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What Causes Dizziness And Vertigo At Night?

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Posted on Mon, 27 Jan 2014
Question: I am 62 and have been getting up in the middle of the night and becoming so dizzy that I grab anything to keep from passing out. Often curling into a ball until the room stops spinning. In addition I am dropping plates and bowls because I can't hold them any longer. This has been going on(dizzy) for several months and just recently the dropping of plates with shakiness.
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Answered by Dr. Suleman Muhammad (1 hour later)
Brief Answer: BPPV or Inner-ear Problem or Old age diseases Detailed Answer: Dear XXXX! Thanks for writing to Health Care Magic! YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Dizziness and vertigo are among the most common symptoms causing patients to visit a physician. 40% people greater than 40 years presents with these symptoms and 25% in subjects older than 65 years give complain of falling. so you are among those 25% patients. The most common caused of your symptoms is Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and Im saying this because changing the position of you head (getting up) causes your head spinning and dizziness. You need to visit an Ear Nose Throat Specialist to exclude this disease. and he should carefully examine you by triggering same vertigo (spinning and dizziness) by : 1) Tilting the head 2) Rolling over in bed 3) Looking up or under 4) Sudden head motion Treatment is pretty simple and does not require any invasions. he/she will perform you one of the two maneuvers (kind of exercises) 1) Epley maneuver 2) Semont maneuver. If above disease is excluded then next step will be to exclude any inner-ear problem and the same ENT Specialist will exclude labrynthitis, Menier disease. drug toxcity (make sure you are not taking any drug) . These are all inner-ear disease and this part of the ear control your balance. So most common causes of your balance problem can be managed by ENT Specialist. Now coming to rare causes of your symptoms. Symptoms like dropping objects can be the early signs of geriatric neurological diseases (old age disease) so you have to visit to geriatric neurologist for the exclusion of parkinsonism etc. but lets hope its not these diseases. but still on the safe side I'll advise you to visit this specialist so the disease can be controlled prior its manifestations and you can stay healthy. If you have further query please feel free to ask otherwise kindly close the questiions Thank You for Writing to XXXXXXX :)
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D
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Answered by
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Dr. Suleman Muhammad

General & Family Physician

Practicing since :2012

Answered : 96 Questions

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What Causes Dizziness And Vertigo At Night?

Brief Answer: BPPV or Inner-ear Problem or Old age diseases Detailed Answer: Dear XXXX! Thanks for writing to Health Care Magic! YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Dizziness and vertigo are among the most common symptoms causing patients to visit a physician. 40% people greater than 40 years presents with these symptoms and 25% in subjects older than 65 years give complain of falling. so you are among those 25% patients. The most common caused of your symptoms is Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and Im saying this because changing the position of you head (getting up) causes your head spinning and dizziness. You need to visit an Ear Nose Throat Specialist to exclude this disease. and he should carefully examine you by triggering same vertigo (spinning and dizziness) by : 1) Tilting the head 2) Rolling over in bed 3) Looking up or under 4) Sudden head motion Treatment is pretty simple and does not require any invasions. he/she will perform you one of the two maneuvers (kind of exercises) 1) Epley maneuver 2) Semont maneuver. If above disease is excluded then next step will be to exclude any inner-ear problem and the same ENT Specialist will exclude labrynthitis, Menier disease. drug toxcity (make sure you are not taking any drug) . These are all inner-ear disease and this part of the ear control your balance. So most common causes of your balance problem can be managed by ENT Specialist. Now coming to rare causes of your symptoms. Symptoms like dropping objects can be the early signs of geriatric neurological diseases (old age disease) so you have to visit to geriatric neurologist for the exclusion of parkinsonism etc. but lets hope its not these diseases. but still on the safe side I'll advise you to visit this specialist so the disease can be controlled prior its manifestations and you can stay healthy. If you have further query please feel free to ask otherwise kindly close the questiions Thank You for Writing to XXXXXXX :)