Nocturnal Panic Attacks Part 2

Treatment of Nocturnal Panic Attacks

This is the second page about nocturnal panic attacks. You can find the first page at Nocturnal Panic Attacks.

As I mentioned on the first page, the first step is to be certain you don’t have an underlying medical problem. With night time panic attacks, making sure you don’t have a sleep disorder is very important.

Once you’re sure it’s a panic attack, you can begin treatment.

Other pages on this site talk about various aspects of treatment of panic disorders in more detail. Here I’ll cover the basics but I’ll pay most attention to aspects appropriate for night time episodes.

As I’ve mentioned, knowing that nothing is wrong physically alleviates some of the distress. Diaphragmatic breathing is another useful tool to have practiced.

Cognitive behavioral training is a very helpful treatment but takes some time to work. Still, you should be starting some long-term approach while you’re applying some of the shorter term fixes I’m about to discuss.

Night Time Specifics

Although I’m not a huge fan of sedatives in the treatment of panic attacks, I think they can be especially useful over the short term when dealing with nighttime episodes. Many people report relief taking a low dose at bedtime.

As always, one concern is developing dependency, both psychological and physical. People might begin to feel they need the sedative to sleep.

Commonly prescribed ones are Xanax and Ambien. If you want to try these, work closely with your doctor. Plan on using the lowest possible dose and also not using them for very long.

If you want to try some other approaches, here are some suggestions.

Non-Drug Options

First, follow good sleep hygiene. It would be a good idea to eliminate all caffeine and other stimulants. Don’t exercise within a few hours of going to bed. Avoid watching the evening news, which is enough to disturb anybody’s sleep.

Next you can consider using herbs and supplements to aid your sleep. These are effective and interfere with natural sleep patterns less than prescription medications.

The first I’ll suggest is valerian. This herb is the most commonly prescribed sleep aid in Europe. Most health foods stores have it available as either a capsule or a tea, and of course it’s available on line.

Another excellent supplement is tryptophan. This was banned by the FDA in the US for years because of an incident where people became ill from a batch from one overseas supplier that was contaminated. The problem was clearly caused by the contaminate, not the tryptophan, but the FDA banned it anyway.

This is an amino acid that has a sedative effect. Turkey has a lot of it so maybe that’s part of why people are so sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner.

Theanine is also high on my list of safe supplements to take as a sleep aid. 100 – 200 mg at bedtime helps most people.

You probably have heard of melatonin. I’ve seen suggested doses ranging from .3mg to 3mg or higher. If you want to try this, I’d suggest you start at a lower dose and increase it as necessary.

One thing to be aware of is that many people report having more vivid dreams when they take melatonin. This might be disturbing for someone with nighttime panic attacks.

Those are a lot of recommendations. I don’t recommend trying them all at once. Rather pick one and see how it works for you for a few nights. If it doesn’t help enough, try another for a little while.

After you’ve tried them individually, you can carefully test a combination. I’ve know people that have used melationin, valerian and theanine in combination with good results.

Now remember, I’m no doctor, so take my suggestion with a grain of salt. If you have any concerns, discuss them with your doctor. This is mantatory if you have health issues or are taking other medications.

The Permanent Treatment

As with prescription sedatives, the above herbs and supplements are only meant to help short term. The more permanent answer is to treat the underlying panic problem.

 I have other pages on how to do just that. If you want to read a review of a program I think is very helpful, follow this link to go to Panic Away Review.

Or just follow these links or follow these links to find out more about this remarkable program:

Panic Away System