Adrenaline rush as I fall asleep, been happening for 8 years now. What is this?

i posted about this 8 or so months ago. i dealt with it for 2 years. i had a very demanding job but left for a much less stressful job 3 months ago - a job i actually enjoy. And guess what? No more adrenaline jolts at bedtime! Like magic.

i had this again a few nights ago lasted about three hours i eventually got up when downstairs exhausted and flopped in front of netflix with the dog who was not much impressed with me waking her up! sometimes you cant beat and have concede defeat with it. From what i understand it is type of panic attack/anxiety attack that occurs between falling asleep and being awake. Your brain or some region of it seeing sleep as a danger or threat and then waking you up before you succumb to it by sending out a jolt of adrenaline or cortisol which washes over you causing a sensation around your chest area and or a jolt in your muscles to bring you back to a fully awake state. it is most likely caused by underlying anxiety or worry over anything and everything that may be currently plaguing you in your life. you may even go to bed thinking that you are not anxious or worried and still suffer them! my uk doctor told me they are harmless are not related to a medical issue and are of themselves a type of mini anxiety/panic attack. he told me that he used to get them when trying to sleep on his nights off from duty as junior doctor. unfortunately they can lead to a bit if cycle that can last a while until it finally settles down again. i get them sporadically through the year. what i find helps is;

avoid caffeine after 2pm completely

cut alcohol down

cut down sugar

drink enough water during the day

ensure you get enough magnesium and iron

i take a good mulitvitamin 3 times a week

walk each day for half an hour or more

knock facebook movies kindle video games etc all on the head a couple of hours before getting into bed

address any lingering problems in your life as best you can

dont get angry at yourself for not sleeping dont let it frustrate you

tell yourself that the episodes cannot harm you and make peace with them when they occur just accept it

i truly believe it is anxiety/worry or panic related issue that becomes self perpetuating and but does break off eventually. There is alot of the usual stuff listed above but in following it it has helped me ten fold. the hardest bit is sticking to it and committing to it. small changes make a difference in time.

Hi, I could write a book on this. These nocturnal attacks have totally wrecked my life for two and a half years now. What typically happens is that I'm wide awake for hours, feeling fine but just not sleepy. At some point usually around 0600 exhaustion kicks in and I drift off only to be woken almost immediately by some lucid weird angst ridden dream. I often am filled with dread convinced that I'm going to die and have all manner of symptoms - palpitations, twitching, nausea, dizzyness, you name it. This passes usually after 10 or so minutes and I drift off again only for the whole terrible cycle to begin again. I have to write off the whole prospect of sleeping for that night. I don't agree with those who say this won't hurt me! I know my life is being shortened by these episodes. The only good thing is I now know they're episodic - mercifully, I have had months without an occurrence, but they always seem to come back. I have had all manner of tests, tried cutting the usual suspects from my diet, tried every supplement and drug but am no nearer to finding the cause. It's very reassuring to know though that other people have similar if not identical problems. Best wishes to anyone who have suffered anything remotely like the nightmare I've been through and am still going through. Theres so much more I'd like to say but don't want to bore anyone.

Hello....I cant believe I am finally responding to this post. Ive always gone back to this for over a year now. 5 nights in a row this is happening to me which is the longest thats ever happen if I can remember. It started when I was 18....im 23 now. Over the years its come and gone. Episodes at a time for months and i have seen it subside for months at a time too with it happening occasionally. I am at a breaking point and i feel desparate. almost everything you all say is verbatim what i go through. I start to feel sleepy and sometimes fight it or give in put my phone down...every night it could be different. sometimes im picturing weird images or inbetween sleep and awake and start dreaming which freaks me out. Other nights i fall asleep for 1 minute and im jolted awake - i feel "shaky" not physically shaky but internally. sometimes its hard to explain so im glad you all might understand. its the hardest trying to explain to others who dont go through it. lately this has been happening for 4-5 hours where im trying to fight it. i close my eyes and feel that adrenaline surge like im on a roller coaster or something and my stomach does flips. i finally fall asleep around 4am when my body cant take it anymore. its a vicious cycle because i worry about the amount of hours of sleep im getting and i get nervous that exhaustion will make it even worse causing me not to sleep again. i hate this so much. please help. i have hypothyroidism but it is controlled and i take 3/4 Klonopin every night (isnt help much anymore). just recently switched from a whole to 3/4. what should i do....

update - recently i explained all this to a neurologist who had never heard of it and passed me on to a Sleep Specialist Neurologist. This doctor listened and then dismissed it as hypnogogic disorder. he told me it was not a physiological condition as I described. Instead it is just my brain tricking me...

he told me to take melatonin or benedryl and also gave me a prescription for sleeping pills. He also said to get up as soon as I feel it start to happen and read or putter until I am exhausted enough to fall asleep. Basic sleep hygiene stuff. Any medication I take is meant to be a temporary crutch until my brain resets itself he said. I am beyond frustrated because I really think IT IS physiological - i feel the adrenaline jolt in my chest, and it cant be good for me long term.

look into the vagus nerve and the gut microbiome in realation to anxiety

it it seems like I just joined this club a two months ago. it's began after I ended up in the hospital for hypertension. I have had a history of anxiety attacks but I believe those were related to hypertension as well. the medication they gave me never quite seem to get my blood pressure under control. then I started to wake at night with an odd sensation in my chest. it's finally got to the point where at night my heart constricted really tightly and there wasn't much pain or for very long. so he immediately started looking into nutrients the body needs and started taking supplements like magnesium. I also made very severe dietary changes like eliminating sugar and carbohydrates focusing on vegetables or keto approach. and that has helped in many other ways but this waking at night with a rush is still around. sometimes I wonder if all this could be related to diet somehow due to the changes I've made. when my glucose was tested it showed to be a little high showing prediabetes but that was likely a symptom of quitting carbohydrates and losing weight and the body trying to rid fat celle out of the bloodstream.

