For the past few months on a regular basis, I've been waking up in the middle of the night because I'm having a panic attack. I think it's as a result of a dream and I'm usually able to calm myself down once I'm fully awake. At 4:30 this morning, I woke up in a panic and kept thinking something about I'm going crazy and there was something else too but I don't remember it, and then for some reason I thought a spider had bitten me and I thought there were spiders crawling over me. This is by far the strangest one I've had, but the worst ones are when someone vomits in my dream. I'm am extremely afraid of vomiting, and when I wake up I can literally hear the sound of myself vomiting (I have thrown up quite a lot in the past year, which has resulted in the return of my panic disorder and agoraphobia). After the initial panic, I'm usually awake for a few hours until I fall asleep again. Another strange thing is that these vomiting panic attacks always happen at 3:30am, not every night but when they do, it's at this time.
I'm just wondering if anyone else gets these sorts of panic attacks, where you've been in a deep sleep and suddenly wake up half asleep and in a panic? Do you think there is any way to prevent them, or help when I'm really anxious after it happens?
