Night Terrors or panic attacks?

I have this reoccuring problem where I will wake up with an immense fear of something for no reason or reasons unknown. Usually it is something that will make me fear for my life. Like, I may fear going under a light fixure of some sort, expecting it to fall on my head and kill me. Or I will think or even see huge bugs that are crawling on me with the intent to bite me or something. Or some other strange reason. Other times I will think I hear someone coming for me with the intent to hurt or kill me so I will quickly lock my door.

Sometimes I will not hallucinate when having these fears, but other times I will have visual hallucinations such as the bugs, or have a feeling that they are there. Or I will hear something that isn't there. I may hear something breaking or someone moving around, thinking they are coming for me. Recently, I woke up thinking the standing lamp next to my bed was about to set off an electrical explosion. I woke up to the sight of a beam of blue light pointing towards me followed by a loud bang and a flash of electricity, and I quickly rolled over and ducked for cover, thinking it would kill me. There was no storm so I knew that was not the case. Don't know how or why that happened or how I could have hallucinated like that.

Usually after a few seconds, I will realize none of it is real and actually come to my senses soon afterward and usually fall back asleep after awhile. I don't know why these things happen but they do. Sometimes I will hear people talking, and a couple times, thought I heard someone crying in my room even though no one was there. And these things happen right when I am waking up so I don't really know if they are some part of a night terror or if I am still somehow dreaming while awake.

These don't happen all the time, but they do happen enough to get annoying after awhile. It always seems silly afterwards since there is never a real threat or danger present, but for some reason, I will sometimes wake up with a very intense sense of fear. Sometimes it lingers for awhile and other times it goes away pretty quickly. Would you consider these types of events night terrors or some other night time panic disorder or just simply having sleep and wakefulness blurred? I don't sleep very well either to begin with and also have mild sleep apnea so I am not sure if that contributes to it as well.

Hello rdgrad15: Honestly, I don't have a clue what this might be. But I saw no one had replied to your post. So I thought I would. I used to have sleep paralysis where I would wake up & be unable to move or make any kind of sound whatsoever. It was terrifying! For many years, I didn't know what it was about. So I just tolerated it.

It's been quite a few years now since I've had one of these events... thankfully. I do wake up in the middle of the night quite frequently nowadays feeling an amorphous sense of paranoia... just a general feeling of fear & vulnerability. I presume it has something to do with hormone levels in my brain.

Same here, I actually have sleep paralysis too, it is really just when your brain wakes you up faster than your body so at least there is an explaination for that but yeah is is still scary at times. It isn't very frequent for me but yeah I understand the feelings.

Had sleep test done, nothing, experiencing similar things with auditory hallucinations, sometimes upon awakening and sometimes episodically. I have no idea either but it happens to me every night without fail. I hope for you that it does not increase in frequency (it did for me, sadly) or severity (I almost jumped out my 2-story window onto pavement one night -- thought someone was in the house, was not comforted when two hours later I searched for them and found nothing). It is happening in the day and with balance, too, for me (earthquake feeling). So not just upon waking anymore. It is very scary at the moment, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I am so sorry you are having this happen. I hope to any powers that be that it does not get worse for you. I am at the end of my rope.

The first thing my psychiatrist suggested when I went in was a sleep study. I had one of those about a year ago, fine. I cannot do sleep studies every nine months. Good grief. They already think I have morgellons.

For you, since they are only at night, I would ask about a sleep study referral. That seems to be what people initially suggest, from my experience with a thyroid doctor and also with a psychiatrist. If you are on any new meds then make sure they know about this. If you are not having any kind of life-encapsulating thoughts like that the world works in certain magical/secret ways then it is probably not schizophrenia, which would be wonderful. But still.

ETA: This new thing I have sounds nothing like sleep paralysis. I can move. I have had sleep paralysis before, sans the fear, and just felt like, "well, I guess I'm dead. Oh well." I know that's not the norm for sleep paralysis, but it was always upon awakening. This is different. I do not think yours sounds like sleep paralysis entirely -- maybe a combination, but not entirely.

Yeah I did have one sleep study and that's where I got the sleep apnea diagnosis. But I have thought about getting another one. Yeah my experiences aren't as bad, but they usually cause me to jolt awake, and during the time when I thought an electrical explosion was taking place in my room, I actually did duck down by my bed for cover, thinking I was about to die. I'm sorry you have to go through that, I hope it gets better for you.

I definitely don't have schizophrenia, I think it is just the result of sleep apnea and other weird auditorial and visual hallucinations. They always have been bad for me ever since I was a kid. I always had very bad dreams with vivid hallucinations when waking up, such as people standing in my room. Although hallucinating people in my room has disappeared, I usually still wake up with impending doom And yeah I have had sleep paralysis too, I know what that is like. I hope you are able to find a cure as well.