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I cannot get past the heart racing and palpitations when I get into bed. Doctor wants me to take Cymbalta. I do not want that. Suggestions for my anxiety issues.
So what’s scary about getting into bed?
Everyone expects to sleep every night for the rest of their life. So are you going to spend the rest of your life worrying about sleep every night when you go to bed? Is this practical or even rational? What is really there to be scared of?
It sounds as though you’ve discovered you cannot control your heart function — and that makes sense! So, perhaps what might be making this difficult stuff more difficult are any ongoing attempts to control what cannot be controlled (especially if those attempts take you down the path of doing things that don’t reflect who you are, who you want to be, or the life you want to live).
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The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
My anxiety started after a stretch of insomnia. I’m not afraid of getting into bed, just having to deal with the heart palpitations that keep me from relaxing. If I do Getto sleep I sometimes wake up with my heart racing. I’ve just never had to deal with anything like this before,
Yes, it’s difficult — no doubt about it! How do you currently respond to those heart palpitations and how workable is that response proving to be?
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
I try to do deep breathing, helps a little. Mostly I just try to get into a comfortable position where they bother me the least. Sometimes I get up and move to a different room and sit up.
I am experiencing the same thing. The anxiety has seemed to cause the heart palpitations and that has caused my insomnia to get worse. Would love to know what to do (if anything) about it.
Sometimes the breathing just does not quell the anxiety. Perhaps you can get up, and do some exercises that move large muscles. It seems that’s where anxiety “lives:” shoulders, neck, thighs, abdomen.
Understand the root cause of this anxiety. What is it really all about?? Is it logical or reasonable to be fearing something that you expect to do every night for the rest of your life? Try to learn to live with this fear and really see what this is all about, or you will just keep fearing it and hating your bed, for no apparent good reason except to escape the heart palpitations or whatever physical manifestations of your fear are. Sleep will still happen regardless of all this, because it occurs independently of what’s going on, just like eating and breathing. It just means you will live in fear and anxiety needlessly for god knows how long until you truly understand what’s going on and that what you are fearing has absolutely no rational basis. Good luck to you.
Last night I woke up at 2:00 am and my heart was racing like crazy. I tried to stay in bed but couldn’t. So I took my blood pressure around 3:30 and it was quite elevated…..not dangerous but definitely high for me. It was still somewhat elevated this morning but better. I am getting the Holter heart monitor today so hopefully I can find out if it’s a medical problem or all anxiety. Doctor wants me on Cymbalta but I have been fighting not to do that. I have a lot of trouble doing breathing exercises or meditations when it’s that bad. Scary stuff.
If you have an underlying health issue that’s causing your heart palpitations, then it makes sense to talk to your doctor to find out what’s going on. Or if this is just a anxiety issue, which is purely a mental condition, which is triggered upon waking up, then you need to do some serious mind work. Trying to escape what keeps you awake at night when you awaken is not going to get you anywhere. Because these episodes will keep happening and they will keep re-triggering the same symptoms. Sleep isn’t the problem here, because it is natural and you can never lose it, it is your preconditioned fear because you are indoctrinated into thinking that waking up is bad, poor sleep is horrible and being scared is abnormal and all these symptoms, while uncomfortable, must be avoided at all cost. This is where the issue lies. You keep trying to escape it while not defining why it is so frightening in the first place. What is so scary about waking up? So what if you wake up in the middle of the night? It is common and just about everyone gets it. But normal people don’t see them as scary and quickly fall back asleep. Insomnia is almost always never about the inability to sleep, it is really the struggle with wakefulness. People who recover don’t necessarily sleep a lot better, it just means they have abandoned the struggle with it by accepting what’s going on is normal, that being afraid after a traumatic event because you have no clue what’s going on is normal and that it’s okay to feel stressed but as long as you acknowledge what’s happening, and not try to relax it all away by doing all kinds of things, people will normally get desensitized over time. And then they eventually recover because there was nothing to fear in the first place. Good luck to you.
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