Heart racing in the middle of night when sleeping - Sleep Disorders Message Board

jedzeppy · 12-20-2007, 11:44 AM

Hello,

For the past 6 months, I wake up about 4 nights a week in the middle of the night with my heart racing probably over 200 beats per minute. At times this is also accompanied by light sweating, shaking, and a weird feeling in my head and chest. I've been to see the doctor on several occasions. I've had 3 EKGs done and an echocardiogram done and all have been normal. I've worn a heart monitor and caught about 20 episodes of a racing heart, but all the readings have come up normal. I've been to a psychologist, and he can't find anything that would be triggering this. This is really making my life difficult. I have an appointment for a sleep study, as they are now seeing if I have sleep apnea. I am 40 years old and am pretty fit, and definately not overweight. Does anyone have any ideas on what could be triggering these attacks at night. The attacks never happen at any other time except when it is waking me up from my sleep. Thanks

waynobweno · 12-24-2007, 11:16 AM

Hey jedzeppy,

Thanks for the post. I have been going through the exact same thing and it is driving me nuts. I found your post via ****** and I wanted to ask if you have found any solutions. I have been waking up in the middle of the night like clockwork. I will hit the sack and guaranteed I will wake at 3 or 4 with my heart going a hundred miles per hour. I will then fall asleep and wake 1 or 2 hours later in a full on sweat. I have been taking Ambien, but when I am off it my symptoms just get worse the next time. I hate taking artificial drugs just because they only mask the problem and end up making it worse in the end... What are you doing to deal with these issues? Thanks!

marantz1935 · 12-25-2007, 12:53 AM

Hi,

I am having a similar problem at the moment. For the last three months I have been waking up with a racing, pounding heart with a very anxious feeling, sometimes with sweat or damp night clothes. I am guaranteed to be woken up between 4am and 6am every morning with these sensations. I have never had a problem with sleep like this before. I no longer need my alarm clock. However, I have noticed I am waking up slightly later at around 5am to 6am (my record now is 5.55am). My BP is up at the moment and this may be a factor. I am also under a lot of stress and anxiety for the last few months, so no doubt this isn't helping either. Hope this helps.

Marantz.

enigma3 · 12-28-2007, 12:49 PM

Wow, I can't say how glad I am to see someone start this post, because I keep trying to find out if anybody is having the same symptoms as me, and everything all of you said is what I have been experiencing.

I am 31, have recently had a stress echo (which showed nothing abnormal, except tachycardia before and after the test, even after given 10 minutes to rest). I also have Hashimoto's thyroid disease, which I've struggled with for over 7 yrs., but seem to have been on the correct medication for.. thyroid tests are usually normal. In addition, I had two extremely scary panic attacks for the first time in my life, both involving going to the ER, back around September, and I still haven't quite figured out why. Luckily, I haven't had episodes like that since then, but have relied on Ativan daily, as well as an increase in dosage of Celexa (SSRI) to keep things more under control. Despite this, I've still had problems with anxiety every day. It comes and goes, but the only way I know how to describe it, is that it often feels like I have a constant surge of electricity going through my body, which gets worse depending on caffeine, sugar intake, exercise that is too strenuous, and also gets worse as I get closer to my monthly cycle).

All I can say, is that before all of this, my life seemed so normal. Back to the sleep problems, my second panic attack a few months ago had involved jolting awake around 3 am, only to feel my heart feeling as though it was going to pound out of my chest, and feeling shaky, dizzy, terrified, etc., and only got worse as I tried to get up, walk around a little, and had tried to calm myself down. It didn't work, and I had to call the paramedics, feeling terrified that I was having a true heart attack.

This is somewhat similar to what I am experiencing almost every morning now, except not quite as extreme. Now, everyday, I seem to wake up right around 4-6 am every single morning, feeling panicked, feeling my heart racing, and feeling really dehydrated and just really "off" somehow (also feeling that can't get a full breath feeling, which doesn't go away until after I've fallen back asleep. It also takes me up to 20 min. or so each time for me to really go back to sleep, but even then, I often find myself still waking up feeling that same way again, just minutes after falling back asleep.

What I can't understand about this, besides all of these scary symptoms, is why it only seems to happen around 4-6 am, and not when I wake up at say 1, 2, or 3 am, which I always do, because I have to use the bathroom from drinking a lot of water before bed. Usually, when I wake up then, I haven't started feeling that way yet..

I hope more people will share their stories on here if they have had these problems too. I don't understand what is causing this for us. I am starting to wonder if it has anything to do with sleep apnea though, which I've never really considered since I've never had these problems before. I do definitely seem to always breath through my mouth, mainly at night, and have been that way since I was a child (have always had a ton of allergy problems).

I have no idea what to do about this..

enigma

Kszan · 12-28-2007, 05:22 PM

I've had this happen to me also. I've also had many of the same diagnostic tests that you've all had and everything was normal. I'ts actually quite common (moreso for women apparently), as you can probably tell from how many posts you've seen about it here. So, basically, the docs all said it was essentially a panic attack in the middle of the night. I have noticed it happens more often when I'm stressed about something going on in my life.

I've thought about it a lot and I'm inclined to agree with them. I figure that if you can have a panic attack during the day which causes pretty much the same reaction, then why not at night when you're asleep? When you think about it, while you're sleeping, you have more time to reflect on things going on in your life that are upsetting you. You may not realize it, but it's possible your subconscious is dwelling on these things, and because your mind keeps working all the time, even while you're asleep, then it's not unusual for your body to react to the thoughts going on in your head at the time.

In conclusion, I have to agree that if all of your diagnostic tests have come back normal, then you have to at least consider the possibility that it might just be anxiety/panic that is causing this to happen. Of course I'm not a doctor, and this is all just speculation on my part, but that's what I believe to be true.