Scared to sleep because of palpitations :(

[Jsp]

I've been suffering with palpitations for years, just little flutters, but never took any notice of them. Since being diagnosed with anxiety, they've been getting a lot worse, but I've never worried about them.

About two weeks ago while laying down in bed ready to sleep, I got a massive "thud" happen. It scared the life out of me as I've never had this before. If my hand was on my chest I would have literally felt it.

About a week ago, I had a constant flutter. It lasted about ten seconds, but I also had never had this before so this started to panic me.

Last night I had palpitations every say, 20 or 30 seconds before drifting off to sleep. Was like it for a good half hour.

I've noticed that I mainly only get palpitations when trying to sleep, so now I worry every night about getting in bed incase I get another thud or a run of them again :( I've only ever had both of these once and I hope I never get them again!

So now I'm panicking about my heart! I just got a shooting pain in my back to the left, and just got one around my nipple which I'm now worrying about :(

I've had three ECG's done which all apparently came back fine, the most recent one was about two months ago. I had an echocardiogram done too about six months back which came back fine also. I've had a few blood tests that have come back fine too. But as these symptoms wasn't there before my echo or ECG's I'm worrying :(

Does anyone else get these or have these worries? On top of this I have all my deep vein thrombosis worries, I'm just fed up with it all! :(

[tofutoffees]

Hi Jsp, I have heart palpitations too and have had them for years. I have them this evening and can't sleep (just lay there for an hour with my heart banging like a drum). I know mine is because of anxiety. I can't bear it, hence being on here at 1:24am trying to calm myself down a bit.

I had DVT worries too but if you had an ECG then you should be ok? (I had one after a long flight when I was worried - ruined three days of a six-day holiday).

If the doctors thought you were at risk, or the ECG has shown up anything abnormal, they would have done more tests. What were the blood tests for?

My mum had a DVT last year and she has a really really painful leg which was how it was caught. And she had just come off a long haul flight. She is absolutely fine now. Not sure if that helps, but it was good news for us

Why do you think DVT is your big worry?

Hope you feel better soon.

[nomorepanic]

You have to change your mind set here. They are not harmless and you do not have any underlying problems/conditions to worry about.

You have to accept them for what they are and live with them and accept they can't harm you.

I have to live with heart failure and I do this by just accepting I have it and it can't be changed. Mine is potentially going to shorten my life but your palpitations won't.

How do I cope - accept it and forget it. If I worried every day about my heart I would be totally stressed out and that makes the heart worse!

You need to relax, accept and not stress

[Jsp]

Tofutoffee, thank you for the reply. From what I know the palps are not harmful, but that's hard to believe when you're experiencing them, especially when you're trying to sleep! One blood test was a full one that my doctor wanted around the time I had the echo just to check if anything was causing chest pains and palps etc, and the other two were when I was up the emergency room from panic attacks. Think they just wanted to check if anything had effected my heart too.

And I'm sorry to hear that your mother has suffered from DVT. Hope she is well now and my foot, calf and thigh is terribly painful and twitchy, but I'm not sure if its to do with sciatica that I also suffer with down that leg. It all started when I was watching TV and this woman came on talking about her daugher, around my age, died from DVT. It must have played on my mind hence me now obsessing over it. At the moment I'm worrying about how to lay incase I lay in a bad position and it will give me a clot -.- stupid I know.

Very true and helpful advice Nicola, thank you. I just need to get that into my head but its easier said than done :(

Sorry to hear that you've been suffering with heart failure, hope that it is all under control now though

[nomorepanic]

You can't recover as such from heart failure sadly so it will never get better as the left side of my heart was damaged by the heart attack but yes it is under control with medication to keep things as stable as they can.

[saab]

I have been greatly reassured by the comments from cardiologists on the All Experts cardiology forum. They almost always reply that ectopics/pvc's/missed beats are harmless in people with a structurally normal heart - even if you have hundreds or thousands a day (as some of us on here do). An echocardiogram would pick up any structural defects and I recall one cardiologist saying that an echo is good for about 5 years.

Apparently, benign missed beats (though they aren't 'missed', one beat just comes fractionally early so it feels like there is a pause) are easy to identify on a ecg and look totally different from serious arrythmias.

They come on when we are in bed because it is easier for them to sneak in when our heart beats more slowly, like when we are relaxing or lying down. Also, I have read that they can be triggered when the heart touches the chest wall - this can happen when you lie down or lie on your left side. Of course, once you become aware of them and tune in to them, you get anxious and they worsen.

I have had many sleepless nights, basically expecting to die in the night, as I frequently have 6 or 7 ectopics a minute for a few hours at a time. I have had mine for 8 years and nothing has happened yet.

I take comfort in the fact that our hearts beat 100,000 times a day - even hundreds of palpitations a day are apparently harmless, as long as you have had the appropriate tests. Hope this helps.

Try the Dr Claire Weekes books for anxiety. 'Self Help for Your Nerves' was a life saver for me when my anxiety about my ectopics was really, really bad.