What Causes Night Panic Attacks?
Picture this; you are deep in slumber, when suddenly you woke up. Your heart beat is racing fast and could not catch your breathes. It is not a good image to imagine, right? These incidents are just some of the signs of night panic attacks. If you suspect that you are a victim of middle of the night panic attacks, do not take it for granted. Panic attacks at night are a serious disorder wherein people were awakened from their sleep, and were filled with fear. As a result, sufferers also have insomnia.
So, what causes night panic attacks? Let us delve deeper into this condition and try to deal with them one by one.
One of the most causes of night panic attacks are stress and anxiety. During our sleep, we are in our unconscious state, to simply say, we are defenseless. Due to this, all our troubles and worries are manifested in our slumber. It could be work-related stress, a divorce or maybe death of a loved one. On the contrary, most people believe that night panic attacks have something to do with our dreams, like nightmares. The truth is that dreams have absolutely nothing to do with it. Dreams occur in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) state, research shows that sufferers have not experience panic attack while dreaming.
Besides the psychological and emotional factors, medical conditions can also lead to middle of the night panic attacks. Hyperthyroidisms, Hypoglycemia, Mitral valve prolapse are triggering factors of panic attacks at night.
What is more, people who suffered from heart attacks and strokes are often suffers from night panic attacks as well. This is because, they frequently fear of dying whilst sleeping, which then lead to panic attacks.
To determine if what you have are symptoms of night panic attacks, here are some of the common signs and symptoms that are seen in panic attack sufferers.
- intense fear
- increase heart rate
- trembling
- sweating
- light- headedness or dizziness
- numbness
- tingling sensations
- shortness of breaths
- feelings of being choked
- distorted or disturbed thoughts
- tingling sensations
When you have some of these, it is best that you will deal with them the right way. You can start off by recognizing that panic attacks indeed happened. After that, accept the situation, then; observe how your whole body reacts. When in a panic state, our body, thoughts and feelings react simultaneously. To calm your nerves, take a slow deep breath, repeat this until you feel that you are in control of the situation.
Moreover, it would also help to avoid caffeine and alcohol several hours before hitting the sack.
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