Glad you found your way here too. This is a great place to not feel alone.

The sleep issue you described reminds me a bit of the panic episodes that would awaken me on a regular basis back then, but I hadn't thought about them in a while. Anxiety or panic attacks still wake me up at 3:30 in the morning when other stressors are at play, but not so much the ones that make you feel like you can't breath or are paralyzed. Those really suck.

The lady who's books I mentioned above talked about morning anxiety and reasons why it can seem worse. One of her theories was that when you are asleep, you end up in a very relaxed state, so when the anxiety kicks in for any reason, the gap between where you were and the panic is greater, so it feels worse. Like if you're usually operating at a level 5, but jumps up a level 8 during the day, it's only a slight step up. But if you're sound asleep and relaxed at a level 3, when the anxiety spikes to an 8, it's a greater throw and feels extra bad. Its a theory anyway.

Is there any chance that you have something like seasonal affected disorder? Where shorter days mean less sunlight and that affects your mood? It's interesting that you seem to be able to predict the cycle.

Hope you do come out of the worst of it soon.

Just remember, there's hope and it can get better one way or another. A lot of it is just finding your own solution, which unfortunately can take a little time.