I am a 75 years old man in excellent health, physically active( swimming, windsurfing, jogging ). I have been taking medication for a few years for marginal high blood pressure and cholesterol. My pressure is usually 125/75. The last exam I had ( blood test, heart condition, etc gave me a very clean bill of health) Today I was planning to go swimming at the pool for lapses, as usual, and I took an unusually substantial lunch with fried eggs and a glass of wine ,after which went for an equally afternoon nap (the wine had somehow ..knocked me off.) I was deeply asleep when I was abruptly awaken by my wife yelling something I couldn’t understand at first. It turned out she had left the stove open and the rice was burning. I got so startled for this sudden wake-up , even before knowing what it was, that my heart started racing and I felt something unusually wrong in my body. A sense of heaviness, the heart not only racing, but pounding.. I immediately took my blood pressure and I got even more startled: the first reading was a whopping 170/125. Never ever happened before! The second reading, a few minutes after was better : 145/119. Not bad for the systolic pressure, but still unusually high, especially for the diastolic reading. As a precaution, I took a 2nd blood pressure pill ( I usually take one a day) and a hot bath, after which the readings went back to normal: 120/70. I am planning to see my doctor again soon, , but in the meantime I would like to know if this sudden blood pressure hyke can be explained by the sudden wake-up, the heavy meal and the fact that the nap was in the mid-afternoon, maybe for reasons having to do with a perturbated circadian rhythm. When I nap I usually do it at around 1 p.m and I seem to recall to have had the same symptoms, but much milder after sleeping later on in the afternoon. Thanks for your comments Ittiandro
posted on
Thu, 23 Feb 2017

Fri, 17 Aug 2018
Answered on

Wed, 22 Aug 2018
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