Do you ever feel that your daily schedule is too hectic? Or is this schedule disturbing your mental peace somehow all throughout the day? If yes, then it is not strange to hear that this schedule can also disturb your peaceful sleep. The medical term is ‘panic attack’.

Sleep panic attack is basically an extended version of the disease panic attack. Though the number of cases of sleep panic attack is quite low, it shouldn’t be taken too lightly.

The symptoms a patient generally faces are almost similar to that of the panic attack. Uneasiness like sudden rise of anxiety level, fear, gastric irritation, insomnia, feeling of insecurity etc is seen. Even hearing the name of sleep sometimes becomes a nightmare to the patient. This is because of the inherent fear that the attack might take place during sleep.

Panic attack is often confused with bad dreams. But there is a major difference between these two. Dream is a state of REM phase of sleep while sleep panic attack generally takes place during the primary phases of sleep. The exact cause behind this attack is still not clear to the scientists. But a lot of reasons may work behind it. The strongest reason may be the increase of carbon dioxide level in blood. It is assumed that this increased carbon dioxide level triggers a false suffocation alarm causing some uneasiness in our body such as breathing difficulty, increased heart beat, resulting in the sleep panic attack. Some other reasons are alcohol abuse, consequences of the stressful incidents of daytime, stress, depression etc.

Sleep panic attacks are often mistaken as sleep apnea or cardiac arrest. This misconception often leads to an unwanted scary situation. Sleep apnea and sleep panic attack are completely different. Still they are often linked up because of similarity of the signs and symptoms of these two.

Now where the question of curability comes forward, doctors give a very positive answer to this. A number of ways are there to fight against sleep panic attack. Benzodiazepines, Beta blockers, Tricyclic antidepressants, Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssris), Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (maois), and Anticonvulsants are some of the drugs that are generally used.

One can come out of this disease by practicing a healthier life style along with theses medicines. As we know, key to the healthier life is nothing but the art of living, i.e. through yoga and meditation one can easily return back to normal life where no sleep panic attack scares our peaceful sleep.

The distinct and sudden interval of physiological arousal, fear, acute anxiety, stomach problems, apprehensions and general discomfort are referred to as panic attacks. These attacks are abrupt in nature and may affect anyone without obvious reasons. Preventing panic attacks are thus extremely important. Panic attacks usually affect a person for around thirty minutes and may also occur in short bouts of fifteen to ten minutes. It may also manifest for a longer period, even for hours. Panic attacks are generally accompanied along with several related disorders and depression if the sufferer is unable to cope up with the situation.

Panic attacks affect a person due to a perceived or actual threat. They may also occur out of context sometimes. In medical terms, panic attacks refer to the secretion of particular hormones within the body, warning it of an impending danger. On any account a panic attack must be avoided as it can disable your professional as well as personal life severely. Recently a number of options have opened up to treat such attacks but as prevention is better than medication, try to avoid it.

Here is a list of some ways by which panic attacks can be effectively prevented:

1. Meditation and yoga
Meditation and yoga are excellent methods to reduce the levels of stress, which is a major agent triggering panic attacks. Meditation and yoga helps to relax the brain and are thus quiet helpful to prevent panic attacks.

2. Self belief
A vital role is played by self belief in preventing such attacks. The increase in the level of self belief reduces the probability of panic attacks. Increase the belief within you that you can handle any type of situation. For this purpose you can do several simple tasks, for e.g. getting a specific high score while playing video games, or controlling yourself by consuming lesser number of cigarettes per day. Doing them would increase your self belief and would inject sense of confidence within you. Gradually, you may increase the difficulty and number of such tasks. An important point to remember is that you should not try to attempt unrealistic tasks. Slow and steady always wins the race.

3. Regular exercise
Exercising regularly not only develops your physical health, it develops your mental condition as well. It makes you feel good and also refreshes you. In addition, the good physique you get would also increase your self belief.

As you can see, there are several methods to prevent a panic attack and gradually you would figure out new methods to prevent them.