sleep apnea and bradycardia

I submitted a pervious question on this topic but now have a different concern. I am a 55 year old obese female with moderate sleep apnea.I am also bradycardic even though I am overweight and previously had not been active at all. I have lost about 25 lbs in the past several months and am trying to exercise again to lose even more. Still am not sleeping through the night and an overnite oximetry indicated heart rate most of the night 62% of it in low 40's and the rest of the night in the low 50's. This is worse now on cpap I thought that it would return to a more normal rate once that was corrected. The overnight oximetry also indicated 12 events that were over 3 minutes in duration.
Also had a holter done pre cpap and there was a 2.8 second pause, Last night I awoke with a pain in the chest like a snap.
Is it normal to have cesation of heart in the middle of the night?  why is the brady not improving?

[CCF-M.D.-CRC]

Dear kathy,

There may actually be a link between slow heart rates and sleep apnea but we actually don't know which is causing which.  In other words is the sleep apnea causing the slow heart rate (the previous theory) or is the slow heart rate is causing the sleep apnea (the alternative theory).   Currently if you are not having any symptoms during the day there is no clear indication to put a pacemaker.  However, if you do have slow heart rates during the daytime or if better evidence comes out that slow heart rates cause sleep apnea then a pacemaker may be a good treatment for you.

[kathy55]

thans so much for answering this question. I will look into this: the slow rate causing sleep apnea very interesting thought since the ENT found that septum is almost straight and throat was of normal size thanks again

[PeterBlack]

A related discussion, Sleep Apnea & Bradycardia was started.