Wake up suddenly in night

Hi there
I was wondering if anyone else wakes up suddenly in the night with a pounding and racing heartbeat, that slows down and then pvcs kick in...
It usually happens within the first hour of sleep and its really effecting my sleep, as i now do not enjoy going to bed...
Any feedback would be great
thanx sarah x

[Rosemary349]

In the last month i've started getting a racing heart on waking in the morning.....I'm really panicking about it due to various things that have happened in my life (causing maybe more anxiety than would be usual).

I'm wondering if REM sleep can do something?

[Jerry_NJ]

Can you remember a dream when you wake up?  Could be a "bad" dream that gets you heart cranked up and then wakes you.  We have to think about dreaming immediately when we wake up to get the dream recalled clearly.

[jpek]

This used to happen to me all the time. In my case, I would experience Palps then wake up startled due to the palps.  The sudden wake up caused a fast pulse.  Then the palps would continue.  
I have since concluded my issue was caused by stress.  Anxiety followed, causing more stress.  Then interupted restless sleep and stomach issues.  All those contributed to more stress.  A ruthless circle.
Stress manifests itself in so many ways.  In these forums I contunually read about combinations of stress, anxiety and palps.
If you suspect stress plays a part, go after it aggressively.  Read all you can on the net regarding relaxation techniques, meditation, etc.  It really helped me. It took 1 month to make a noticeable difference.  The more I read, the more I understood, and the better I felt.  I have now been palp free since July 1, and feel like my overall health is still improving.
I will post some of the reading material I have used on my personal page if you are interested.

Best of Luck.

[tom_h]

Have you ever been checked for sleep apnea? Low O2 saturation will cause your heart to pound.  I know because it often happened to me.  That was usually followed by clusters PVCs the next day.  I unknowingly had severe, chronic sleep apnea.

[sas12358]

Hi
Thank you for your comments, i dont wake up breathless which is usual with sleep apnea (i think) and it only started happening this week, but every night. im now at the point where i am scared to go to sleep.
I would appreciate any material you have cos believe it or not im a nurse and i need to get back to work. i had a heart ablation 8 weeks ago and im not sure if all the stress from that is causing me heart to have extra beats constantly, when i get even slightly stressed they start and hurt.
thanx sarah xx

[rtl123]

this happens to me too, i have other symptoms though with my health problem ive been having. im only 15 but i have woken up a bunch of times lately where my heart is not necisarly beating fast but it is beating very hard, shaking my whole body, i can eel the pulsing in my head and down my neck.

[cindy707]

Hi been there done that one two...i think the most important thing here is that it goes back into rhythm on its own Sarah.....i did have an issue about six months ago where i woke up out of a dead sleep with that and my heart wouldn't snap back so i had to take that dreaded ride to the E.R. and they converted me within about 45 minutes but mine may have been different.  I had the real feeling that sometimes when we are sleeping that our hearts may sort of get stuck in a bad pattern of electrical firing and because we aren't awake to help it out it just does its own dance to the sound of a different drummer....i think as long as it corrects itself tho..................i like Jerrys idea when he says that basically everyone needs to take an aspirin a day as most docs say too as long as you can tolerate it ...it at least thins our blood enough so that issues w. clots can be minimized......its my opinion Sarah if you just went thru an ablation eight weeks ago you are just going thru what we all did when we had ours..those stupid random runs while our hearts heal...i know isn't it funny that medical professionals make the worst pts????  I think it may be cause we know a little two much and the what could happens....hope you are doing well after the procedure....

[georgec34]

I have had exactly the same symptoms, with 6 episodes, approx. 4 weeks apart. I am usually woken by my irregular and fast heartbeat within the first couple of hours of sleep. After 6months on bisoprolol (beta blocker) I am now on 50mg x 2 Flecainide since Wednesday. Even though I have taken extra tablets at the time, I have been hospitalised every time. My heart usually goes back into sinus after about 8 to 14 hours on its own. I find it most frustrating. I have a 'nervy' history, so I have started this week, stress relieving my body before I go to bed. I am trying to be very positive and not let the 'b------' get me down. I am going to my GP to ask him about my early sleeping 'nerve' problem. I will keep you informed.

[cindy707]

I would love to hear what your doc says George...so many members write on this site about this issue....so many questions.....for sure post and let us know what your doc says...maybe do a new post because you are going thru what alot of members do and it might really be helpful to everyone...good luck w. your appt. and i'll look for your post....

[rilesnic]

Many nights I wake up gasping and my heart is completely out of rhythm. Nocturnal panic attacks...maybe? Sleep apnea? My heart has been recorded at its fastest at 160 at 3:00am. I have very vivid nightmares and many times my husband has to wake me. I also feel like my brain is falling asleep, will feel like I'm asleep for hours and I look at the clock and it will be 6 or 7 minutes. It is extremely exhausting. I feel like I never rest. I also have been waking up with vertigo, which I also have. I know true vertigo affects you when you're lying down, but it has actually woke me up twice in the past month. Anxiety or heart?? The docs say it's anxiety but I don't know how convinced I am. Hard to believe anxiety causes PAC's everyday. Makes for poor quality of life.

