Lately I have gone through the following sequence:
I'm lying in bed, start falling asleep, and the second I begin to fall asleep, I wake up startled, with tachycardia and palpitations (strong, slightly faster heart beating) This completely wakes me up. I try to sleep and it happens again. It's horribly disruptive and scary. Without drugs, it turns into insomnia (unless I'm completely exhausted) A small dose of benzos seem to work, and I do use that, or Ambien sometimes. But I'd like to understand what's going on. It seems like norepinephrine surge to me, as it's similar to a fear response.
Granted, I've been exceptionally stressed lately, so I'm fairly sure that's the main culprit. Still, I'd like to understand possible mechanisms and hopefully, supplements to counteract it.
I've searched and I found hypnic jerks, to be fairly similar, albeit in my case its not accompanied by any distinguishable sensation of falling and most of the times, no twitch either. Seems to be mostly the physiological fear reaction, (reason why I'm contemplating using beta-blockers, although I'd rather work with supplements only)
I'll be trying:
-less or no caffeine (although I don't drink it after 4pm)
-more magnesium
-more potassium
-ashwagandha
-zinc at night (i usually take it in the morning)
Still, I wonder if anybody else has experienced this, and ideas around why it happens.
Thank you
Edited by panhedonic, 04 December 2014 - 08:02 AM.