Waking up suddenly at night with very fast hertbeat

[star68]

The other night I got waken up by a noise sat up in bed and my heart was beating very fast. I was even scared to move in case my heart couldn´t cope I was very fearful and with a feeling of dread like something bad was about to happen. When I was a bit calmer I ridge for the blood pressure machine and my blood pressure was 150 over 95 and my pulse 120 bpm. Eventually everything went back to normal, but it was a very scary experience. I must say I had 10 days of constant stress so perhaps this contributed to this attack.
Have any of you experienced this and I did some research in the web and it can be anything from nocturnal panic attack, sleep apnea to paroxismal taquicardia.
_It seems this condition is very hard to diagnose.

[Gina9]

I get this too, I think it crops up during times of stress like you said.

[mummyanxious]

You said you got woken up by a loud noise. That would kick adrenalin in and would cause the rise in bp and pulse.

[Insomniac]

I do sometimes get a racing heartbeat if I am woken suddenly. Then I feel ill because my heart races and I wonder if something is wrong. It usually calms down again after a bit, and breathing exercises really help with this. Hope this helps you. :)

[mizzbee]

have your vitamin D levels checked, I had similar and went to go who did full blood screen. Once I'd starting taking bit D in high doses for a while the heart racing stopped. No idea why but it worked

[Pet59]

This happens me regularly in particular after I have had alcohol. I need not have had very much, maybe a glass or two of wine, but my heart rate wakens me int he night. Very scary. I hate it. I can empathise with you on this one. I use rescus remedy and find it helps a lot.

[Insomniac]

Mizzbee, vitamin D? I was feeling a bit rubbish generally and run down, maybe something like that might help.

[rb1978]

I get this. I went through a period of waking up gasping for breath with my heart absolutely racing. Its also happened the odd time from either a noise waking or something jolting me out of sleep. I think it is just extreme stress causing it - I mentioned it to a doctor once (in relation to waking up gasping for air) and she seemed to think it was something that does happen to people suffering a lot of stresss but not something that needed furtherv investigation.

[star68]

Thanks you so much for your answers, if I knew for sure it was stress I will relax. I read in the internet that when you are stress or anxious you release mini shots of adrenaline so when it's too much adrenaline running through your body it will manifest when you are relax with a huge tachycardia. I quite believe that it makes sense but I read as well that it could be a heart condition. I had mentioned my symptoms to my cardiologist and he run different test and all he could come up with was a beta blocker prescription he would not waist his time explaining why was I am getting this very scary palpitation,perhaps they haven't got an explanation, all I know is that there are a lot of people suffering from that and cardiologist should recognize it as a condition.

[yenool]

I get this from time to time... as others have mentioned alcohol seems to a possible cause and I have also noticed it happening when taking pain medications close to bed time.

Otherwise I think it is just one of those things that can happen to everyone from time to time. If it is happening every single night for a long time then it might be something you want to investigate further. Otherwise don't worry about it....