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Waking up in the middle of the night petrified?

boo85

Senior Member
Messages
178
Last night was probably one of the worst nights ever. I feel asleep at about 9:45pm and for the next hour and a half I felt the familiar cape-like tingling, delirium (I thought I must have been dragged out of my bed by someone else and put back there), headache, and absolutely fear that something bad was going to happen.

I was having trouble talking myself out of this anxiety (to put it lightly), when I can usually calm myself down. So I put on the light for the rest of the night (11pm onwards) and was able to get to sleep even though I was still anxious. I feel fine now that it's the day, just a bit tired, as well as a bit wired and anxious.

Has this happened to anyone else before? Getting mental symptoms when trying to sleep?

I feel fine during the day, but sometimes at night I just absolutely out of my mind and petrified...

I'm still taking B12, about 200mcg MF and 500mcg methylB12 every second or third day.

But I'm thinking this could also be B6 withdrawal or toxicity symptoms...

I'm just sick of being sick....
 

Victronix

Senior Member
Messages
418
Location
California
That's classic low potassium for me -- instantly wide awake, sweating, heart pounding (not always, but often), mild headache, extremities numbish/cold, and totally paranoid and focused on every imaginable negative thought. Usually that's the giveaway - paranoia. Potassium tanks for me if I don't eat enough food during the day, skip my magnesium/calcium accidentally or have a large amount of stress or exercise. It can happen even if I've had juice, coconut water and a banana during the day.

My B6 toxicity symptoms did include severe anxiety, but it came on suddenly in the middle of the day, or the morning, and left suddenly, and that's very different from potassium deficiency, which is much more likely to happen at night, probably for several reasons, one being that you go for hours without any potassium input from food.

It happened to me this weekend while on a trip. I had to get up and eat an entire banana, drink the rest of the coconut water and a bunch of orange juice . . . at 3 am. Then I slept like a rock and was fine in the morning.
 

alice111

Senior Member
Messages
397
Location
Canada
@Victronix How do you take your potassium? And how much?

You refer to magnesium and calcium how much of this do you take?

Also what do you mean by b6toxicity?

Thanks!
 

Victronix

Senior Member
Messages
418
Location
California
At this point I really only need food potassium, which I generally get with coconut water and bananas. Of the times when I've needed more than that I took potassium gluconate powder, mixed in orange juice and water -- http://www.iherb.com/now-foods-potassium-gluconate-100-pure-powder-1-lb-454-g/13939

I take typical multi-minerals (Jarrow's Bone-up and Mineral Balance) and then add in combinations of Cal/mag. The main one is a 2:1 ratio, Bluebonnet Chelated Calcium Magnesium (http://www.iherb.com/Bluebonnet-Nutrition-Chelated-Calcium-Magnesium-120-Caplets/13799) that it has minerals made by Albion (http://www.albionminerals.com/human-nutrition/products-trade/traacs), which makes it much less likely to affect my gut, I've found. Then I have about 1/3 of a capsule of 1:1 ratio, also using Albion, and for that one I take Solgar Chelated Calcium Magnesium 1:1 (http://www.iherb.com/Solgar-Chelated-Calcium-Magnesium-1-1-240-Tablets/15220). Unfortunately I can no longer find it in 120 tablets, only 240.

B6 toxicity, for me, was when I had a strong reaction to taking too much B6. I had taken it for many years but ended up using a B-multi that had too much of it and didn't realize until I had a lot of symptoms, like intense anxiety and muscle pains, and then within a day of stopping it, the symptoms all reduced in 1/2, and then were gone. I got my B6 tested at that time and it was at the top of the range.
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
Has this happened to anyone else before? Getting mental symptoms when trying to sleep?

I are getting mental symptoms when falling asleep and during sleep waking me up (wake up in like a shock, feeling nauseus due to my dream distress and covered in sweat at times).. with the feeling like something bad is going to happen to me (a fear I carry during the day too due to lack of support).

Im having nightmares over been left to die without support, nightmares of dead bodies, nightmares of the medical professions or professionals eg states disability service who have treated me terribly and nightmares of hospitals/ambulances etc.

Last night dream was of being in a hospital with lots of others like myself who had been detained by force, the night before it was of people carrying dead bodies hanging over their shoulders

I think the bad treatment of others towards ME/CFS has really got to me. I feel traumatised by the whole thing and I cant even get away from it in my sleep.
 

boo85

Senior Member
Messages
178
@taniaaust1

Sorry to hear of what you've been going through. It's so scary, isn't it?

What dose of B12 and folate are you taking right now?

My guess is that for me, it's either too much B12 and folate that it overdrives my anxiety.

Or it's too little B12 that it causes depression and mental illness.

Or it's the B6 trying to work its way out of my body.

Or it's low potassium due to the B12 using it up at night, trying to heal the body during sleep.

Do you take potassium during that day? How much?
 

Victronix

Senior Member
Messages
418
Location
California
When I was taking methylfolate I required a huge amount of potassium from the powder, several times a day and even in the middle of the night. I finally stopped taking it because of that.

Now, taking just B-12, I only need to eat a banana during the day and have like a half bottle of coconut water, usually just before bed.
 

Victronix

Senior Member
Messages
418
Location
California
I take Enzymatic Therapy B-12 Infusion (methyl), about 5500 over the course of the day, and also 2000 of Highlander Triple, which now has a different name, I'm forgetting what (methyl, adeno and hydroxy).
 

garyfritz

Senior Member
Messages
599
I don't have the kind of nasty terrors you guys are describing, but before I got my symptoms under control I would spend 3-5 hours every night with muscles twitching out of control, escalating to thrashing all over the bed. While that was going on I would have semi-conscious nightmarish agitation. No fun, but no panic or dreams of dead bodies!