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What Causes Shortness Of Breath And Pounding Heart Beats While Sleeping?
Posted on
Tue, 4 Nov 2014
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Tue, 4 Nov 2014
Answered on
Fri, 21 Nov 2014
Last reviewed on
Question : Heart related question
at night when I fall asleep sometimes I wake up to gasping for air and my heart will start pounding. should I be worried?
at night when I fall asleep sometimes I wake up to gasping for air and my heart will start pounding. should I be worried?
Brief Answer:
Hear problems
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for contacting HCM
I am sorry to hear that you are having to wake at night with shortness of breath and heart pounding.
These symptoms are seen usually in people who have a heart condition. In looking through your history you have had similar problems but no diagnosis of heart disease. It would be very unusual for a your female to have heart disease.
In you case you may have night time gastro esophageal reflux. That occurs when laying flat the valve that keeps food and acid in the stomach does no close completely. When you lay down flat then acid can get in the esophagus and migrate all the way to your throat. This will give you a feeling of shortness of breath and heart racing as it maybe actually causing you to stop breathing at night. To help relieve the reflux I recommend my patient to elevate the head of the bed by 2-3 inches. This will help use gravity to keep acid down.
Another cause could be sleep apnea. There is an epidemic of sleep apnea in the United States. Some people even if they are not overweight are not breathing while sleeping. This puts tremendous pressure on the heart and causes people to wake in the middle of the night short of breath. To diagnose sleep apnea you need an over night sleep study. If there is sleep apnea the treatment would be exercise, weight loss and a sleep apnea machine called CPAP to help breathing at night. This will eliminate the night time wakening and make you feel overall much better.
Hope this answers your question. Please contact us again with your medical concerns and questions
Hear problems
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for contacting HCM
I am sorry to hear that you are having to wake at night with shortness of breath and heart pounding.
These symptoms are seen usually in people who have a heart condition. In looking through your history you have had similar problems but no diagnosis of heart disease. It would be very unusual for a your female to have heart disease.
In you case you may have night time gastro esophageal reflux. That occurs when laying flat the valve that keeps food and acid in the stomach does no close completely. When you lay down flat then acid can get in the esophagus and migrate all the way to your throat. This will give you a feeling of shortness of breath and heart racing as it maybe actually causing you to stop breathing at night. To help relieve the reflux I recommend my patient to elevate the head of the bed by 2-3 inches. This will help use gravity to keep acid down.
Another cause could be sleep apnea. There is an epidemic of sleep apnea in the United States. Some people even if they are not overweight are not breathing while sleeping. This puts tremendous pressure on the heart and causes people to wake in the middle of the night short of breath. To diagnose sleep apnea you need an over night sleep study. If there is sleep apnea the treatment would be exercise, weight loss and a sleep apnea machine called CPAP to help breathing at night. This will eliminate the night time wakening and make you feel overall much better.
Hope this answers your question. Please contact us again with your medical concerns and questions
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
Answered by
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