Nocturnal panic attacks

[NotEver0]

For the past week every night my husband has woken from deep sleeps suffering from what can only be described as a panic attack.we were quite surprised that these can occur when sleeping, does anyone have any experience with this?as aside from breathing calmly and getting up he doesn't know how to stop them and is now worrying nightly about going to sleep.?? He isnt a stresser or worrier at all and insists nothing is going on in his head and is generally a very upbeat positive man,no change in his daily demeanor.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I don't like to see him suffer.

Has he seen his GP?

Hi there no it's near impossible for gp contact here so hence trying to reach out

What do you mean by a panic attack? There are several possible physical/medical causes for waking suddenly with difficulty breathing & a panicky feeling. If it's new for him he probably needs to speak to a GP.

Is it where he is falling into a sleep then suddenly pulls himself out of sleep in a panic thinking he was about to die? If so I used to get these, I still do from time to time but not very often. Its a panic attack and for me it was from consuming too much alcohol then on the nights I would drink the panic attacks happened. I barely drink at all now and it hasn't happened in a long time

Sorry I meant the nights I didn't drink I would have them

I have these at periods of high stress and they are awful. I kept thinking it was asthma attacks but it was panic. I try to do lots of daytime exercise and then a wind down for bed and make sure Im not over tired when I go to sleep. I sometimes do day time naps too as it breaks the fear of sleep cycle I get into with them.

Agree it is worth at least ringing the doctor as could be sleep apnoea?

Alcohol can cause nocturnal panic attacks. Does he drink?

@Shahira78 100% as I know for a fact thats what caused it for me

I had to seriously reduce / stop drinking alcohol because I got these. It started during quite a stressful time but I went on to have them at random.

Particularly bad with white wine and Champagne etc and/or if I was dehydrated at all, also made worse through tiredness.

It was very scary when it happened the first few times and I thought I was dying.

In terms of dealing with it -

Remind yourself you will be ok and it will pass

Drink water

Go to loo

Make sure you're not too hot or too cold

Go and focus on something else (looking out the window etc - reading and TV don't help)

Wake someone up and get them to tell you you're ok

In terms of symptoms, mine was pounding heart, insanely fast heart rate and sense of dread. I wasn't actually panicking, or breathless.

This is a really unpleasant experience. I agree with others, if he is drinking alcohol, that's probably the cause.