# My heart has been racing right when I wake up from sleeping.



## WhoDey85 (Sep 6, 2006)

I've been falling asleep in the middle of the day the last couple days and when I wake up about an hour later my heart is racing. I'm wondering what it could be. It's got me a little worried because I have been putting off going to the doctors and getting my heart checked. My old man had Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy which is a genetic disease. I'm sure my bad genetics as well as all this stress/anxiety is messing up my heart. 
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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

It's anxiety.
Panic is the mechanism that actually wakes us up normally. If there is stress, it can cause things to amplify.

For me most recently, I have been waking up 5-10 minutes early like clockwork.


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## WhoDey85 (Sep 6, 2006)

I haven't noticed this before and I have had anxiety for quite awhile.


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## davidc (Nov 20, 2008)

If it carries on, you should go to a doctor and demand an ECG. 

It might be nothing but its not worth risking your life to find out.


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## Haven (Jan 8, 2011)

If you're worried about it, you should go to a doctor and get checked out as soon as you can. Probably it is only anxiety, but all this worrying about your health is only going to make you more anxious.

Are you putting off getting a medical exam because you have anxiety about seeing the doctor?


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## WhoDey85 (Sep 6, 2006)

So I'm going to have an Electrocardiogram (EKG) done because of my family history. I'm not looking forward to it but it has to be done.


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## FairleighCalm (May 20, 2007)

Research sleep apnea, deydration, over caffenation and mineral deficiency.


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## lonelyjew (Jan 20, 2010)

WhoDey85 said:


> So I'm going to have an Electrocardiogram (EKG) done because of my family history. I'm not looking forward to it but it has to be done.


Have your doctor(s) been aware of your family history before, and if so, haven't they been screening you? Frankly if your doctor was aware of your family history, and wasn't having you screened for it, you should find a new doctor, because that implies serious incompetence on their part...

Anyways, as far as testing goes, if you can, try to get a targeted ultrasound, as cardiac ultrasound is more sensitive and provides a definitive diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (and ECG can detect it, but not as well, and can't diagnose it so you'd have to get an echo anyways).

On the bright side, if you do have it, and it is detected, that detection is the most important thing to dealing with it, because sadly lots of people who have it don't know, and it isn't found out until they suddenly die (you hear about it with kids dying on the field playing a sport). There are also lots of effective treatments nowadays, including some new ones which hold a lot of promise, and are far less invasive.


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## WhoDey85 (Sep 6, 2006)

Haven said:


> If you're worried about it, you should go to a doctor and get checked out as soon as you can. Probably it is only anxiety, but all this worrying about your health is only going to make you more anxious.
> 
> Are you putting off getting a medical exam because you have anxiety about seeing the doctor?


Thanks, yeah my social anxiety has played a major role in me putting it off. But I finally did go thankfully. The racing of my heart was probably some sort of anxiety attack according to the doctor. It ended up being a good thing however because it got me in the doctor's office to talk about the bigger issue.



lonelyjew said:


> Have your doctor(s) been aware of your family history before, and if so, haven't they been screening you? Frankly if your doctor was aware of your family history, and wasn't having you screened for it, you should find a new doctor, because that implies serious incompetence on their part...
> 
> Anyways, as far as testing goes, if you can, try to get a targeted ultrasound, as cardiac ultrasound is more sensitive and provides a definitive diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (and ECG can detect it, but not as well, and can't diagnose it so you'd have to get an echo anyways).
> 
> On the bright side, if you do have it, and it is detected, that detection is the most important thing to dealing with it, because sadly lots of people who have it don't know, and it isn't found out until they suddenly die (you hear about it with kids dying on the field playing a sport). There are also lots of effective treatments nowadays, including some new ones which hold a lot of promise, and are far less invasive.


This was my first visit to this doctor so they were unaware of my family history. I haven't had or been to a regular doctor since I was a child up until this point. When my father was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomypathy years ago his doctors told him that all his kids need to be checked because it is genetic. He ended up getting a defibrillator surgically inserted in or around his heart, which I'm not looking forward to if I do indeed have it, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Most of my relatives on his side died of heart complications, my grandmother died of heart attack at age 50.

Thanks for the info. I'll talk to my doc about that. Yeah, you are right people do drop dead from this all of the sudden. I knew about that and yet my anxiety still kept me from going to the doctor, that's how bad it is.


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## lonelyjew (Jan 20, 2010)

Yeah, if social anxiety wasn't enough, the anxiety of possibly being diagnosed with a serious medical condition can make it much easier to avoid a doctor than to take action unfortunately. You're still young though, so if you keep things under control, you may be able to avoid invasive treatments for a quite a while, and with the rate cardiac procedures are evolving, and invasive procedure you may have to get may be done in very minimally invasive ways. A lot of those things are done with a catheter, which comes with risks, but at least won't leave you bedridden for weeks like open heart surgery. 

Regardless of what the tests show, someone mentioned sleep apnea, which is classically associated with excessive sleepiness and waking up short of breath, with an elevated heart rate, which is something you should talk about with your doc as well. If you're not a snorer, you probably don't have much to worry about it, but if you are, that could be the cause of these particular problems. I'm making a point to mention it because sleep apnea I imagine would be particularly dangerous when combined with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, because when you go apnic you're not breathing, and when you're not breathing your blood oxygen drops, which triggers your heart to go crazy to make sure your brain gets oxygen. That is exactly the sort of thing which leads to sudden death in athletes (the heart goes crazy and can't get enough blood to feed itself, which leads to a fatal arrhythmia). Even if you don't have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, sleep apnea is still very serious (a lot more serious than people think it is), so you should still make sure you discuss it with your doc.


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## FairleighCalm (May 20, 2007)

I forgot to mention that for minor breathing problems, like sinuses that close/change during night, I use Breathe Right Extra strips. They really help.


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