Has anyone had this? Woke up severely dizzy in the night.

[Morp]

It was terrifying tbh. I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and knew something was wrong, the room was spinning and I couldn’t get my balance at all. I felt out of it, drenched in sweat and my heart was racing (possibly because it was so scary). I couldn’t really walk so lay down took deep breaths and it stopped. My stomach was a bit upset after and I feel worn out now (went back to sleep) but nothing else. I’m on my period which is very heavy but I can’t think of any other reason. I was very hot when I woke up. Hadn’t been drinking. Guess it was just one of those things?

This happens to me when I’m a bit dehydrated and hot, so the pizza and period thing would probably send me over too. I try and keep my head elevated in bed. I think it’s a low blood pressure thing so try to keep hydrated before bed.

Sounds like vertigo, not dizziness, they are completely different. Interesting you didn’t throw up though as that would be expected with the severity you describe. It’s likely triggered by crystals in your middle ear, I’d go to a physio who specialises in vertigo and have them do the epley manoeuvre with you. You can do it yourself but it doesn’t seem to work as well when people diy it and it’s more like hand-aiding a problem than fixing it. That should shift the crystals long term, otherwise you may risk the same happening in weeks, months.

Many foods contain histamine and all will develop it as they 'age' or sit in your fridge or on the counter! Most people can harmlessly break this down using the enzyme DAO but sometimes this doesn't work right or there may be some other biochemical reason why you can't break down histamine. Or you may simply have too much in your system for DAO to handle. Either way, it develops some hours after eating, unlike a food allergy which would be far quicker.

I am unfortunate in that I have developed 'histamine intolerance' after getting Hashimoto's. There are many foods that set me off, or I have to be careful with. Certainly I try to keep to the freshest food possible. I can't eat mushrooms now, for example, I will get a strong reaction and feel miserable!

I've also had the crystals in the ear canal thing that can cause nasty dizziness, a separate issue from histamine.

Thank you, I will mention this to the Gp. I have an appointment today - still feel quite off so thought best to check re anemia etc too.

I did feel sick but am afraid of being sick so maybe stopped myself!

TBH at the time I honestly felt like I was going to die 😞 It just felt so unlike anything I’ve experienced.

I get it in bed, but it passes. I also get it doing floor exercises whenever I roll from one side to the other too quickly.

I had vestibular neuritis years ago was in bed for six weeks, so I'm a bit prone to dizziness now

Thank you very much, @CrunchyCarrot . That info is very interesting and I will use it to go on a google journey! The experience of extreme nausea and dizziness is so aversive that it is easy to develop quite a lot of fearfulness about recurrence, and I have found it unnerving to have no knowledge of what the trigger was. Regardless of whether or not this turns out to be the answer for me, if feels good to have a line of research

Thanks @CrunchyCarrot . How did you find out about this?

Yes, I get it, I had to do much the same some years ago! At least I know what to avoid if possible, but I still get caught out now and then. I'm trying to fix the root cause but so far no joy!

Oof might have to jiggle my brain a bit! It's some years ago now that I started to get reactions and had no idea what was going on. I may well have come across it as I already have Hashimoto's and may have come across it reading forums that dealt with that, as some folks also have food intolerances. I bought the book What HIT me? Living with Histamine Intolerance and later joined a FB group.

Food diaries are really important to figure things out, I had no idea at the outset and I lost tons of weight because I was scared to eat in case I had more reactions! I ditched a lot of foods then slowly re-introduced, and that helped. Some I have to avoid completely like mushrooms, and alcohol (although not too bothered about the latter).

Could be vertigo. I get BPPV and it can be triggered when I roll over in bed. The whole room feels like it is spinning and I can feel nauseous.It can also come on if I move my head down or to the side and I have to hold on to something because I feel like I'm going to fall over.

The doctor did lots of checks and thinks it wasn’t a stroke, so that’s good…

I’m going to have blood tests etc and an ECG due to rapid heart beat. But I will look into that positional and diet stuff especially if it ever happens again!

Well that's a positive result! Hopefully it won't happen again but always good to be informed. :)

So interesting! I had the exact same symptoms, couldn’t work out whether panic attacks, peri, dehydration, etc and then made the connection to fish, shellfish etc!! I’m far too scared to go anywhere near any as the symptoms were so scary. And yes, hours later / no allergy came up so I had put it down to histamine. Apparently can happen when your hormones start changing? Also have family thyroid issues but mine seems ok…