Waking up with a vibrating heart and low pulse

[David_Jones_64]

Since age 17 or 18, quite often when I slept late studying, I would feel my left chest a bit heavy and a sensation as if I have some gas trapped around my heart. Then about a half-hour or so into my sleep, I would wake up with my heart vibrating real fast. My pulse in the wrist would not feel for at least 30 seconds and then I would feel a normal pulse. I am 47 now, male, generally fit and slim. Yet, even to this day whenever I stay late working or studying past mid night, I get this consistently. Lately, I'm noticing it getting worsened. Now, the chest heaviness and a bit of pain in the upper left arm stays for a bit. I have spoken to at least 10 doctors in these 3 decades, got my EKG etc. But no real help. Each one of my doctors either gave me a strange look or just ordered some tests which all turned out to be normal. One interesting post described something similar as Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome. Can someone help, please?


This discussion is related to I wake up vibrating.

[ewriter]

I have been chasing something similar for about six plus years. Started just before my father died in 2005 when I was rushing to the hospital (overseas flight 7 hours away). It started as a 'rumbling/grinding' sort of noise in my left chest which grew over time until it was impossible to ignore and quite frightening. Seventeen doctors in two countries later (one in the UK, a Clinic head, refused to treat me unless i agreed it was all mental) could not find anything. I also had two stress tests and went through years of Hell in terms of anxiety. Fortunately (?) doctor number 17 detected a "loud systolic murmur" and put me on 120 mg a day of propranalol as a prophylactic. This dampened the vibration considerably. In fact, I got so much better that in 2007 I was able to stop the meds and had no relapse...until mild symptoms came back in 2008. I don't suffer shortness of breath but worry much about undetected damage to my heart. Recently, the same symptoms all came back with a vengeance, while I was staying in China. I was smoking a pack or more a day and drinking strong Chinese wine because it was cheap, to excess. My Mother had died very recently (February) and, due to my long-term relationship with my gal friend in Singabore, I was stuck in the country. At any rate, I had to take care of my Mom as she deteriorated over the year from colon cancer. It was extremely stressful, as my three brothers did not want to help much (though they live in the country andi am in China for work and my relationship)...then I noticed, there was some mold in my flat. It is enough to smell it and I am severely allergic to mold. At any rate, I woke up again with the 'rumbling' sound in my chest, in spite of being on the propranalol (down to 40 mg a day at that time). I took four months off work and I have largely recovered; but the vibration turned into a pulsation which turned into what feels like a flutter (but it doesn't appear to be atrial because it feels separate from my heartbeat and it's palpable). I went through the usual: stress echo and blood test but my thyroid appears to be normal and the Echo unremarkable. However, since my Echo in 2005 when this all started, my left atrium has grown from 3.5 cm to 4.0 cm. My busy Singaporean Cardio doesn't have much time for me; but he said my heart is structurally normal. What I don't understand is why he did not note or comment on the left atrium growth, nor the fact that my diastolic filling appears to be a bit delayed at 240 ms. But I do feel much better now and my central sleep apnea (which started four months ago in China) appears to have gone. I still have some OSA and wake up 2-3 times a night (but now, no longer with tachycardia or a flutter); but I am still concerned as to what is going on, because during the day now I get the flutter (though propranalol dampens it completely). I am beginning to think many of those posting on these sleep forums actually suffer from sleep apnea which clearly appears to be linked to heart attacks, strokes, and SCD/SIDS. So I am seriously considering BIPAP although I'd prefer never to become dependent on it. The flutter (no longer a vibration) definitely starts when I am resting or sleeping; it is regular and fast (maybe 180-360 a minute) but it does not seem to be typical atrial flutter as it's intermittent and seems only brought on by hypoxia or sleeping on my left or right side in particular (though I also get it while lying on my back, after a long time). I have two questions: could the dose of propranalol have partly caused my problem (I never had a flutter and perhaps even AFib, before this); will CPAP stop the flutter (it definitely seems to help). I can now sleep 5-6 hours without waking to a higher heart rate or flutter (which happened a couple of weeks ago, every night) but I find it hard to stick to using CPAP every night. My AHI was 21 and this has now clearly dropped because my central apneas have gone. I am trialing a dental brace because it also helps. What appears to happen to me is extreme stress, too much stimulants, and massive allergy response (especially all at once) push my system into overkill mode and I begin to stop breathing (many central apneas and hypopneas an hour, all of which seem to have gone mostly) and now I am left with (I think) a few moderate OSA incidents a night. Since my sleep study showed my heart rate dropped to 38 and my sleep doc did not say I had to use CPAP (suggested I try it), I am going to try as many other methods as possible before going back on the machine (bipap actually....I found CPAP just made it harder to breathe although even on the Bipap, several times I could feel the machine 'pulling' my air away and causing an apnea!

[David_Jones_64]

Thank you for your comments. I saw my doctor two days back. He told me it is definitely not WPWS. But he didn't say what it is. But he agreed to put the heart monitor. I returned the heart monitor yesterday. Let's see what comes out of that. I will keep you guys posted.

[ed34]

I've had the same thing since I had my stenting in 2010. If I don't get enough sleep it's like a fast vibrating in my chest which goes out into my arms sometimes. It lasts a few seconds and gradually dies down. If I fall asleep for a few seconds or just a couple of minutes, and something wakes me up it's worse. It's like it happens on the crossover between the state of sleep and being awake.
I've mentioned this to a few cardiologists and they all look at me like I'm mentally retarded.

[ClaraJanie]

I know it can be frustrating to feel like something might be wrong but that no one else understands or can do anything about it. I'm so sorry.

Although I don't know exactly what you're going through, I occasionally get unusual sensations in my heart that I describe as "fluttering" (not the same thing as an atrial flutter, which is a clinical term). I also occasionally get dizzy. I've had these symptoms maybe two or three times a year for the past fifteen years. Nothing is abnormal on testing. Mine isn't as much of a concern to me, and so I feel no need to move forward at this time.

For you, I would suggest four things: 1) If you're worried about having a heart attack, ask your doctor if it's okay to take aspirin daily as a preventive measure; 2) Get an evaluation by the best cardiologist at the best university hospital near you (university hospitals are on the cutting-edge of medicine and train the MDs of tomorrow--your care should be superior there); 3) Get a sleep study (if you stay up late to induce your symptoms maybe the sleep study will catch something on the EKG); 4) Don't stay up late.

I hope this helps you find an answer. Good luck.