Is there any medication that might be causing this anxiety? For example, initially when taking large doses of melatonin experienced vivid, horrific nightmares that would repeat and feared going back to sleep.

This has been happening to me for the past 2 years. I am now taking 25mg of Trazadone at night and it has helped for the 1st 2-3 hrs of sleep. Anxiety thoughts and dreams start around 3- 4 am and continue through until I get up. I accidentally took a whole 50mg tablet last night and this morning I woke up a little groggy and I noticed that I had slept most all night and when the pre-dawn anxiety started to arrive, I was lucid enough to realize that it was anxiety and was able to rationalize in the dream state what was happening and I was able to relax and stay easy in the moments.
I am highly sensitive to drugs. The littlest dose goes a long way with me. I manage anxiety and panic attacks during the day with very small doses of .5mg lorazepam as needed. I don't take the lorazepam every day. Some days I can manage panic and anxiety with breathing and other refocusing tools. It just depends on what triggers a panic anxiety episode.

I have been diagnosed with complex PTSD and had serious problems with nightmares. It has been resolved with Prazosin 1mg every night before going to bed. If I wake up in the night for any reason, I need to take another one before returning to sleep. It’s a high blood pressure medication widely prescribed off label for just this problem. I also take a high blood pressure medication for high blood pressure and the addition of Prazosin has not affected my blood pressure at all.

I share the same as you and I feel so bad. Anxiety at nighttime is difficult to struggle…

Have your cortisol levels checked. My therapist and I talked about the “adrenal rushes” when I wake up in anxiety. He also suggested taking a supplement for that. If I find the notes on that I’ll post what he suggested. A good naturopath or holistic doctor can help diagnose what western medicine doctors miss.

Both my mother and I have anxiety worsen by taking lorazepam.

Had happening for 2 years and was getting worse. Last week I happened to find a podcast on Spotify called Sleep Cove. He has a series of sleep hypnosis 20-25 min sessions. I listen to them all night long. They continuous play for hours. I’m not waking up so anxious the last few nights I’ve been doing this.

I’m so sorry to hear of what you’re going through. It’s awful. I experienced the anxiety you are describing for almost three years. It took many different medication trials, group therapy, an amazing psychiatrist and electroconvulsive therapy to pull me out of the depression/anxiety. Hopefully you can get results much sooner from therapy or medication!!! I take Trazedone and Seroquel at night but everyone is differen