You lie in your bed consciously awake yet paralyzed and not able to breathe.
Your heart is pounding rapidly and you are very scared; not because of the content of the dream or nightmare you just woke from, but specifically because of the fact that you can't breathe.
For a lot of people, panic attacks while sleeping are not an uncommon experience.
It happens to them during sleep or rest periods because it is during this time that the body is most relaxed and is susceptible for an attack.
  They seemingly come out of nowhere...
Panic attacks while sleeping may seem unprovoked by any particular event, but in reality they are indications of excessive stress or anxiety during the day.
Like for instance, some people wake up with panic attacks in the middle of the night after a severe fight with someone, or the loss of a beloved family member.
More often than not, we are aware of the external stress in our day-to-day life.
However, we tend to repress our anxious feelings, or inhibit our emotions from flowing freely during the day.
Such emotions can sometimes haunt us in the form of nightmares, frightfulness, breathlessness, or panic attacks while sleeping.
To put it simply, any imbalance in your life or build up of anxiety and stress are manifested through panic attacks.
Although they themselves are not normally physically harmful, they can be very cumbersome as they can cause a number of physical stress-related pains as well as chronic insomnia problem.
One helpful method to avoid panic attack while sleeping is to do some deep breathing exercises.
This will calm you down after experiencing panic or anxiety attack while sleeping.
A very important fact to remember is that: wheemther they occur during the day, or while you are sleeping;they are only a symptom, not a condition.
And if the core of the anxiety problem is dealt with, panic attacks can be reduced or even eliminated.