Sounds very much like anxiety which I have had in the past just like you, suddenly waking up out of the blue, feeling totally alert and panicked.
I needed to take an antidepressant for while which was taken at night and helped to relax me so that when I did wake up I didn't worry about it and dropped off back to sleep and after a couple of months I was able to reduce the medication and finally come off. It is worth noting if there is something bothering you, even though you may not realise it and then unfortunately it works its way into your sleep pattern

Any worries? Guilt? When you fall asleep your sub-conscience takes over and things you have left unsettled (or think you have)can come back to haunt you. This can manifest itself as night mares but might not. Rack your brain before taking meds.

Have you ever tried a dream catcher? It kinda seems crazy, but I think they actually work with bad dreams! I;ve had so many bad dreams, I couldn't take them any more! So one day, I bought a dream catcher and i'v only had one bad dream since i've had it! I think it creates a memory in the brain to remind itself thats it is protected by something! :p

Before I went on zoloft, I had the same problems. It scared the heck out of me every time. Sometimes I would be dreaming about work ( I had a very stressful job at the time) or just about anything that stressed me out or worried me. But sometimes I did not remember having any specific dream. It was awful and usually when I woke up my stomach hurt so very bad that I could not stand it at all. I would talk to your doctor about taking anxiety meds or about an herbal treatment (if there is one.)

You could also check out if you have sleep apnea, something about where , when you are asleep you forget to breathe.

Yes gram, you are right. I had completely forgot about that. When I was having nights like I described above there were times that I would wake up not breathing. For me, I could not sleep on my back. At all. Every time I woke up on my back, I would wake up not breathing. So yes, get that checked too.!

I have bad problems trying to sleep, until a year back I could sleep like a log, on weekdays I would sleep for about 8 hours and on weekends I would sleep for more than 12 hours !!!

I have recently been doing intense school work and revision because it was my final year at school. Some days I would get 2 or 3 hours sleep at different times of the day, other days I would not go sleep at all. I have now finished school four weeks back and I have had sleeping problems ever since. I never seem to get tired and always end up staring at the cealing

i tried counting sheep but I would always end up counting into the thousands

Every time I come to this site all the same msg's are still where they where before. So does any one else come to this site or just me? If it's only me then I must be the only one in the world that doesn't sleep any more