Oh, I can absolutely relate to this!
I am so sorry you feel this way, from my personal experience this is dreadful.
What I feel is the same as you but my heart got affected at some point because I had too much stress. When I wake up I am often already stressing but lately this starts later; while I slowly get more awake the stress rushes in, it's like this massive way of General Angst. It's terrible. I often get very sweaty, heart races, I feel such fear. This can be after a simple thought as 'I will do the dishes first', anything will set this in motion.
Months ago I would also get serious fears right before falling asleep. I would get vivid and incredibly scary thoughts such as going outside and being killed by a wrecking ball, or stabbed.

This was all due to multiple traumatic events from which I didn't recover before the next arrived. After a very sad childhood my life didn't get a lot better. Bad experiences finally ended up as this massive mountain of problems for which I finally sought help after talking to a specialist.

I had EMDR for the most acute fear. We're working through therapy for the rest now. I notice I get far fewer attacks but the mornings are still tricky and I often get up earlier than i should to not feel the fear; being busy during the day helps. Maybe this all helps you, let me know 😊

I can relate to the anxiety at night; I have it too. I have no real answers except maybe cognitive behavior therapy and Xanax or similar medication.
My question is, have either of you been tested for sleep apnea. I also have these symptoms if I’m awakened by an apneic event.

I'm having similar problems and have Xanax on hand but hate to use it. Does anyone have suggestions relevant to nature based sleep aids like vitamins, herbs, etc? I'm not a "big pharma" fan and know that Xanax is a short term fix, but can develop into a long term huge problem.

@johneckenrode11 Have you tried Melatonin? I take either 1 mg or 3 mg but in larger dosages it causes horrific nightmares. Good luck.

I have found that my topomax used for migraines and my antidepressant really reduced my anxiety so that I didn’t need to use my lorazapam at all. I’ve been pulling back on the topomax with my doctor to test my migraines. It hasn’t been successful and migraines are coming back and the anxiety has been coming back at night as well. Lorazapam just wrecks me - I think it reacts worse when taking these other medications so I really try never to take it. I wanted to get off the topomax or at least reduce it but I’m not on a high dose. It’s interesting the side benefits of some of these medications. I wouldn’t take it if I didn’t have to for the migraines, but am grateful for less night anxiety.

I have night anxiety when I’m taking prednisone.
For some reason it messes with the brain…