After Covid more and more people are noticing nighttime panic-attacks, including this author. Green Prophet looks at some natural solutions to help you cope. 

Having a panic attack is an extremely unpleasant experience for anyone, but, this can be even more frightening for a person who experiences it at nighttime. Nighttime anxiety can manifest itself in several different ways, some including the occurrence of nocturnal panic attacks which can over time begin to disrupt your normal sleep patterns. As a result, one feels tired and sleepy throughout the day.

Causes of Nighttime Anxiety

Expert researchers have done studies and have discovered factors that can contribute to nighttime anxiety, such as:

• Genetics. Which means a history of parental anxiety or family history of this condition.
• Tension and stress due to life circumstances.
• Previous life events that have caused trauma.
• A mental or emotional disorder such as depression.

Natural Ways of Treating the Condition

Any person that has this condition can cure nocturnal panic attacks in natural ways. Let’s discuss how this is done.

Stay Active

Exercising regularly not only has a positive effect on your physical health – but also helps you mentally.

Doing cardiovascular exercises and lifting weights can help a lot to boost anti-anxiety neurochemicals such as:

• Serotonin
• Gamma-aminobutyric acid
• Brain-derived neurotrophic factor

Stop Drinking Alcohol

Researchers have shown that there exists a clear connection between anxiety and alcohol drinking.

Drinking in excess and consistently can start to interfere with neurotransmitters. This results in an imbalance – leading to anxiety.

Alcohol also interferes with the body’s natural ability to put itself to sleep. This way, heavy alcohol drinking can become a cause of nighttime anxiety. It’s important to moderate the usage of alcohol.

Quit Smoking

Smokers often say that they smoke when they are under stress. But in reality, the state of anxiety only gets worse as a person smokes cigarettes.

Scientists have shown that the patients with nighttime anxiety included many of those who started smoking at an early age. The chemicals, including nicotine that are used in the making of cigarettes, are responsible for altering brain functions and causing anxiety.

Slow Down and Take Deep Breaths

Whenever in a state of stress, a person’s breath feels heavy, and their heartbeat increases. It’s therefore important to do deep breathing exercises. To do this, take a moment to slow down and really focus on the in and out of your breathing.

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is a way of healing that has been used by humans for centuries.

The goal is to heal the mind, body, and spirit. 

It’s important to note that for aromatherapy, natural extracts of certain plants are used. These extracts are infused in essential oil to use for aromatherapy.

A lot of patients who have nighttime anxiety have seen improvements from aromatherapy.

The ways to do aromatherapy broadly are:

• Inhaling directly
• Add the oil to a warm bath
• Add the extract to a diffuser

Drinking Chamomile Tea

Another natural remedy to cure nocturnal panic attacks at night is to drink chamomile tea. It’s an effective solution for promoting healthy sleep.

In a scientific study conducted on rats, extracts of chamomile helped rats to go to sleep and improve their quality of sleep.

Maintain Healthy Diet

Diet matters a lot when it comes to setting the mental, physical and emotional health right.

A bad diet causes a lot of damage to health and it directly contributes to stress and anxiety.

Today, more than 70% of the foods we see in grocery stores are processed. Processed foods have artificial flavors, chemicals, and preservatives in them that have a direct effect on mood.

Processed foods result in:

• Dehydration
• Low blood sugar levels
• Adverse chemical effects on health
• Loss of temperament
• Mood swings 
• High levels of anxiety

If you notice that whenever you eat processed foods, your anxiety is increased – then know that your diet is becoming a problem.

What you need to do instead is:

• Keep yourself well-hydrated by drinking 7-8 glasses of water.
• Avoid all processed foods whenever possible.
• Eat a good diet that is rich in nutrients.

Incorporate Meditation

Meditation brings you to a state of being present in the current moment. By meditating regularly, you make your mind and body calm and content.

This way, most of the negative thoughts that cause stress and anxiety can be made to go away.

Mindfulness and meditation are known to be powerful methods of coping with nighttime anxiety disorder.