Waking Up to a Panic Attack 30 Minutes After Going to Sleep

Dear all,

I have been struggling with this for the past 3 weeks: panic attacks when sleeping.

As I try to nap or going to sleep, I wake up after 30 minutes due to panic attacks. I am capable of calming myself, taking CBD oil etc, but once asleep again, the panic starts over.

I am on Amitriptyline 20mg now, but it doesn't work today.

Has anyone had this experience? What would be your coping strategy?

Thank you.

 

Hi Johan.

I am sorry you struggle with sleep. While I don't share your experience I think I might have a few tips.

If you sleep in silence you can try falling asleep to a podcast/fan/white noise.

Try taking 3mg melatonin half an hour before bed. It isn't addictive and doesn't have side effects.

Have a consistent sleep schedule.

 

Thank you Gabriel, I will try melatonin.

The problem now is that as soon as I get to sleep, my tinnitus gets very loud. I'm 3 weeks into this, will it get any better?

I can't imagine living life like this.

 

Hi @Johan001. What medication caused your tinnitus? You should certainly avoid taking it again and look out for ototoxic drugs.
It is very likely it will get better. You are in an early phase. I suggest eating a healthy diet. Meaning no fast food and lots of fruits and vegetables.
I think you might want to check out some of @Michael Leigh's posts. Pretty good place to start exploring. Plenty of threads about medication on this forum anyway. Definitely keep us updated.

 

Hi @Gabriel5050,

Thank you. My story is quite weird. I took 1 dose of Viagra (50mg) once. Then the day after I started worrying that it may have side effects. So I started reading up on tinnitus, doing online hearing tests and ended up having 3 sounds in my ear now.

So, I would say, Viagra set it off and I stupidly finished it by stress inducing it.

I've just got sleeping pills and melatonin prescribed but I am trying to habituated to the sound by using the meditation approach (meditate to the tinnitus sound).

My anxiety about it is so severe, that I was seriously considering suicide in the last week (and even prepared the notes to family).

I went to acupuncture today and it made me feel better. A slight reduction in stress. However, I am still struggling badly and feeling suicidal at times.

I believe, habituation is now the only way forward. And obviously believing that my symptoms will subside.

 

Writing this as I have just woken up after less than an hour sleep. My tinnitus gets extremely into an loud hissing noise when I sleep.

So, it's bearable during the day, it fact it goes quite down, but as soon as I lay down, it spikes up immensely.

Is there anything I can do???

 

You mentioned you take sleep medication. Which ones? They are known to trigger tinnitus, like it was in my case.

 

Hi @Johan001. I've been depressed because of my tinnitus too. My doctor recommended mirtazapine. I've been on it for a month and my emotional state has been much improved. It has the welcome side-effect of a good sleep (I take it before bedtime) although it does make me ravenously hungry!

 

@Johan001 You should see an ENT sometime if you haven't. Sadly, many are not helpful when it comes to tinnitus, but they can give you a professional audiogram or guide you to hopefully find the cause. Good luck.

 

Hi @Gabriel5050, I saw 2 private ENTs in London and I had some high frequency hearing loss in both ears (also in the quiet one).

No one seems to find the cause.

I'm really losing it. Going to start Mirtazapine.

I'm really scared for my life. I don't want to die, but see no other way out.

 

www.suicidestop.com

They provide online chat and links to hotlines if you feel able to talk.

Mirtazapine helped me. The first two days I was very sleepy and hungry. I started to feel my mood lift after three days, but the advice is that it usually takes one to two weeks. I feel so much better in general that I might stay on it even if my tinnitus clears up.

 

Hi Bobby, I now take zopiclone. Had it once, it worked ok. Before - Amitriptyline - little effect.

 

@bedalus -- Unfortunately, mirtazapine has been reported by quite a few members on this forum to cause or exacerbate tinnitus.

@Johan001 -- Same with zopiclone. Both of you might want to use the search feature to check out other people's experiences. -- All the Best...

