Feels Like My Heart Stops, I Jolt Awake. Extremely Terrifying

[JustBe]

Yup. I'm often jolted awake with pounding head and heart feeling anxious or panic in the night. I nap often. It feels safer.

 

[Luke]

I have had these for years. They have been referred to as "sleep starts" or hypnic jerks. Yes it feel like your heart stops, it may also feel as if you are falling (quite rapidly). You literally jerk yourself awake, & therefore everything is running at 100mph.

This happens to me more when I am extremely exhausted. It's kind of a vicious cycle. They are different but similar to myoclonic jerks, which I also have at times & take seizure medication for. Hypnic jerks are more likely to occur at the onset of sleep or REM. They can be startling & exhausting for sure.

 

[stuff]

I have these too. They are terrifying. I feel like I'm dying when I have one. Clean bill of health on my heart, but they started around the same time my day time panic attacks started to act up.

 

[Jenfa]

The ventilators, (once you can get used to them) are helpful but over time of struggling to get air, you may want to make sure that your heart has not enlarged or is causing more symptoms. (My brother is a doctor and even I had to make him do it due to how miserable he was with sleep apnoea). It also affects him during the day. He tends to just fall apart for a good hour or so, but it's getting better for him. Good luck!

 

[robcox1980]

Have you checked into Hypnic Jerks? Seems to share common denominators with what's being discussed here.

 

[Crawford_1002]

I sadly have had this since I was 14 years old. Many years I've spent trying to figure out what was wrong with me. My mother has anxiety and I believe it was passed down to me. I've also had a rough life and I'm now 23 years old.

I have however figured out a small cure for this before you go to bed. If you want to know make sure to repost so I know this is still going.

 

[travis arreguin]

I sadly have had this since I was 14 years old. Many years I've spent trying to figure out what was wrong with me. My mother has anxiety and I believe it was passed down to me. I've also had a rough life and I'm now 23 years old.

I have however figured out a small cure for this before you go to bed. If you want to know make sure to repost so I know this is still going.

Let's hear it. I have been dealing with this for about 3 years now, and it's absolutely murder. I don't know how you've been able to do it as long as you have.

 

[taylormade]

I feel so much better now that IV found this forum, I'm so relieved to know that I'm not alone, that I'm not the only one going through this almost every night. This has been going on for months now and I can only imagine how hard it is to deal with something like this for years. I never knew it could stem from my PTSD and no one I know understands what I dread and terror it is, to look at the clock at 10pm after a long day and to know that my hell is soon about to begin.

Going to bed is completely frightening. Many of nights I thought that this might be my last night, my body might just let my heart stop beating after exhaustion and the free falling jolt might not come this time.

Thank you all for posting your situations, it has REALLY helped me feel not so alone.

 

[user17231]

I don't know what it feels like in your chest but I've jerked (physically jumping in my skin) awake suddenly being completely out of breath and completely terrified, takes a long pause before I'm even aware of where I am and start breathing again. Once this happens it tends to keep repeating all night, and results in a very poor nights sleep.

Sounds like others have similar things, we're not alone.. :-)

 

[Tolkienian]

Me too. Yet another voice. I've had the jerking awake as I fall asleep, the waking up choking that some other members have described, and the waking up panicking. My doctor described what was happening to me as night terrors and recommended Progressive Muscular Relaxation. There are several very very good 15-20 minute tapes available free on Youtube, so I've used those every night for three months. It's vastly reduced the number of times a week I experience this issue (from nightly/every other night to once or twice every two weeks).

Definitely get checked out for other things, if you can, but if those come up dry, then try PMR.

 

[gaz]

I had the same problem jolting awake and hart racing & choking just before I fall asleep, but I found that with me sleeping on my left side and head on the pillow I was tending to bring my right shoulder up and nearly resting it on my cheek /chin which was compressing my main artery on the right side of my neck restricting the blood to my brain. After a while your brain will try to correct this automatically by very violently waking you from your Dose. Now I cuddle a pillow which stops my shoulder coming up to my cheek and keeping my neck and artery strait, and I have never had the problem again.

Once you are asleep your body goes onto kind of auto care and will correct this by just making you turn in your sleep. I realized this one night, as I was dossing off, the felling that comes just before the jolt and I brought my shoulder down a bit and the feeling went instantly, if your brain did not jolt you awake you could have a stroke, the jolt saves you from that danger.

 

[Cliff.P]

For me laying on my side really helps after the first one. Iam up most of the time waiting to feed my son, just relaxing an watching tv, not stressing at all or thinking for that matter. Then it happens, I nodded off an sudden Iam wide awake, heart racing, gasping for air like I forgot how too, looking for what I thought grabbed me. After that I go in to full on panic attack. I've laid on the bathroom floor many nights waiting for it to stop so I can get back in bed with out waking my wife. The last one was rough I had to wake her up just in case, I literally thought those were my last moments. An to day I got one driving the work truck like always not stressing or focussing on anything except singing with the radio an it hit me so hard an fast I almost lost control of the truck I had to pull over an get a grip before I could go on.