s Leaders:

Most Supportive

Most Active

Most Loved

Panicking in the middle of the night, thinking about strange things?