 

@Lane, I've just done a sample of the first 15 distinct threads in this forum that mention 'mirtazapine' and found the following anecdotal evidence regarding the effect of mirtazapine on tinnitus:

No ill effect or improvement
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...al-worried-about-making-tinnitus-worse.39125/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ned-with-venlafaxine-or-something-else.37036/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/can-mirtazapine-affect-tinnitus.33710/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...snris-maos-tcas-tecas.768/page-27#post-524378
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-spike-because-of-mirtazapine.32969/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ne-having-similar-symptoms.41070/#post-527208

No opinion on effect
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-medications-mirtazapine-and-estazolam.39674/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...nitus-10-years-of-tinnitus.41056/#post-526887

Mixture of both negative and positive opinions
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...oroidism-worse-after-using-mirtazapine.40631/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-apparently-caused-by-mirtazapine.35190/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-me-figure-out-my-problems.39213/#post-521321
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-reduced-by-mirtazapine-remeron.10207/#post-511222
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/mirtazapine-spike-need-some-help-please.33529/

Negative effect
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tapering-off-mirtazapine.29582/#post-511197

There is also one post in the forum which is perhaps based in science rather than opinion, from Dr Nagler where he states that mirtazapine is not ototoxic and incidence of symptoms being exacerbated is very rare:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...emeron-for-many-years-without-problems.40033/

On balance, the evidence I've reviewed from this forum appears slightly in favour of mirtazapine, not that it helps with the tinnitus directly, but as support for sleep (when taken as a low dose before bedtime) and as an antidepressant.

 

Thanks Lane. I am only using it to restore my sleep pattern now occasionally. I try melatonin too though.

 

Maybe you can sleep on 2-3 pillows, if it spikes up as soon as you lie down, try keeping your head elevated.

 

Thank you. I tried, doesn't help. I tried to sleep today on melatonin and zopiclone but only managed 2 hours. It's killing me. I am very scared of mirtazapine.

 

Tried 15 mg mirtazapine and I slept well. Looks like I will have to stay on it for now.

 

Does it make you feel dopey the next day? Considering this for my sleep problems

 

I was ok today, but will check how it goes tomorrow.

 

For me, for the first two or three days I felt hung-over in the morning, but then that subsided. I sleep better which contributes a great deal to how I feel the next day

 

I kept waking up from the tinnitus when it was out of control. I used earplugs, which seemed to calm it down, and let me sleep better through the night. May want to give it a try.

 

I tried earplugs but the effect was the opposite unfortunately.

 

Just to update: zopiclone gave me bad hyperacusis and didn't work well. Mirtazapine works now for 4 days. No hyperacusis.

 

That's what I was thinking, it'll probably make me less tired than simply not sleeping at all! Thanks

 

Hi all,

As I'm recovering from the initial shock and safeguarded my sleep by AD. I wanted to ask you, how you got yourself back to doing the stuff you were doing before? Such as work for instance and daily stuff around the house. How would you concur your fears and how challenging was this.

Many thanks.

 

Hi all,

I am back to square 1, mirtazapine stopped working - been sleepless 3 nights. I woke up an hour ago in panic and can't sleep even to masking sounds.

Just took CBD oil and waiting. I'm in a very very dark place again.

Can you please help me.

 

Hi Johan,

How are you going? Sorry I don’t think I can be of much help - I just wanted to tell you I am going through the same thing. I go to bed, listen to a meditation or hypnosis feel ok and then every time I feel myself drifting off the sleep I feel dizzy and start having heart palpitations and shaking and need to run to the bathroom. I haven’t slept for 4 days straight right now. I’m not 100% sure they are panic attacks actually - feel like maybe something else is going on like with my blood pressure or something? Not sure. I have tried Valium, Melatonin, Phenergan and magnesium - but still haven’t been able to sleep. I was thinking about asking for a script of Mirtazapene.

If you find something that works for you let me know.

 

Hi Rosie, going as it goes, I would say... it's tough. I spoke to my doc and she wants me to increase mirtazapine to 30 mg, which I'm not a fan of.

I have the same - it looks like there's a huge adrenalin rush kicking in as soon as we are dozing off. We need to find a way to tackle this. I manage it sometimes a bit by thinking that my tinnitus will get better - as it's very new. My problem is that I'm generally quite a negative thinker, so I need to change my whole mindset.

 

Hi all,

As I'm sleeping on medication I have had another problem related to sleep/relaxation.

When I feel really tired I'm trying to close my eyes to rest, or to nap. But then almost instantly I get a huge adrenaline rush, so I literally get thrilled with panic.

I am not particularly anxious when I am trying to relax, but this is just an automatic response now, sort of a severe PTSD.

Does anyone have experience with overcoming this?