NIGHT ANXIETY: symptoms, causes and treatment

Anxiety symptoms occur because the body is activated by the perception of a threat. The threat can be real or imagined, therefore, anxiety episodes can occur at any time of the day. It is common to feel anxiety at night, being very uncomfortable and preventing sleep and rest.

If you want more information on the subject, in this Psychology-Online article, you will find the symptoms, causes and treatment of nighttime anxiety.

Index

1. Symptoms of nighttime anxiety
2. Causes of sleep anxiety
3. Treating anxiety at night

Symptoms of anxiety attacks can appear at any time, both during the day and at night. Therefore, symptoms of nocturnal anxiety attacks will be the same:

• Fast heartbeat
• Palpitations - fast and irregular heartbeat.
• Shaking or shaking
• Sweating
• Chest pain, pressure, or discomfort.
• Difficulty breathing normally. It is common for a person with nocturnal anxiety to say: "when I am about to sleep, I am short of breath."
• Numbness.
• Dizziness or vertigo
• Sickness.
• Feeling very hot or cold.
• Muscle pains.
• Fatigue.
• Insomnia.
• Gastrointestinal symptoms.
• Hot flashes or chills
• Feeling that something bad is going to happen.

Symptoms of a Anxiety Attack at night they can be very different between several people. The most common are listed, but not all need to be present, and less common symptoms may occur. Nighttime anxiety includes both anxiety when sleeping as well as jitters during the night and anxiety when waking up.

Why does it give anxiety at night? Night anxiety is very annoying and it is normal for people who suffer from it to express in consultation: "Why can't I sleep and feel desperate? "," why when I go to sleep do I scare? "or" why do I wake up scared and shaking?". The most common reasons for anxiety when sleeping are:

• Predisposition to anxiety. The first cause of anxiety at night or during the day is the predisposition to anxiety, what in psychology we call anxiety as a trait. Family history, genetic inheritance, parenting style, and events experienced during childhood shape personality traits and vulnerability to anxiety.
• Stressful events. Another reason for feeling anxiety when sleeping is experiencing a stressful event, such as a move, a change at work or a family loss. If, in addition, your personality has a tendency to anxiety, it is very likely that before a stressful event nighttime anxiety appears. Economic, personal, family problems, etc., may be behind these episodes of stress and nighttime anxiety.
• Concerns. Another cause of night anxiety is excessive worry. There may not be any stressful events happening in your life, however, there are little things that trigger your anxiety levels. This occurs because the body does not differentiate between reality and imagination and reacts to mental events as if they were occurring in reality. That is, if you are concerned about your health, even if it is actually good, your body perceives the feeling of danger and responds with activation. So if these thoughts appear when you are falling asleep, you wake up with a start.
• Fear of anxiety. After presenting an anxiety attack due to the previously exposed causes, what in psychology we call "fear of fear" may arise. The person becomes hypersensitive to anxiety symptoms and their concern about having a panic attack is such that this ends up being the cause of their anxiety. Therefore, the fear of having a panic attack can be the cause of waking up with a start, you can even have an anxiety attack while sleeping.
• Substances. Another possible cause of nighttime anxiety is the exposure or consumption of toxins, which can be medications, drugs or stimulant substances such as caffeine.
• Disease. Anxiety symptoms can also be secondary to a medical problem such as heart disease, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or respiratory diseases.

If you have startles when trying to sleep, it is normal that you wonder why you cannot sleep and feel desperate. The Vitae laboratory proposes CalmTu Night Retard, a food supplement that will help you relax to fall asleep and sleep without interruptions. With its innovative bilayer formula (Retard), which acts throughout the night, it helps prevent nighttime awakenings due to anxiety while its 100% natural ingredients (melatonin, valerian, passionflower, California poppy and lemon balm) contribute to having a quality restful sleep.

Next, we will see what to do before an anxiety attack at night, how to remove anxiety when sleeping and what to do not to wake up with anxiety.

1. Consult a specialist. Anxiety symptoms can be occasional and temporary and do not hinder the development of your normal life or they can be frequent, intense and disabling. When anxiety prevents you from continuing your life normally, we are talking about a anxiety disorder that must be evaluated, diagnosed and treated by a specialist, that is, a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist. The most common treatment for nocturnal panic attacks usually combines cognitive behavioral therapy and drug therapy.
2. Don't fight anxiety. If you are wondering how to overcome nighttime anxiety insomnia, you must start by understanding anxiety. Anxiety is an activation mechanism of the body that serves to protect us against the feeling of danger. If you take anxiety itself as a danger, you feed fear and increase anxiety. Anxiety symptoms are really just trying to help you escape, fight, hide, and survive.
3. Trust the body. Another tip to control anxiety at night is to rely on the regulation of the body itself. Anxiety, as it rises, also falls. It is a passing state that will go away.
4. Breathe easy. To help reduce anxiety, you can give your body the following message: "There is no real danger right now." To do this, it is key to breathe deeply applying the diaphragmatic breathing.
5. Exercise in the morning. Once we have seen how to act in the face of an anxiety crisis at night, we are going to see how to prevent night anxiety. It is very important to exercise regularly, but never close to bedtime.
6. Not taking stimulants. In the face of anxiety symptoms, it is best to avoid the consumption of stimulant substances, since they increase the activity of the Central Nervous System and that is precisely what we want to avoid. The most common stimulants are caffeine (coffee and soft drinks), theophylline (tea), theobromine (cocoa), nicotine (tobacco), and alcohol.
7. Practice relaxation techniques. Learning to relax is essential to calm anxiety. Just as the mind activates the body, muscle tension also feeds into mental alertness. Therefore, one of the most useful relaxation techniques is the Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation.
8. Practice mindfulness. The mindfulness or mindfulness is a type of vipassana meditation that consists of focusing attention on a present object while letting go of thoughts about the past or future. It's about being more aware of the present moment. Both relaxation and meditation require a learning process and must become habits. It is not useful to apply them only in the moment of intense anxiety, they should be practiced regularly and as a preventive habit. In this article, we explain how to practice mindfulness.
9. Have good sleep habits. To fall asleep when you have anxiety, it is very important to follow the guidelines for improving sleep hygiene. Always follow the same schedule, sleep in the dark hours, have a previous relaxing routine, avoid doing activities in bed (such as watching the television or studying), do not sleep during the day, do not eat large dinners, avoid screens at the last minute and maintain a comfortable environment and temperature in the room.
10. Try relaxing strategies. There are no magic tricks to falling asleep or ways to control anxiety. There are no strategies that work well for everyone at all times. Therefore, the ideal is to go to a professional. You can also try other relaxation strategies and stick with those that work for you. Some ideas include relaxing music, guided relaxation videos, warm showers, applying ice to your hands, aromatherapy, melatonin, and relaxing herbal teas.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Nocturnal anxiety: symptoms, causes and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• Horse, V. AND. (2008). Manual for the cognitive-behavioral treatment of psychological disorders. Twenty-first century of Spain.
• Fernández, M.Á.R., García, M.I.D., & Crespo, A. V. (2012). Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Techniques Manual. Desclée de Brouwer.
• López, O. I. F., Hernández, B. J., Almirall, R. B. A., Molina, D. S., & Navarro, J. R. C. (2012). Manual for the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders. MediSur, 10(5), 466-479.
• Moreno, P., Martín, J. C., & Sánchez, J. G. (2007). Psychological treatment of panic disorder and agoraphobia: a manual for therapists. Desclée de Brouwer.