Am I having a Panic Attack in my Sleep? Posted: 09-20-06 07:11am
For about a year now I have episodes at
night when I first begin to doze off I am
suddenly jolted awake with my heart
racing, and I think Im going to die. I
went to my doctor and had an ekg and wore
a halter monitor --everything was fine. I
was relieved, and did not continue to try
to find the cause of these episodes. They
didnt occur every night just maybe once a
week. They are happening every night now,
I feel fine during the day, I do not have
an abnormal amount of everyday stress, I
do not take any meds, just the
occaissional tylenol. I am beginning to
fear trying to go to sleep. Is it a sleep
panic attack, sleep apnea?
According to the symptoms you report
(“dozing off”, “being suddenly
jolted awake with a racing heart”,
“fear of trying to go to sleep”…)
and the normal ECG and holter monitor, you
might be experiencing some kind of
somatoform disorder. Somatoform disorder
is also called neuron-vegetative dystonia.
It is a kind of neurotic disease
(classified as F45) wherein
psycho-emotional problems manifest as
symptoms of other organic diseases. For
example, chest pain can be a symptom of
angina pectoris; a patient experiencing
somatoform disorder can also feel this
symptom without being diagnosed with
angina pectoris. To establish the
diagnosis for somatoform disorder it is
very important to first exclude any real
organic disease. In your case, heart
arrhythmia had to be excluded with ECG and
holter monitoring. Panic attacks (F41.0)
are another possible diagnosis, but it is
not typical for panic attacks to occur
during the sleep. You may consult a
psychiatrist for further information.
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