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morning terrors, anyone else get them

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Chickenbird
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14 Feb 2011, 2:41 pm

pensieve wrote:
Chickenbird wrote:
Tiffinity wrote:
First thing that happens to me when I wake up in the morning is a feeling of complete panic, terror and cold fear. I feel like I want to clutch my stomach to make the feelings go away and sometimes it's so bad I have to fold my arms around my middle and bend forward as it's so awful, like any minute someone is going to shoot me and I feel like it's my last day. It's not a panic attack, I get plenty of those, it's a feeling of complete terror almost for the unknown that lies ahead in the day. When I was little girl I used to think that was how Anne Boleyn must have felt on her way to be beheaded ( I was a charming child ) but I still feel it now in middle age and I have to force myself to get up, partially open the blinds and gradually ease into consciousness but I can never ever face first thing in the morning with an easy mind. Am I the only one?


It might have something to do with breathing. Apparently a lot of people hyperventilate in the morning without knowing it.
It can certainly bring on terrors and panic attacks. I get this too, but not all the time. You can get help for the breathing.

I wake up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. I can eventually get it under control. It's probably a more mild version though. Sometimes I feel paranoid and sometimes I'm just annoyed when I can't get back to sleep.


I've been wearing a scarf tied tightly around my lower ribs to remind me to breathe with my diaphragm/stomach, and to retrain my muscles that way. Last night, right or wrong, I chose to sleep in it. At 4am I woke and felt myself beginning to breathe in my upper chest again, but the scarf stopped it and reminded me, so I didn't hyperventilate that time. Most hyperventilation happens between 4-7am so I was right on cue.

Other times when it happens, I either have a night terror and find myself in the hallway, or I get up on purpose and go to the bathroom.
Either way, my body naturally restores its CO2 balance and I can go back to sleep.

So maybe, if a person doesn't want to do anything else, just getting up right away on awakening will stop morning terrors. You
can always go back to bed afterwards.


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anbuend
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14 Feb 2011, 5:53 pm

Yensid wrote:
I don't get morning terrors, but I get serious night time anxiety attacks. Just when I'm falling asleep, I get the feeling that I am about to die. I wake up suddenly and I am so anxious that I can't breathe.


That may not be just anxiety. I had issues similar to that and then got tested for sleep apnea. It turns out that I have both central sleep apnea (where my brain doesn't remember to breathe) and obstructive sleep apnea (where the airway closes during sleep) and it's severe. The anxiety was because I couldn't breathe properly, not the other way around. If you haven't been tested recently you should probably get tested. Sleep apnea is quite dangerous and can lead to sudden heart failure among other things. It's also one of the most treatable conditions out there.

Sleep apnea also gives me nightmares about being killed over and over to try to wake me up so I can breathe. My particular sleep apnea is severe though.


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Tlc2cann
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15 Feb 2011, 10:54 am

well I,m new here but ,
Sometimes I can be asleep and its like my mind has awoke before my body and in my brain is telling me to wake up but my whole body isn't responding like its paralyzed.I even try to yell out sometimes in my sleep and tell myself to wake up and my wife says it just sounds like I'm making weird noises not words. sometimes i can even hear my kids when they happen to walk in the room ask my wife questions while she and I are still in bed but shes awake and I look like I'm asleep but my mind is wide awake and i will repeat what my kids had ask her and she wonders how i heard the question they asked.



Ashuahhe
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20 Feb 2011, 4:05 am

This morning terror stuff sounds like what happens to me, especially if I change my routine. I have to force myself out of bed most of the time! I don't know but its something but about getting up and going to uni/college, going on a train and seeing other people etc. Once I get there everything calms down, its weird. I guess it reasures me that everything is normal and everything normal is happening exactly as planned



temetvince
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21 Feb 2011, 12:21 pm

It's the exact opposite for me. I wake up feeling great, endorphins running wild, refreshed, and ready to take on the world. But within 5-10 minutes I come down from the high and my brain functioning weakens.

I never have been able to figure out why.