FAST HEART RATE AT NIGHT

A few times when I suddenly wake up at night, I would notice that my heart would be beating relatively fast. I wore my smart watch last night and noticed my HR went to 116.

 

Could thisd be simply due to a "bad dream". or have others experienced this at night?

 

Thanks

1 Comments

Sleeping fast heart rate

by Theknotguy - 2020-05-11 18:33:57

Had a conversation about a sleeping fast heart rate with my EP.  He indicated they can be caused by dreaming.  He said it's too bad they don't have a way to test for heart rate to emotional response.  It can sometimes be worse than physical stimuli.  

Question in my mind is if you have been tested for sleep apnea?  Heart problems and sleep apnea can go hand-in-hand.  

I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP.  If I don't get a good fit with my mask, I'll sometimes not get enough air and my brain will start screaming for oxygen.  It usually does that by giving me a nightmare.  My other response is my heart rate will go up because the brain tells the heart to pump the blood around the  body faster to get enough oxygen.  The heart rate can easily go up to the number you indicated.  My solution was to work with the company that provides my CPAP supplies and make sure I got a mask that gives me a good fit.  As long as I'm not running out of air I don't wake up in the middle of the night with a fast heart rate gasping for air.  Oh, and the other thing the brain does is to tell the body to dump a whole bunch of adrenaline in your system so it's  hard to get back to sleep once you have been wakened.  If you are experiencing this you may want to get tested for sleep apnea.

The other thing we occasionally hear on the forum is a person is wakened with a fast heart rate the same time on different nights.  They set up a self check for the pacemaker and they sometimes set it for late at night or early in the morning (1AM to 3AM).  Speeding up the heart in the self test sometimes wakes people.  As I remember mine is set for 12:35AM but I usually sleep through it now.  

Hope this helps. 

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My pacemaker was installed in 1998 and I have not felt better. The mental part is the toughest.