Yeek! Heavy heart beats at night.

Hello! I'm peturbed by heavy heartbeats at night. This began approx. two weeks after an argument with some builders who had done shoddy work at my house. During the argument I was struggling to keep calm but inside I wanted to smash them in. Because of this inner conflict I could feel my heart pounding at the time. It seems a bit of a delayed reaction I know, but for two weeks after the argument I had insomnia, and then this led to me waking up after bad vivid dreams with a racing heart beat.

This has gone on now for six months. Sometimes I can feel my heart beginning to pound at 8 pm, then I know it will be hard to rest that night. Usually it has settled by 5am, after which I can relax a bit. I have been to see my G.P. sometimes in quite a state. They have checked my bloods, B.P., ECG and found nothing, but put me on Atenolol. A Cardiologist arranged a 24hr ECG and this came back normal. Still, I cannot shake the feeling that my heart is now 'damaged', that night time is dangerous and that I cannot return to doing normal activities without undue caution.

Has anyone else felt trapped like this?

Remegius welcome to the forum

Although I understand your grave concern while you are feeling your heart race at nights I do think that if a cardiologist has checked you out you don't have anything to worry about.

If I were you I would ask the cardiologist if it is possible to have an ECG for more than 24 hours (like 72 hours) checking you. Just to be on the safe side.

This sounds emotional. As crazy as it may sound, high blood pressure and anxiety/depression are linked. Also, the blood pressure in your body has alternating rhythms throughout the day, so it's not entirely abnormal that it would be different at night. Do you smoke?
Try fasting on nothing but water and juice for one day, make sure you have at least a glass of fresh lemonade. See how you feel, I bet you'll feel much better, and have no symptoms that night.
If you're up to it, try to walk yourself (briefly, don't dwell) through the argument you had and what triggered the anger. If you can pinpoint that, then observe your reactions to to everything during the day and see if there is a correlation.
Also, sometimes it's just boring at night and you can feel as though everything is amplified because of your focus on it.

Hello from Remegius. Thanks for the advice about heart beats. I have gone over the events which originally caused the rapid and heavy beats and yes, it definitely causes them again. For a while I had to block it out of my thoughts but now, givcen enough time, I seem to be able to think about it all without getting too strung out. ALso i'm having some more heart monitoring done - as suggested by Saskia.

That's good to hear, Remegius Slowly, slowly I'm sure you will be getting 'over (and out of) it'. It must have hit you as a 'shock' at the beginning and I know 'trauma' is a tough cookie to treat.

Hi there Remegius,

are you taking cholesterol lowering medication by any chance?

what you describe is sometimes a problem that occurs when taking that sort of medication and can be extremely frightening and accompanies very vivid dreams full of dread, I know from personal experience.

If the problem is caused by worrying about the original argument, try and relax and think of something else, if it wakes you then stay in bed and listen to the radio, it takes your mind off the symptoms and relaxes you especially if it is a talk/phone in type program, it worked for me and many others in this sort of predicament.

I probably won't be back here in the near future but take care and don't let this get the better of you, it is good to see that you are finding the memory of the ordeal easier to deal with, life is too short to be ruined by reliving conflicts although dreams are out our hands.

Remegius here,

Thanks Allen for your advice. Also - I did get my cardiologist to do a much longer ECG screening (although I'd wanted one that you trigger personally when an episode occurs). The results were that there appeared to be no worrying changes to my heart beat.

I'm very grateful for the cardiologist's attention and my online friends, however I still get fast and/or pounding heart beats at evening or in the night, about once every two weeks. I therefore still have it rooted in my mind that my heart is now 'dodgy' and so I can expect it to get worse or something. I watched my father have Angina and Heart Attacks at age 49 and within a few years he was having bypass surgery and nearly died.

Now i'm 45 and I just feel doomed. I just wonder if the heart monitor missed something and wether I should have an Angiogram to check out my arteries.

Remegius, going for a second opinion is common practice. Specially when one still worries about a certain symptom. I am in no way recommending the following clinic but I read they are willing to take calls an you may want to try them out in order to have more than just one opinion about your situation:
http://www.midwestheart.com/contact-us2

I would talk to your doctor about anxiety attacks because the kind of symptoms you describe and its occurance do suggest that's a possibility since your heart has been ruled out.

As curious as it sounds, your blood pressure is probably not increasing significantly during these events, but your sensitivity to your heart is making it worse! The fact that your father went through heart issues at 49 is enough to frighten anyone.

Try to eliminate caffeinated drinks and alcohol in the evening ... and no smoking if you're a smoker. You don't need stimulants.

If need be ask your doctor for meds for your anxiety for a couple weeks. They usually won't prescribe too many ... because they can be addictive. But if you can get through more time without the attacks you may feel more confident and reassured and they'll go away.

Stuart, why don't you register and become a member?

I would like to ask you a question by PM but cannot because you are a 'guest'