Panic attacks when you're wide awake are bad enough, but nighttime panic attacks are even worse. No one should have to live the dread of awaking in absolute terror in the middle of the night for no obvious reason.
It's very common for people suffer from panic attacks to experience at least one episode at night. The treatment of nocturnal anxiety attacks is essentially the same as for daytime panic attacks. As the daytime attacks go away, the nocturnal attacks cease to be an issue as well.
As with all panic attacks, it's importanto have a complete evaluation by a doctor to make certain don't have medical problems causing your symptoms. For example, people can develop symptoms very much like a panic attack from thyroid or heart conditions.
If you're having problems at night, you definitely need to be certain that you don't have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can cause a wide variety of symptoms. In particular, sleep apnea can cause nighttime panic episodes. In this situation, Treating the sleep apnea cures the panic attacks.
If there's any possibility of sleep apnea, you should be checked out in a sleep lab.
Once you confirm the diagnosis of anxiety or a panic disorder you can start the process of curing it.
You can find a list of the various treatment options available at Anxiety Treatment Options. Other pages on that site go into more details about the different options.
For many people, the worst thing about nighttime panic attack is it leaves them exhausted. Studies repeatedly show that no one performs their best if they don't get a good night's sleep.
Unfortunately, many people with nighttime panic attacks think sleeping pills will be the answer. They're not. They interfere with normal sleep patterns and don't do anything for the underlying problem.
The anti histamine Benadryl has a mild sedative effect. Some people use it as a sleep aid. If it works, it is preferable to the more potent sleeping pills.
The best idea is to treat the underlying anxiety disorder and practice good sleep practices (no caffeine in the afternoon, avoid vigorous exercise before going to bed, keep regular hours etc), perhaps using natural sleep aids as well. Natural sleep aids are gentler than drugs and disrupt normal seep cycles much less. Also, they usually don't have a residual effect so you won't feel groggy the next day.
The type of sleep aids I'm talking about are discussed on the page Nocturnal Panic Attacks Part 2 .
You can learn a lot more about the symptoms, diagnosis and different treatments for panic attacks and anxiety disorders on the site Panic Attack Release. It's well worth checking out.
As you will see, it is possible to free yourself from night panic attacks. I hope you're free of them soon.
