Dear Readers
I have suffered with depression and anxiety for years, more recently its been the anxiety that has been the real problem, and my depression has (at the moment) thankfully eased.
I seem to be getting more and more physical symptoms, one of these being palpitations. Last night/early hours of this morning (around 12:30am), things got much worse.
I had gone to bed at about 11:00-11:15pm, and after having a chat with my partner settled down by about 11:30-11:40pm to listen to my Anxiety hypnosis track, a 40 minute relaxation hypnotherapy disc that I've been listening to on most nights for the last 6 weeks (and it really does relax me).
By the middle of the disc I'm in a very relaxed state, and as good as asleep but in the "trance" like state hypnotherapy puts you into. Last night was no different.
But almost at the end, literally a minute or so from the end of the session, and still in my hypnotised-state, I get the sense I'm not breathing and that my palpitations are playing havoc (skipped beats, added beats, and very irregular). My body does what it should, and shocks me out of sleep to get me breathing again, and by now I'm sat bolt up right, still unable to catch breath and my heart not beating at all (I could feel it twitching, trying to kick itself back into rythm, but it wasnt beating). This lasted a good 20-30 seconds, with no heartbeat and physically unable to take an in-breath. I was very scared, and was seconds from pointing at the phone to get my partner to call an ambulance, when I finally got a breath, and then the heart kick started itself back into usual rythm.
Needless to say it took a while to get to sleep, and the palpitations continued on and off (but now just odd skips here and there). This morning I woke at about 8:30am, and woke with a strong ache across the left of my chest which is still there now.
I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar to this, and whether or not its worth checking it out with doctors. It's worth mentioning my mum has experienced palpitations for a few years and has recently had it diagnosed as some form of arrhythmia, although I've forgotten what type.
Any advice appreciated, I'm a little wary of sleeping now, it got me very scared and very shook up afterwards.
Thanks for reading.
Ben.