Nocturnal panic attacks are much more difficult to diagnose than regular panic attacks due to the fact that they often get confused with bad dreams. There are plenty of folks who are troubled with nocturnal panic attacks and are completely oblivious of it. Except of course for the symptoms that they fail to recognize.

Typically, nocturnal panic attacks do not occur any time after nightfall. People go to sleep feeling perfectly all right, they probably never have panic attacks during the day, and fully ready to face the next day. Somewhere in their period of sleep, something is triggered in their minds and they wake up completely frightened, sweating, and breathing hard. That sitting bolt upright from a deep sleep is the prime evidence of nocturnal panic attacks. Notice that the symptoms are not that different from daytime panic attacks like shortness of breath, sweating, palpitation, and fear.

Nocturnal panic attacks are as random as their daytime counterparts are, they just seem to happen for no reason at all and there is precious little that can be done to avoid them because the victim is fast asleep when they happen. As mentioned earlier, you must not confuse nocturnal panic attacks with dreams, as the two are completely unrelated. It is practically impossible for people who suffer from nocturnal panic attacks to even remember what they were dreaming about. The condition of their terror wipes that information clean out of their minds.

One of the major reasons for nocturnal panic attacks is sleep apnea and it affects many people who suffer from that sleeping disorder. Sleep apnea causes the heart rate to increase and this in turn increases the blood flow. Such high blood activity during sleep leads to unconscious anxiety and finally the whole situation explodes into nocturnal panic attacks. You might even say that nocturnal panic attacks are relief mechanisms for people who suffer from sleep apnea.

It is common for people with nocturnal panic attacks to suffer some during the day but this is not necessary. Similarly, people who are prone to panic attacks in daytime are at a higher risk of experiencing nocturnal panic attacks. Whichever way you look at it, of all the panic attacks that do take place, only about 10% happen at night. People often wrongly mistake the condition of their heart during nocturnal panic attacks as a symptom of some heart trouble.

An easy way of avoiding nocturnal panic attacks is to thoroughly examine your diet, especially what is your last meal of the day. Your diet determines to quite an extent what kind of sleep you will enjoy. A deep sleep means low risk of nocturnal panic attacks. The biggest culprits in the form of diet are caffeine during waking hours and alcohol after noon. Lower the consumption of both these consumables if you are taking a high quantity of them. Sweets, including artificial sweeteners, are another factor to consider when planning your diet to cope with nocturnal panic attacks.