Sleep panic attacks are generally scarier than their normal counterparts. During an episode, the sufferer won't know what has happened -- just that he or she woke up in the middle of the night with a rapid heartbeat, confused, anxious, sweating, and catching his or her breath. It's also possible for a person to wake up in the middle of a full-blown attack which may prove even scarier than waking up after an attack. In this case, the attack will take the form of a conventional anxiety attack. If this condition occurs frequently, the sufferer may develop a fear of sleeping altogether.
In some cases, an attack while asleep may take a different form. Symptoms such as bruxism (grinding of the teeth), head pain (different from a typical headache), and pressure in the ears may present themselves during a sleep panic attack.
A good number of people with panic disorder (a different condition defined medically as a disorder that is chronic and occurs repetitively) experience sleep panic attacks. Most of the sufferers who have had several episodes of this kind of attack develop insomnia, distorted sleeping patterns, and broken sleep. It is estimated that 70% of the population of people with panic disorder experience attacks in their sleep.
Like the meanings of dreams and nightmares, the cause of this condition is not thoroughly understood and no solid explanation is currently available. The only explanations that experts have come up with are theories, one of them being the changes in the sleep cycle. In this theory, when a person goes deeper into the sleep cycle, this process triggers an anxiety attack. Another is increased levels of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) in people with the tendency to hyperventilate. According to this theory, hypercapnia causes a panic response during sleep.
Undergoing proper medical treatment is the first step to treating this problem. A very high success rate is usually attained after the right medical interventions are administered. Psychotherapy is often enough to treat the problem. However, if the case is severe, a combination of medication and psychotherapy is employed to create the almost-perfect weapon against sleep panic attacks.
