Hello! Recently I have had problems with health-related anxiety (palpitations/menopause symptoms/gastro problems) and I have some strange bouts of heart racing upon awakening sometimes, almost like I have had an anxiety/panic attack in my sleep! Is this possible? If so, why does it happen? It is so strange and scary! Thanks!

Indeed it can and does -for me at least. I get bouts of nocturnal panic attacks (awakening with racing heart, scared, shaky, etc.) if I forget to take Xanax before bed around and during my period. I have read that during the day we can control anxiety/panic but not when asleep. generally speaking, autonomic system is overstimulated due to hormonal changes and it goes out of cotnrol, both day and night. But same event does not scare you much when you are awake. Also, bad dreams have the same effect on me, but mostly I think it is due to estrogen fluctuations.
HTH

Hi bluewillow,

Yes, it is possible. Palps come out of nowhere. I had a lot of trouble with them before taking estrogen. also I take calcium & magnesium & various herbs. Magnesium really helps. I take a product called Natural Calm. It's a powder you stir up in very hot water. I take it a few times a week before bed. If you can't find it at the health food store, you can find it easily on line. Cost is about the same if you count the cost of postage.

Bluewillow,

Anxiety goes in and out for me, but during the stretches of time when it's present, it's ALWAYS worse at night. Not much fun, and needless to say, not much sleeping.

JJ

This was and thankfully now rarely is the meno symptom that upset me the most. I would wake at least 3 times a week with what felt like to me, surges of adrenaline rushing through my body. My heart would race and of course I would throw myself into a fullblown panic attack. I've actually had these throughout peri (about 8 years) but more so in the past year. I also found that they sometimes occurred simutaneously with a hot flash. If I fanned myself when the feeling first started, I could usually stop the panic attack. I don't know if it was because my mind was on the fanning or if the air movement stopped the feeling but it worked.

Wow, bad spelling - that would be simultaneously

Oh gawd, do I know these symptoms intimately. I'm getting to the point where it's becoming an annoying PIA. I used to get so scared, shakey and disorientated every time it happenned. Now I'm becoming pi**ed because my precious sleep is being disrupted. The other night I had to lie down with my feet against the wall and push like I was having a baby. This stops the racing palps right away.

The first panic attacks I had were at night. Scared the heck out of me. I didn't know much about peri then and wish I still didn't.

A lot of people say their anxiety and panic attacks seem to be related to hot flashes, but I rarely have hot flashes with mine. Mine seem to be much more related to migraines.

Mornings have become my worst time for panic, anxiety, depression, and migraines, but I still get some attacks at night. They don't scare me any more, they just make me miserable and angry.

I take magnesium daily, and if I've had a bad day with anxiety, I'll take half a Xanax at night to try and prevent the night time attacks.

Good luck!

My anxiety started during the night also. And definately can peak on waking in the morning - such a pain. The magnesium definately helps!

Ladies, I was just wondering how much magnesium you take. I take 200 mg in the morning and 200 mg in the evening, but I still have terrible anxiety/palps. Mine are usually when I first wake up in the morning, its like a surge of adrenaline. I get all shaky and panicky, but sometimes late in the afternoon I'll have a spell of it, too. Someone else suggested to me this could be low blood sugar, too, so I've printed me off a diet to control that. But if you dont mind letting me know how much magnesium you take, I'd appreciate it.

Lynchmob, I have been taking the same amount of magnesium as you but it has unfortunately, at least for me, never helped. I also have gotten these surges at other times of the day and have had to fight the panic that arises from them. You should get tested for low blood sugar, I was but these came back fine. I really believe that this is hormonal and mine have become less as I am moving towards the end (at least I hope) of this rollercoaster ride. The diet sounds great because healthier eating can only help.

Lynch, that surge is the worst. I've described it to different medical people an no one knows what it is. I don't see how they could not, especially the gynos, since the sufferers all describe it, independently, the same way.

I take magnesium that is with my calcium/vitamin D pill. I guess that's about 100 mg a day. so, not much.

But several times a week (sometimes less now) I take a heaping teaspoon of Natural Calm mag. citrate powder in hot water.

