Brain awakens me before I fall asleep
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hello everyone I am a 20 year old male and I suffer from hypochondria and anxiety so bare with me on this one. However on most nights when I try to go to sleep I have this weird occurance where I am falling asleep and my eyes are closed then my brain and shoulder area have this weird sensation and it's kind of like my brain ticks me awake. My body doesnt move/heart doesnt race or anything it's just my brain kind of zaps me awake every few minutes when I close my eyes. This doesn't occur every night but it has been happening more frequently. I was never able to find anything on this because everywhere I read it says hypnic jerk or myclonus but those involve limb movement unlike my issue. Mine is just my brain that zaps me awake with no body movement whatsoever. I have gotten checked by many doctors including neurologists and even a brain MRI (for other reasons due to my hypochondria) which came clean however this sleep disturbance is really scaring me because it makes me think this is due to something sinister when it can just be something benign yet I don't know because I have never heard of anyone with this symptom. It's been so hard to sleep because the more it happens the more my mind expects it to happen when I try to sleep so it happens a lot more. Anyone with a similar experience or know if this is called something so I can look into it? Thanks.
0 likes, 4 replies
lily65668 mike75777
Posted
You've hit the nail on the head, Mike - the more it happens the more your mind expects it to happen, so it becomes a vicious circle.
It's not a sign of anything sinister, especially if your MRI was OK (I'm a former neuro nurse, btw) but rather a symptom of anxiety. You need to break the cycle somehow or other, either with sleep or anti-anxiety meds - neither of which I'd personally recommend - or with short-term use of OTC medications. Old-style antihistamines can help - e.g. promethazine (Phenergan), chlorphenamine (Piriton) or diphenhydramine (Benadryl). All trade names, capitalised, are those used in Europe, I don't know about the US. But these should only be used for a few nights at a time, just enough to break the cycle of anxiety. If you take them every night you'll develop tolerance to them, just as you would to sleeping pills, and they'll stop working.
You should also implement all the usual sleep hygiene measures - adequate physical exercise, but not too late in the evening, avoiding stimulants like caffeine or recreational drugs in the evening, stopping use of all screen-related gadgets an hour before bedtime etc. And don't keep your phone switched on beside your bed.
You'll probably get this on and off for the rest of your life, but you'll be fine if you can keep your anxiety levels under some sort of control and use medication of some kind for just a few nights at a time to break the fear cycle when you need to.
mike75777 lily65668
Posted
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. I really appreciate it! Its apparent the how bad the anxiety is becoming in my life and I need to figure out a way to cut it out and tell myself that I am OK because it does because a vicious cycle just like you said! I will look into my options. Once again thank you for the advice !
lily65668 mike75777
Posted
Have you tried addressing your anxiety with professional help? I'm not really in favour of medication for this kind of problem, but CBT or the more recent DBT can often be helpful, particularly in cases where the patient realises that anxiety is the problem and can really work with the therapist. I hope you'll soon be feeling better.
mike75777 lily65668
Posted
I will be visiting a therapist for the first time in my life. I have it scheduled for this month. My neuro told me that he really thinks I should take medication to balance out the chemicals in my brain or something like that. I am also skeptical about taking meds because I don't want it to turn me into a zombie. Back in January I had a nasty scare and my body started to feel a lot of symptoms and the main one was muscle twitching. Everywhere in my body began to twitch and I feared I had the worst. I had gotten an MRI and EMG clear but my mind still thinks it's always something like cancer or a disease. Like for example my eyes start to have problems throughout the day like I THINK I am seeing things vibrate or actually get blurry but my optometrist said my eyes were healthy and I just had dry eyes. Even though she told me this I still fear the worst things and I always go into panic over something that can be very minor and then forget about it later on when a new symptom arises. Because of this prolonged stress I developed many real stress related issues such as IBS and BFS etc... If I ever feel pain in my head I assume its cancer or something killing me. My problem is that I try to always go on the internet for assurance but end up making it worse..Now Im suffering from an array of symptoms from muscle twitching and myclonus to other weird (hopefully) anxiety related symptoms.