blood pressure and heart rate

[meyer2013]

I woke up one night about an hour after being asleep to go the bathroom. Then soon after that my heart started racing and my chest started getting tight. I checked my blood pressure and it was 150/94 and heart rate was 114. I was really scared, but my blood pressure got up to 171/105 at its highest. I went to the er because i could not get myself to calm down. They found nothing wrong with my heart. They put it as a bad case of acid reflex even though i am already taking nexium. They told me acid reflex irritates the same nerves and area as a heart attack that is why it feels so bad. Does anybody have any input or suggestions?

[is_something_wrong]

We are very vulnerable to anxiety when we just wake up. I have no idea why it is so, but it's very common to panic at night.

Still, in the absence of any negative findings in the emergency room, you must consider this a panic attack, and if it happens frequently, you need to get it treated, not because it's dangerous (it's not) but it's causing a lot of distress. I had great success with taking a small dose of beta blockers when my heart started racing due to anxiety. Maybe you could consider asking your doctor about that?

[meyer2013]

Thanks for responding. What was confusing to me was I was fine when I got up and then my heart started beating really fast and everything went down hill from there. I have read that some people who have acid reflex issues do get anxiety along with it.

[is_something_wrong]

Sounds exactly like a panic attack to me.

Racing heart, elevated blood pressure and chest tightness are the hallmark symptoms of panic. Maybe your acid reflux triggered some chest pain and you got anxious from thinking you had a heart attack?