almost almost like clockwork I used to wake up at 3 every night but then after about a month that shifted to waking at midnight and 4. if I just lay there in bed it feels like the adrenaline lingers or there's odd sensations or mild uncomfortable feelings inside. I tried getting up to eat a snack to help in that seems inconclusive. one thing that does seem to work pretty well as going to another room in the house and exercising or doing yoga. medical intuitive told me that I could have some type of hypoglycemia happening which the doctors haven't confirmed. I suspect if there is some kind of mild hypoglycemia happening it could be causing the blood pressure and the issues of waking at tonight due to instability of the metabolic system. that's how I got to try and keto now which has changed some things for the better including adapting my body too cold and giving me much energy and strength.

Hi John. Very interested in your post as there are many parallels with my problems. It was in fact being told that I was pre-diabetic that started this whole thing off nearly three years ago now. I was told if I lost weight, exercised more and improved my diet I would almost certainly avoid full blown type II diabetes. So I stopped staying up all night watching DVDs and eating a load of rubbish and thats when I started with the sleep problems. I also stopped taking 60mg of codeine in the evening prescribed for back pain (had a discectomy many years ago) and have taken this dose in spells for 20 years without thinking about it much. For some reason this perfect storm of trying to change sleeping habits, eating habits and stopping some painkillers tipped me over some edge that I'm still struggling with. I've been down the exact same route with Magnesium, vitamin D and C which have all been implicated in insomnia. They do no harm except to my wallet, but I'm not convinced they have helped much.

I think metabolic syndrome which I am the poster-boy for, has much to do with this. I can't begin to fathom why, but I'm certain the doctors don't know any better either. It's all too complicated. I've spent probably half a year in total on the internet reading about metabolic syndrome, Magnesium, Lyme's disease, gut microbiome, vagus nerve tone, dysautonomia, serotonin, GABA, melatonin, Cushing's disease, apnoea, panic attacks, Lactic acid, pheochromacytomas. The list is endless. I don't do nearly as much surfing nowadays though as there are no answers, as yet and I've come to realize most articles on the internet have an axe to grind.

Eating habits and diet definitely have an effect but I really can't pin down why some nights are better than others. You're definitely doing the right thing cutting down on sugar and other bad carbs though. You prediabetes is definitely not a result of cutting down on carbs and sugar - it's the opposite. You will almost certainly be out of the "danger" zone if you lose weight (sorry if you're not overweight), exercise and stick to the keto thing. I'm no good at practicing what I preach though. I'm still prediabetic, and overweight 3 years on which is perhaps, I'm begining to think, why my sleep is awful. It is however tough to get on top of this as you get older. There is a notion that some carbs before bed can help you sleep (something to do with Tryptophan and insulin) can't remember now - I've read SO much.

I wondered too if the night time horrors were a form of hypoglycemia, but they are nothing like daytime hypos, which I've experienced quite regularly all my life. Perhaps at night the brain is more susceptible to low sugar than the rest of the body, and the sleep process is particularly sensitive to it. You would think though that you would crave food if this were the case, but eating is the last thing on my mind when I'm having a fright-night.

We also have hypertension in common, which has been a source of anxiety for decades, but that's another story. I've rambled on too long.

All the best everyone.

something else just occurred to me. this might seem very simplistic but give it a try - turn the room temperature way down to 68 or less before you go to sleep. whatever temp makes you feel a bit cold.

I have had problems with adrenaline rushes at night for many years. I did a lot of research and discovered there are three common reasons for these (aside from anxiety or pituitary issues):

1. Low blood sugar. You do not have to be diabetic to have low blood sugar at night. Try eating a cheese stick or handful of crackers right before you go to bed. If an adrenaline rush wakes you up at 3 or 4 am, eat again.
2. Beta blockers. If you have been taking beta blockers for high blood pressure and switch to something else, this can trigger adrenaline rushes. Cure: Ask you doctor for a low-dose beta blocker.
3. Long-term thyroid supplement. If your thyroid level drops too low at night, it can trigger adrenaline rushes. Try dividing your thyroid supplement in half and take half in the morning and half at bedtime.

I started experiencing the same after I stopped taking Percoset/Oxycodone. It all started a day after I stopped taking the meds with a Panic attack, Vertigo and a ear buzzing. Then I could no longer sleep, as I tried to fall asleep, I would feel the adrenaline rush and could not sleep. I've tried all, they gave me some sleeping pills which knock you out (ambien) but the longer you use them, the worse the side effects. 5 weeks later, I find my self falling asleep after 2 AM extremely sleepy, entering REM sleep with dreaming but less than may be 30 mins may be 10 mins later, I wake up startled gasping for AIR and so it continues till time to wake up feeling horrible and unrested. it feels that the same thing now doesn't allow me to stay asleep, and it is very frustrating. I was thinking that this was due to the Withdrawal of stopping the meds, but it has been 5 weeks and still experiencing the ear buzzing and the sleeping part...I am desperately looking for help because I am recovering from a back surgery and this does not let me. Pain is no longer an issue. I was given a low dose of Clonidine which makes me very drowsy, but the same thing happens, and the cycle continues...I'm hoping it stops because it it horrible.