Just When I'm About To Fall Asleep I Would Have This Weird Jolting Feeling

by Bella
(Philippines)

I'm a 35 year old single female and I have been having sleep problems on and off for 5 years now. There are times that I get so tired at the end of the day and just a few hours after having my dinner I would feel very sleepy and when I lay down and I think just when I'm about to fall into a deep sleep I would get this weird feeling on my chest kind of like a feeling you get on your stomach when you are nervous only I get this on my chest and all of a sudden I would have this jolting sensation or like my arm jerks up in the air.

I would get this feeling every few minutes like maybe 3-5 times until I would decide to get up from bed and do something else to pass time until I could finally sleep. Sometimes I would have this involuntary kicking of my leg. Or i would awaken from sleep because I thought that there was an earthquake only to find out that it's my heart that's racing really fast. Or it would pound so hard that it felt like my heart would come right off my chest.

Or sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night with a head rush. I could feel my head heating up and the heat spreads all over my body and I would have this humming sound on my ears. When this happens I would usually try to breathe in and out until the feeling is gone but then i would have a hard time going back to sleep.

I would also get nightmares quite so often that sometimes I would have 3 nightmares in one night.

These problems usually occurs when I'm sleeping flat on my back. I used to sleep on my side but because of knee problem and my shoulders would hurt too.

There were times I'd wake up having muscle pains and I haven't done any strenuous activity that would cause muscle pains and just recently I woke up because my arms have become stiff and painful to move. I could not bend or straighten my arms for a long time so i would end up massaging and bending my arms in the middle of the night. With these symptoms I would end up waking up tired and with a headache.

I am asthmatic and also suffer from allergic rhinitis so I have been taking medications for these for years.

I am under a lot of stress but who isn't nowadays. With the economy relaxing has been become beyond my reach. I cannot afford therapy or massages or anything. So sleep is the only thing that I look forward to for relaxation but even this is hard to achieve.

Please tell me what is it I'm suffering and is there a treatment for this. I'm tired and I could really use some help.