Panic attacks can also occur at night

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

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

Logically, our mind cannot understand anything. “Because? What has triggered all this? I was calm, and suddenly I find myself feeling this. I don’t 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 house 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 them 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 is happening to us. Furthermore, on an emotional level it is common for the fear of dying, of fainting, of losing control or of going crazy to appear. We are stalked by fears that can paralyze us completely.

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

The feeling of unreality frequently appears in nocturnal panic attacks

It is as if we left our body and observed ourselves from the outside. We expectantly observe our body 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 calmconcerns

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

The awakenings from the night attack are surprising and abrupt

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

When our body accumulates so much anxiety that it is as if it explodes, 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 don’t understand what is happening to us. The seconds seem eternal. The anguish is mixed with a feeling of strangeness and unreality due to the moment in which it 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 nocturnal 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 sleeping habits. We will eliminate everything that is disturbing us when we go to sleep. From having dinner (or re-dinner) just before going to bed, to watching movies or series just before going to bed that leave us with that type of unpleasant sensation that sometimes incarnates in the body.

You can always take these preventive measures to say goodbye to nighttime panic attacks. However, it is important not to ignore that a large part of its existence has to do with the levels of stress, anguish or anxiety that we are enduring in our daily lives. 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.

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