Do you know I have no idea how much I take!!! A tablet once a day!!!! Will try and remember to check when I get home and get back on this forum tommorrow if I get chance!!!

I take 2 magnesium tabs a day - one in the morning after a piece of toast, and another after dinner/supper. I also take 2 vit. B6 tabs at the same times. (ends up being 500mg of mag - 100mg B6).

I also use progesterone cream up to twice a day - (a dab in the morning or afternoon - if I feel anxious) and another larger dab right before bed after my bath.

Throughout the day you can also try calming teas...I use peppermint alot because it helps calm my tummy down.

When my palpitations were at their worst two calcium/magnesium tablets were not enough; I had to take AT LEAST twice that amount to make my palpitations go away. In my book “The Miracle of Magnesium” by Carolyn Dean she recommends 600-900 mg of magnesium/day. For example on page 71 she recommends 300 mg of magnesium two to three times a day for Migraine treatment.

An extra dose or two of calcium/magnesium almost always helps my palpitations but one time I had palpitations and neck spasms for several days and the extra magnesium did not help. I decided to try a dose of “No Salt” potassium salt; just about ¼ teaspoon taken with a cup of water. The extra potassium eliminated my muscle spasms and palpitations in less than an hour. You can by the No Salt at some grocery stores (like Safeway) in the spice isle. You can also buy ½ sodium ½ potassium “lite salt” in the spice isle as well. Switching from white table salt to a good grey sea salt may also be helpful to get extra helpful minerals.

Kathy

Thank you all for your responses. I had thought about increasing my nighttime dose to 400 mg. That would be a total of 600 mg for the day. I didnt want to take too much but I've been wanting to see if an increase at night might help me relax for sleep more and maybe I would be awakened less often in a full-blown anxiety attack along with its accompanying palps. (sigh!)

Lynch - checked my magnesium tabs and I'm only taking 133 mg a day - weird. We all have different needs and are in different stage of meno so I suppose this is just suiting me at the moment.

Well, last night I took 400 mg magnesium and I ate some cheese before I went to bed. Now I know I need to try this several times before I attribute my success to this, but I did not wake up with a panic attack and I was not quite as jittery as I usually am first thing in the morning. So I will definitely try this again tonight and see if that's the reason for my success!

Wow thanks everyone for the great responses to my post! The weird thing now that I am experiencing with the pounding heart is this: when I finally get settled down in my bed and relaxed and I try to go back to sleep, and I am almost there, and then I decide to just shift my body position, and the pounding starts up again!! Does anyone have an explanation for that, PLEASE and does it happen to anyone else??? I'm so desperate for a peaceful night's sleep and to feel good again!!!

Yes, this happened to me. Sometimes raising up on the pillows helped.

Watch out for any drugs you may be taking, some have palpitations as a side effect -- including the anti-anxiety drugs.

Regarding magnesium dosing—Dr. Reiss in “Natural Hormone Balance for Women” page 153 suggests taking 1-4 200mg magnesium glycinate capsules twice a day, “Use as much as tolerable” without getting a strong sedative effect and diarrhea. He suggests magnesium glycinate because it is less likely to cause diarrhea compared to magnesium oxide. This dosing is for his anti-PMS supplement program. So according to Dr. Reiss, 400-1600 mg/day of magnesium is his suggested dose.

I know that when I was having horrible palpitations it took quite a bit of magnesium to get rid of my palpitations. I do not know if I took 1600 mg/day but I could have. Now that I have built up my magnesium level I do not need so much. I have had plenty of occasions where I had very loose stools in the morning because I took extra magnesium at night but dealing with the loose stools was always easier than having palpitations. I have some new magnesium glycinate power that I am trying from beyond-a-century.com to see if I have better bowel tolerance than with magnesium citrate but I have not used it long enough to be able to tell if I think it is better. One thing that I have found very helpful for the loose stool problem with magnesium is taking fiber like psyllium husk power along with my magnesium. Apparently magnesium keeps water in the bowel and the psyllium binds with the extra water to help eliminate loose stools.

Kathy