Sleep loss and heart pain

On rare occasions I'm forced to cut short my sleep to 4 hours or less, and every such time my heart rythm becomes erratic, and also a tingling pain in the heart is felt for a second once in a while. I absolutely can't fall asleep during the day time, today after I noticed the fatigue caused by sleeploss I lied in bed for 3.5 hours during the day but couldn't sleep for a second, and the fatigue persisted.
I will make every effort to avoid sleep loss in the future, but I'm wondering why this heart problem happens? Is this common?

[yarrow]

Erratic heart beats can certainly be caused by lack of sleep, and some people are more prone to erratic beats than others.  In everybody, the tendency towards ectopic beats increases with age.  Personally, I have found that to be true, and since you indicate that you're, let's say, older than a teenager, it could be a good idea to get regular sleep, and at least five hours of it.  Fewer than than five seems to be associated with all kinds of health problems we don't need, particularly hypertension and diabetes.  For documentation, you can google word combos like "lack of sleep health problems," but look for reputable websites like webmed.com and sciencedaily.com

I don't have an explanation for the heart pain, but many sensitive people report it.  It's significant, though, that true heart pain is felt right dead center in the chest.  If you're feeling it somewhere else, it's almost certainly not the heart.  There are anatomical/developmental reasons for this, which you can find with a google search if you're feeling like devoting some time.

[cindy707]

Boy Yarrow nailed that one i think.....yep lack of sleep for any of us no matter our age causes us a world of hurt especially with our hearts.  This is something i would definately bring up with your heart doc and tell them the situation ...and i personally think that yes it is common when we suffer from lack of sleep or burning the candle at both ends as the saying goes.....that our hearts act out.....i know for sure it has happened to me a couple of times and it wasn't pretty......i'd say toss it to your doc and have them tell you how to eliminate all of this...sorry you are going thru this...i know one of the best times of the day for me is when i lay my head on that pillow.....

[NTB]

hi, a lack of sleep can increase cortisol, and cortisol can affect arrhythmia. Cortisol can also bring on coronary vasospasm, which might explain the pain. But can one night's sleep deprivation do that via cortisol? I don't know.