anxiety peeaking around sleep

[fishpie1]

I've always had issues with anxiety my whole life. Recently I've had a bad mental health patch and this has somehow latched onto going to bed.

Recently I have been having really bad panic attacks and generally feel shit all the rest of the time.

All of the symptoms elevate when I lay in bed. Racing heart, hard to control my mind, total, blind fear coursing through me.

Because I expect it everytime I lay down, I think that makes it more likley.

Anyway I now pretty much can't sleep unless I am exhausted. That doesn't help anything.

I'm so tired right now but I know if I dare to go to bed I'll just have a panic attack.

Might peri-menopause be an issue? New anxiety/increased anxiety, and sleep issues are main symptoms.

I suppose it could be, it certainly won't be helping.

I do have some techniques to use and just tried those. I managed to calm down a bit but not much and then I latched onto this idea that if I fell asleep I'd stop breathing and so I've got up again because I just couldn't shift it.

I've been unwell recently and I think the fear of being in bed has come from that. I've always had sleep issues on and off but just now when I walked into the bedroom I got a huge wave of pure fear which is far better sat here in the living room.

Hi Op, I’m right there with you with this, I dread going to bed as well these days, I used to love it but it’s like my body has a mind of its own, i wake up early every morning with my heart racing and the feeling like something awful is going to happen. I used to take something called amitriptyline before bed and it would relax me and help me sleep, I wonder if it’s worth trying this?

It’s so hard though once a cycle like this starts, we both need to make some changes and break this pattern our bodies and minds have gotten us into. I know it’s easier said than done.

You’ll be okay, this will pass ❤️

@Elliethebear I'll look up amitriptyline, I am a bit scared to take anything to be honest in case it makes this worse.

I can kind of control my breathing and heart rate but as soon as I stop actively doing that it just soars again. You're right about making changes, it's just so difficult when you're in this state to do much more than survive.

My partner was on ADs for years and was really badly affected by anxiety but now he just seems totally better and came off his meds in the middle of the pandemic. So there is hope that the switch will flip for us too.

I try to focus on the fact that these feelings will go away at some point. I was reading about how anxiety and panic come from our primitive past and it's designed to keep you alive. I just wonder how it basically ends up going wrong like this.

Hi @fishpie1,

So sorry you're having anxiety at night, this had happened to me in the past too and it's awful both feeling so anxious and feeling so tired because you haven't slept.

Have you come across adrenal fatigue?
It's something I learnt about recently and it made me wonder if that was what had happened to me in the past. If you've been experiencing high levels of anxiety the adrenals can get fatigued and then don't do such a good job of toning down the stress hormones at night. It can make it hard to switch off. It could relate to blood sugar too so avoid eating close to bedtime!

Absolutely resonate with your descriptions. I found this book really useful although it does take time to work through - the author is very clear that it's a long-term approach rather than an instant cure - but it very specifically targets anxiety rather than just giving you a load of instructions and unhelpful "sleep tips"

www.amazon.co.uk/Sleep-Book-Well-Every-Night/dp/1409149102?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

As a quick measure I used to find hugging a soft pillow quite helpful - it seemed to give my body something to focus on.

There is an app called Calm. It helps me to a certain extent.