Nocturnal Panic Attacks - What Causes Them

Panic attacks come at all times during the day or night. Although some panic attacks have been known to awaken people from their sleep, nocturnal panic attacks are much less common that daytime ones. What is more prevalent is a person that is afraid to go to sleep because of the panic attacks they have experienced during the day.

While research has been able to pin down the percentage between day or nocturnal panic attacks they have not been able to identify an exact cause. If you are having them it is important that you immediately seek the care of a physician to determine if there is a physiological reason for it.

We do know that sleep apnea syndromes are not usually symptoms of nocturnal panic attacks. Since sleep apena has an effect on the heart rate and blood pressure it could be this change that triggers the attacks. There is also the possibility that improper breathing during sleep can cause a build up of CO2 and trigger a false suffocation alarm that leads to the panic. Any autonomic dysfunction that leads to a change in the heart beat would also be suspect.

While we can not pin down the reasons to one specific cause we do know that most nocturnal panic attacks are triggered by events that happened during the day. These can be from external sources such as personal interactions or from stress such as from work. They can also come from internal activities such as the consumption of alcohol or drugs. If having nocturnal panic attacks first try to cut back on the drug and alcohol consumption.

A nocturnal panic attack can be highly disconcerting and can lead to more at later dates. If you have had one see your physician at your earliest opportunity. We may not know what causes them but we do know what to do to treat them.

Psychotherapy is the preferred mode of treatment and has demonstrated itself to be an able deterrent. There are chemical approaches that work with varying degree of risk and success. The fastest acting is the benzodiazepine family and can be taken for only a short period as they loose their effectiveness after about three weeks. Withdrawal can leave abstention symptoms that can last for months. Tricyclic antidepressant are well tolerated by most people but are much slower to take effect. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors can be used in doses similar to those used in treating depression. Tricyclic antidepressants and Serotonin reuptake inhibitors have the disadvantage of sometimes increasing the anxiety initially.

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