Why is every morning like this?

Over the past few months, I have been dealing with numerous stressful things going on in my life. At times it almost feels as if these stressors have lined themeselves up in a row, each taking their turn at having a go at me. Prior to this, I had been dealing with the usual anxiety, OCD, panic attacks, depression, etc but after a few major stressful events, it seems like everything changed and now even simple/normal things in life (ie; appointments, paying bills, etc) have become stressful to me. It's as if I have now become hyper-sensitive to any type of situation that is (or might be) even a tiny bit stressful to me.

The dreams are the worst though. I feel somewhat "normal" in the evenings and at night but always have these very stressfull early morning dreams where I am performing some impossible and very arduous task (searching, escaping, sorting, arranging things, creating new things, getting confused about where things go, losing or forgetting things, etc). Also, I can go to bed at midnight but still wake up at about 1:00PM (thats 13 hours of sleep!). When I finally do get up I am dazed, spaced out and exhausted and feel miserable until that evening again. These are stressfull dreams (not really nightmares) and it has been almost constant for months now.

The odd thing is that the dreams I have don't have any basis in reality or might be loosly based on some real-life issue that was already resolved a long time ago. Even after I am partially awake I still find myself thinking they are real and start fretting about how I am going to resolve them. After I fully wake up I spend lots of time trying to interpret the dream and do things during the day to try to make the "bad things" that caused the dream to "go away".

I have tried excersize, different meds to help me relax (Ativan, Atarax, Attenolol, etc) but for the most part, every single moring is like this. It's horrible. Even when I take no meds, the result is the same. I also have Tourette's and wonder if the head/neck ticks have caused damage and my brain is building new "connections" at night and thats what I'm feeling/experiencing. I also have Cervical Arthirits with a bone spur (maybe a pinched nerve?). I sometimes wake up with a pressure feeling in my head too or have a very low-grade (usually non-painfull) headache but maybe it's my sinusitis. I just don't even know anymore.

I've had all kinds of scans, bloodwork, at EEG, seen a Neurologist, etc over the years. Not sure what is causing all of this. Can anyone relate to any of this please?.

Thanks so much, Seth

First of all, I want to thank you for the great response!. Very well said and a lot of excellent points and advice here. Before I respond in detail, I want to post this as an addition to my original post (would have posted it yesterday if I had thought of it).

For the last few months my nights have been worse than ever. I can't remember if I have ever gone through anything like this before but I might have (or something similar). I also have no idea what is causing it. Below, I've included a sort of illustration of what my nights have been like and what I experience. Perhaps someone here will be able to recognize this.

Here is how last night went...

* Skipped all medications (to rule them out), just listened to soothing music and felt "ok" when I finally went to bed at 2:00AM.
* Fell asleep after about 10 minutes and slept good until about 6:00AM or so.
* At about 6:00AM woke up feeling pretty good, went to the bathroom and crawled back into bed.
* Some time after I laid back down and was in the process of trying to fall asleep again I began to experience these strange noises in my head like a faint echo or factory-type sounds accompanied with what seemed like a strange vertigo-type feeling. I began to panic and thought I might be about to faint or something but finally fell asleep.
* Woke up again at about 7:30AM, got up feeling very dazed/dull, made coffee and began my day. It's almost 1:00PM and I still feel strange in the head (although less so now), lump in throat sensation, lower lip quivered for a few minutes and had panicky feelings.

Here's how a few of my nights have been...

* I get to bed between midnight and 3:00AM. No trouble falling asleep.
* I wake up at about 6:00PM-7:00PM feeling pretty good, go to the bathroom, lay back down and just as I'm trying to get to sleep again, these huge surges of adrenalin/cortisol go rushing through me and I feel extremely panicky.
* I finally fall asleep again and then wake up feeling dazed/miserable/exhausted and it isn't until that evening that I begin to feel anywhere near "normal" again.

And finally, here is how most of my nights have been for the past month or so...

* I get to bed between midnight and 3:00AM. No trouble falling asleep.
* Some time in the very early mornings I have very stressful dreams where I am performing some impossible and very arduous task (searching, escaping, sorting, arranging things, creating new things, getting confused about where things go, losing or forgetting things, solving some impossibly complex problem, etc).
* Finally get up and am dazed, spaced out and exhausted and feel miserable until that evening again. These are very stressful dreams (not really nightmares) and the aftermath of all this stays with me throughout most of the day.

Any of this sound familiar?.

- Thanks so much, Seth