How To Deal With Nighttime Panic Attacks? 6 Ways To Relieve Your Symptoms
What can we do if we experience nocturnal panic attacks? How to relieve the symptoms of a panic attack? Discover why they happen and how to deal with them.
The nocturnal panic attacks They occur while a person is sleeping or lying down before falling asleep. When experiencing them, people wake up off the ground with a rapid heartbeat, sweating, and even difficulty breathing. It is because of all these symptoms that these attacks end up making people feel like they are facing something terrifying. If suffered very regularly, this can lead to different sleep disorders and make day-to-day tasks difficult. But what can we do to face them?
The nocturnal panic attacks They occur during the night or while you are sleeping and usually make people wake up very afraid. The main reason is that they cause people to have difficulty breathing, feel their heart racing, and sweat. Normally, these attacks are usually related to an anxiety disorder or experiencing too much stress.
Symptoms of nocturnal panic attacks
The panic attacks at night They can occur without a trigger and cause you to wake up from your sleep. When suffering from it, people usually have many physical symptoms such as sweating, tachycardia or chest pain. Furthermore, these symptoms are usually accompanied by fear or fear, which makes people feel out of control over themselves. Some of the symptoms experienced during a panic attack (whether nocturnal or not) are the following:
Chest pain
Chills or hot flashes
Derealization or depersonalization
Feelings of dizziness, lightheadedness, or fainting
In some cases, experiencing these symptoms frequently can lead to people suffering from insomnia. If you feel that you may be suffering from nocturnal panic attacks it is important that you consult with a professional psychologist.
What are the causes of nighttime panic attacks?
Although research does not yet know why some people may experiencing nocturnal panic attacks, if there are causes that are related. Thus, some factors that can make a person more likely to suffer from nocturnal panic attacks are the following:
Family history of panic attacks
Be experiencing a lot of stress
Having suffered a traumatic event
Suffering from disorders such as depression or social anxiety disorder
How to deal with nighttime panic attacks?
The oldest problem with panic attacks is that they usually happen spontaneously, that is, there are no triggers that cause it. Even so, we can try the following to deal with them:
Control your breathing: During a nighttime panic attack, people often experience shallow breathing that leads them to feel more nervous or even experience palpitations. For this reason, it can help you to try to calm yourself mentally and physically by taking very deep breaths. Try to focus your attention on the path your breath takes through your body.
Avoid negative dialogue: When suffering from a panic attack, people may even feel a sense of unreality and great fear. Taking this into account, our mind usually ends up with a very negative discourse towards ourselves. By dialoguing rationally with this mental discourse you will be able to better deal with all its symptoms.
Find relaxing activities: To avoid having nighttime panic attacks, it is important that you try to better manage your stress levels. This can be done by meditating, doing relaxing activities, or simply learning to say ‘no’ to what does not contribute to your life.
Take care of yourself: Eating a healthy, balanced diet and exercising regularly will help you cope with nighttime panic attacks. The reason is that by being physically healthier we will also be mentally healthier.
Practice good sleep hygiene: Having a sleep routine and, above all, practicing calming activities before going to sleep, avoiding screens, washing your face before going to bed or drinking something warm like milk or chamomile, will help you avoid nighttime panic attacks.
Go to therapy: If your panic attacks are very frequent, it is important that you go to a mental health professional to treat all your symptoms so that they no longer affect your daily life.
experiment with panic attacks at night It can be a very scary experience. Therefore, you must take charge of the situation if you are suffering from it on a very recurring basis and, in addition, it is affecting your daily routine. Don’t let fear and nighttime dread affect your physical and mental well-being.
