Three Steps That Would Divert A Panic Attack While Sleeping
It is bad enough when you have panic attacks when you are awake; it is a real nightmare when you get it at night. When people experience panic attacks at night, these tend to heighten the dread of this problem and transforming it into a vicious circle. When you are plagued by this problem, you tend to loose your sleep, appetite and also your peace of mind.
What Happens When You Experience Panic Attack While Sleeping?
Basically, when you have a panic attack while sleeping, you would feel all the symptoms that characterize its onset during waking hours. However, since these attacks occur when you are asleep the symptoms are compounded by the feeling of helplessness and horror that you usually associate with a nightmare.
You would then awaken drenched in sweat, with your heart racing not knowing exactly what has happened that left you feel so disoriented and afraid. When you realize that this was the result of a panic attack while sleeping, instead of being reassured you would be filled with dread in anticipation of the next episode.
The worst thing with experiencing a panic attack while sleeping is not the attack itself; it is rather the fear of anticipating the next one. This would in most cases, result in insomnia, shallow sleep and other tangent symptoms such as double vision, headaches, restlessness, nausea, etc.
What You Could Do To Avert Panic Attack While Sleeping?
You need not be a victim forever; you do not need to lie down there and wait for it to happen again and again. You could take a few measures that would help you fight this problem if not avert it completely. First of all you need to rule out the possibility of any other existing health problem. Ensure that you are healthy with the help of a thorough medical check up and a consultation with your family doctor.
If you get a clean bill on health, you would need to design a plan of action that would help you fight the problem with the panic attacks. This is what you could do to get some relief.
1. Check out yoga exercises that would help you not only with your sleep but also with achieving a deep level of relaxation of your mind.
2. Use herbal medication that fights panic attacks and give you deep and peaceful sleep.
3. Ensure that you go to bed with your mind clear of any worries or problems that you encountered during the day. You could use a good book to read for this purpose or watch TV for some time.
4. Learn and use self-hypnosis for rooting out the negative feelings from your mind and promoting the ability to relax and rest well during the night.
5. Watch the food you eat - junk food and oily foods are supposed to help with the onset of panic attacks. Reduce or eliminate totally such food from your diet. Eat instead green vegetables and food that contains fiber.
Once you take these steps, you would be able to reduce the threat of a panic attack while sleeping a great deal and lead a relatively anxiety free life.