Startled from sleep

For almost 3 years now. I have to take clonazepam in order to sleep. No clue what causes it. I don't try to research anything anymore.....it just caused health anxiety which i never had before i started experiencing the jerks. I thought it was my heart at first and had every kind of heart studies. I had a sleep study to check for apnea and it showed I didn't have it. I gave up on drs and now I just take my .5 clonazepam every night and try not to worry. Good luck!!

I can relate. I woke up at 1am with my heart pounding and the feeling of every blood vessel in my body dilated with surging blood. The burst of energy lasted a few months and then I had the shivers. No sweating or heat. It is terribly unnerving. xo

Hi...

I have experienced this quite a few times and it is so frightening.

I can only describe it as a surge of energy and sort of like an adrelanine rush if that makes sense??

I find I get them more when I'm over tired and it wakes me usually just as I've drifted off nicely... racing heart etc... so horrible to experience.

I get them frequently, think its panic attacks, its a perimenopause symptoms. Waking up feeling your heart is stopping and you panic and feels all sorts of scared the heart is stopping. It is frightening. Been having it since starting perimenopause 5years ago. However these days its much less of the attacks.

was wondering about ur post. im going through almost same but not my heart its my head. like adreniline electric feeling. it wakes me all night..tgen i get the racing heart cuz im scared. what are u doing to get through?? i literally have stopped trying to sleep at night. doze a bit during the day. its got me drained on top of every other symptom. i been in post for over a year and im over it...be safe

Hi , i get this all the time ... its so scary , wake up with a jolt and gasp for breath ,,, its like your heart has stopped , and panic sets in ... its so awful ,,, anxiety and peri is a living nightmare xxx

hi irene. i was wondering if it was anything like weird falling sensation in ur head?? it wakes me up all night to the point i just dont sleep anymore during the night. it seems everything is worse during the night. hope u are safe god bless

Yes Jaynie, i do get that funny head sensation too & each time it scares the s**t out of me. Going to see a neurosurgeon in 2 weeks' time to rule out any medical issues. Hopefully it's just anxiety from menopause. All the best to you.

Yes Jaynie, i do get that funny head sensation too & each time it scares the s**t out of me. Going to see a neurosurgeon in 2 weeks' time to rule out any medical issues. Hopefully it's just anxiety from menopause. All the best to you.

Yes Jaynie, i do get that funny head sensation too & each time it scares the s**t out of me. Going to see a neurosurgeon in 2 weeks' time to rule out any medical issues. Hopefully it's just anxiety from menopause. All the best to you.

oh yes - this was one if the first things that started happening to me at the beginning if this whole peri-time. Like an adrenaline shot to the body in the night - being woken up like that sets off such a strong reaction, which in turn would bring on a panic attack (which I didn't realize I was having back then). It did happen for awhile, as in a couple of years, but the good news is the more I believed that it was a panic episode, the less it ruled my life...I didn't accept that it was a panic/peri-menopause symptom for a long time, hence probably why it took so long for me. I've been going through the weird and sometimes scary symptoms for many years now so I don't get those so much anymore, but I did start having a different variety of the same thing the last couple of years, where I am lying down to go to sleep and i get a strange "hiccup" feeling in my heart/breathing as I try to calmly get to sleep. It has woken me up in the night as well, much like the previous jolts...I tried to explain it to my doctor and honestly, I wonder if he thinks I'm going off my rocker with all of these "weird symptoms". I started telling myself that it's the same as before and to ride it out...and truly I get it much less often now.

Good luck - it's a terrifying feeling when it happens, but I suspect it is what many of us on this forum have experienced as well. It's always just so hard to BELIEVE that it's truly a peri symptom!!