dreams and anxiety

Last night I woke up having an anxiety attack and I was not having a nightmare but it was not a pleasant dream either so I wonder can dreams make you anxious? If anybody has experience this can you share? This took me by surprise as I had been feeling great until today because I woke up feeling anxious...again...I know meds take a while to kick in but is this normal?

For me, there's very little doubt that a dream can trigger a panic attack. I guess it's possible that you could be having a nocturnal panic attack and that's what causes you to have bad dreams, though. It's a chicken and egg type of question but I'm fairly certain there's a relationship between anxiety and dreams.

Whether caused by dreams or the cause of dreams - I just wanted to point out that nighttime panic attacks unfortunately are common. These nocturnal attacks can cause us to wake up in the middle of the night (often just after falling asleep, but it can happen at any time during the night). If you're lucky you'll just wake up feeling anxious (like that bad dream feeling), but many people including myself will wake up in the middle of an attack.

I believe that in part it may be because we're on guard during the day thinking about anxiety and hoping not to panic. When you go to sleep you naturally have to relax your body (or you'll just stay awake). When you finally allow yourself to relax you let down your guard and the A/P sees an out. It's like it's been waiting to come out all day and now finally sees an open door. It's tough because we'd like to think of sleep as a time of peace... but just use the same approach that you would to guide yourself through a mid-day attack.

I hope you have more restful and peaceful nights...