Panic Attacks Can Also Appear At Night

Panic attacks are known for the intense, fear-laden discomfort they produce.  They can appear at any time so they are often unexpected. In addition, it is common that there is no direct and obvious cause to which the person who suffers them can associate them.

Somehow, it is as if our body feels threatened, without there being any real danger. The body reacts as if the greatest of our fears has been presented to us.

Logically, our mind cannot understand anything. “Why? What has triggered all this? I was calm, and suddenly I find myself feeling this. I do not understand anything”. Our head does not understand this unexpected and unpredictable reaction of our body. And that’s the scariest thing.

Panic attacks enter our home without warning

One of the sensations that we tolerate the worst, although there are great individual differences, is uncertainty. The unpredictability. With attacks, the lack of resources to predict or relate them to a cause often ends up generating more anxiety than the attacks themselves.

When we are in the middle of a panic attack, there are several physiological sensations, such as palpitations, sweating in the hands and other areas of our body, that act as a correlate of what happens to us. In addition, on an emotional level it is common for the fear of dying, of fainting, of losing control or going crazy. We are haunted by fears that can paralyze us completely.

Chest pain may also appear. We can get dizzy, have a feeling of suffocation and difficulty breathing and nausea may appear … In addition, sometimes  a feeling of unreality makes an appearance that completely invades us:  this is precisely one of the most disturbing experiences in a panic attack .

The feeling of unreality appears frequently in nocturnal panic attacks

It is as if we were leaving our body and observing ourselves from the outside. We watch our bodies expectantly from an outside surveillance post. A sensation that is often experienced with great terror.

But what happens when we go to bed? We assume that this moment is a moment of calm. One where we can put our worries aside and finally sleep. We “put to sleep” our worries. We tuck them in and put them aside. At least until we regain our dormant consciousness.

The truth is that panic attacks can haunt us at night. Without prior notice. At least daytime panic attacks can be foreseen in a certain way. There are signs that we can begin to observe and we are aware of them. We can withdraw to a safe part or leave the place when we are, for example, in a crowd.

The awakenings of the night attack are surprising and abrupt

Instead, nocturnal panic attacks are completely unpredictable. They usually occur before the REM phase. Therefore we are not aware of them until we wake up. This awakening is always abrupt and occurs in a very abrupt way.

When our body accumulates so much anxiety that it is as if it exploded, many times, through panic attacks. There are people who experience very high levels of stress and who express them through these nocturnal attacks. Just when they let their guard down. Hence the surprise and terror of those who experience these attacks in the middle of the night.

We wake up terrified, we do not understand what is happening to us. The seconds are eternal. Anguish is mixed with a sense of strangeness and unreality due to the moment in which it has appeared.

We can prevent attacks through good sleep hygiene

The way to treat this nocturnal anxiety has its starting point in that unresolved daytime anxiety. At the same time, it is important to work on that “phobia” that can appear every time the day ends and we have to enter our bedroom. Since nighttime panic attacks end up generating that fear of sleeping that we will have to combat.

With good sleep hygiene we will create and consolidate better sleep habits. We will eliminate everything that is disturbing us when we go to sleep. From having dinner (or re-dining) just before going to bed, to watching movies or series just before going to bed that leave us with that kind of unpleasant sensation that sometimes incarnates in the body.

You can always take these preventative steps to say goodbye to nighttime panic attacks. However, it is important not to forget that a large part of its existence has to do with the levels of stress, anguish or anxiety that we are enduring in our day to day, if you observe what is happening during the day, perhaps you can obtain a very valuable clue about how to start fighting these sudden attacks that stalk us like monsters in the night.