[cloudwatcher506]

Hi all.  I've been experiencing this problem since 2005.  Once, when trying to go back to sleep after waking up several times suddenly from the reaction in my nervous system to entering REM sleep, I had an Afib attack.  I called the ambulance, and they were able to normalize my heartrate with cortisone.  I was 35 at the time with no prior heart problems in my history.  Upon being released from the hospital, I visited a cardiologist in my family and he verified that there were no structural abnormalities in my heart (contrary to what the doctor who did the echocardiogram at the hospital had said).  I have had no instance of Afib since that one time.  However, being a contemplative person, I reasoned that I should get tested for sleep apnea, since the waking up with a jolt and a rapid heart beat only occurred at night, and only when just entering sleep.  They did the tests and suggested that I take Ambien before getting tested in the sleep lab, which I refused, knowing that I want to be able to wake up from sleep if I need to.  I was given a CPAP machine, following the diagnosis with sleep apnea...the test reported that I had over 40 hypopneas per hour of sleep.  However, the CPAP machine not only did not help me sleep better, but was an awful pain to wear during the onset of the condition that is described here...Having this reaction at night, while you are wearing a CPAP machine, just brings it one level closer to truly being fearful.  Since I was unable to be compliant with the CPAP treatment, and since I did try, I used to wander around my apartment just to think of what could be causing it.  Normally, if I woke up and let my heart calm down, then I could return to sleep without any difficulty, if I had been awoken from first going to sleep once already.  The key is to get up and walk around before trying to go back to sleep.  I was afraid of having another afib attack from trying to go back to sleep immediately after being awoken from the jolt and the rapid heartbeat.  It feels like an electrical condition within my neurological make-up, that is triggered by the onset into REM sleep, as one commenter has described.  I am very fortunate also in that I can report progress in my condition.  I have also found that GERD complicated my condition significantly.  I took myself to an ENT, and asked him to tell my if my larynx were irritated because of GERD, and he said that I definitely had GERD.  Further investigating the causes of the GERD led me to become gluten free.  Since I have become gluten free, the acid in my stomach that comes from the insensitivity to wheat or gluten-containing food does not produce mucous which travels up into my larynx at night and can't be cleared when I'm sleeping (simply because I am asleep).  I truly felt that this was a life-threatening circumstance, and devoted a lot of my waking time to finding answers, while targeting my visits to doctors with specific questions in mind, and with requests for diagnosis of things that I thought might be going wrong with me.  I was scheduled for an endoscopy to check on the causes of my GERD, but the idea of being anaesthetized frightened me more than the procedure, which I imagined was not a big deal.  I had had some success trying the "Eat Right For Your Blood Type" diet during my attempts to get at the bottom of my condition.  I have an O blood type, and so, wheat products are off my list of acceptable foods.  During the period when I was experimenting with this diet, I had experienced relief from my condition at night, and this was before I knew that I had GERD.  So, knowing later, this is in 2012 that I had had GERD, and remembering my success with the blood-type specialized diet, I voluntarily eliminated gluten from my diet, and did not experience any symptoms of this condition for a year and a half.  I do not use a CPAP machine, and I sleep consistently and well throughout the night, or have until just very recently again.  My opinion is that the GERD was one condition interfering with my sleep, and that this condition described in this email is another separate, but concurrent condition.  The combination was very scary, and I used to prepare for death every night before sleep for a year and a half or so, just in case.  One doctor--an ENT--told me that he thought that I suffered from anxiety and nothing else.   In any event, I take .5 mg of ativan sometimes now before sleep, but only when I can't sleep right away.  The problem described in this community post has only recurred in the last two weeks.  I had been sleeping peacefully, fully, and well for over a year and a half.  I am relieved to have gotten to the bottom of one of the conditions connected with my sleep issues, but I came here in order to research how to improve my health further.  I find the post on one of the people here about a neurological basis to the condition interesting, and I intend to see a neurologist soon.  I don't know if taking .5 mg of Ativan routinely every night before sleep would help with the condition described in the above posts, but honestly, I like that I can wake up from sleep if I need to, and while Ativan is not thoroughly sedating and would allow me to wake up if I need to, I still cherish the idea of going to sleep without assistance of a tranquilizer if I can, because that is natural and best.  Thank you for reading this far, and best of luck in your journeys with this frightening condition.  I may get an event monitor as some have suggested, and get retested for apnea, but since I've been gluten-free, and now also GERD-free, I have been sleeping tremendously better and the incident of waking up with terror and a rapid heartbeat phases me somewhat, but not as much as with the GERD that I believe had been misdiagnosed as sleep apnea.  Thank you again.

[Jerry_NJ]

Welcome to the Heart Rhythm Community.

Your attempt to communicate with "rilesnic" by responding to a thread that is over a year old is not likely to succeed.  Check that profile I see the last activity by that person was back in June of last year.

I too am struggling with minor sleep apnea problems.  My main discomfort is the suffocation sensation upon a sudden awakening.  This is due to a minor obstruction in my breathing path.  Sleeping on my side helps, but I still have a problem - I am now trying to lose 20 pounds to see if that will help. If this is not successful I may have to try the CPAP.  I have read that some have great results using a CPAP. I suspect it would work with me, but I'll try to weight loss first.