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Dear Medical Experts of the GWF:
- Thread starter Fool's Requiem
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It can't be anxiety. I'm not anxious about much, and it only happens after naps... sometimes. I know what being genuinely anxious feels like. It feels like my stomach is about to eject itself from my body.
The napping thing is more reminiscent of when I would wake up in a shock (say if someone touched me to wake me up or a loud alarm/noise).
The napping thing is more reminiscent of when I would wake up in a shock (say if someone touched me to wake me up or a loud alarm/noise).
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Yes.
Don't believe the anxiety hype. I've been told my shortness of breath is "anxiety" for 10 years. It also comes with a bunch of other weird symptoms, including racing heart at weird times like waking from a nap (or perhaps waking me up from my nap). In spite of trying to tell people I don't feel anxious very often, although when I do it's a different sensation entirely, I spent a decade removing every stressor possible from my life thinking I must be crazy.
In the end, I have a neuromuscular condition and some kind of weird food intolerance, and all that stressor removing was a big waste of time.
Look, it might be anxiety, but if you have an idea of what anxiety feels like to you and this isn't it, trust yourself.
That said, identifying the cause of the racing heart won't be easy, especially because everyone is going to want to get the satisfaction of "quickly solving your problem" by telling you it's probably just anxiety. In my medical research adventures, there do seem to be a lot of people with autoimmune disorders and chronic fatigue syndrome that experience weird feeling heart beats and get no answers from doctors about what exactly causes it. Notably it feels like my heart is beating so hard my entire body is vibrating, with or without the racing. And sometimes my Apple Watch heart rate monitor triggers even though I was just laying down. For me these things ended up being triggered by foods and drugs, but it was NOT obvious because it doesn't start immediately after exposure, but several hours later, so tracking down the things was utterly painstaking and took a couple years of spreadsheets.
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Yeah, I feel like I've done a solid job at keeping stressors to a minimum because of how much long term impact stress has on one's heart. Anxiety is definitely not a common thing for me. I typically maintain a "meh" vibe.
this is more in line with what I get. It's not super common and there's no guarantee it'll happen after a nap. It never happens after waking up from sleeping overnight outside of the extremely rare "nightmare".
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Yeah, same. I also have it happen when I'm not sleeping. For a very long time it seemed completely random. I can see it's not random now, but in spite of a lot of research, I'm no closer to understanding what, exactly, is happening, even if I've tracked down the things that trigger it.
I agree with @TD it's probably worth getting an EKG if you really want to be sure. Heart disorders can be very sneaky.
In my case, I did have an EKG done, as well as a tilt table test ordered by the same doctor as I faint sometimes as well. They weren't able to find any problems besides I do, indeed, faint. They recommended buying an at home blood pressure monitor to see if blood pressure is randomly dropping outside of in lab experiments. However, it's always normal, even during the weird heart beating. Still, they were all good ideas to try and worth trying if you're developing any other weird symptoms or if it seems to be getting worse.
I've also had many other tests done, some tangentially related, like a polysomnography and multiple sleep latency test. They couldn't find anything wrong besides unexplained central apneas and long sleep times. The sleep doctors recommended I get a brain MRI to see if a brain injury was causing bad signals, and the MRI was also normal.
In the end, doctors found unexplained symptoms, but no causes in lab tests. I finally tested positive for myasthenia gravis antibodies, and I have Factor V Leiden mutation (blood clotting disorder). I did not test positive for the type of myasthenia gravis antibodies that affect the heart muscles. The weird heart beats now I can see are clearly related to the same things that trigger myasthenia gravis symptoms, but doctors have found no reason for it, and neither have I.
TLDR: From reading communities, it's a fairly common and unexplained complaint I've seen in autoimmune communities, but certainly worth trying the more obvious tests like EKG to rule out things if you have the means to do so, especially if it gets worse or more frequent.
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Ok, so I just took a nap, and lemme tell you, I feel refreshed. Naps are great. Highly recommended.
I have to correct some previous statements because it just happened again.
So... the heart-rate isn't any faster (or much faster) than normal. It's more pronounced. I can easily feel it. If I needed to do a BP count, I could do it without using my wrist or neck. Right now, as I'm typing this, it's back to "normal", and I can't feel anything. It's only right after a nap and only a nap.
I don't recall a dream (it was only like 20-30 minutes anyway), but even if I did, I don't think the dream or anxiety would cause my heart rate to be "stronger feeling". Same with the alarm waking me up.
I have to correct some previous statements because it just happened again.
So... the heart-rate isn't any faster (or much faster) than normal. It's more pronounced. I can easily feel it. If I needed to do a BP count, I could do it without using my wrist or neck. Right now, as I'm typing this, it's back to "normal", and I can't feel anything. It's only right after a nap and only a nap.
I don't recall a dream (it was only like 20-30 minutes anyway), but even if I did, I don't think the dream or anxiety would cause my heart rate to be "stronger feeling". Same with the alarm waking me up.
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like after a nap or in general?
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Both. You should know your baseline and what it is when you are feeling symptomatic
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I know my baseline is well within normal specs. I'd likely need to buy a watch that reads my BP, remember to put it on when I nap, and then wait for it to happen again.
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Get a control reading when you’re relaxed and nourished adequately first, then check after you notice those feelings.
I am in agreement with the others about anxiety, though. What you’re describing is essentially how it first started manifesting for me, and I let it go unchecked til I got to a point where I was hitting 180bpm, which is not healthy at all. That’s not to say you’re gonna end up in that boat I was in, because everyone reacts differently, but there are definitely reoccurring themes.
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I’d get a real blood pressure cuff not a watch
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@Fool's Requiem Here's the blood pressure monitor I have (get the arm cuff not the wrist one), it's pretty cheap and though I haven't checked side by side, seems to be decently accurate as it returns results similar to the doctor's. I personally then use Apple's health app or whatever it's called to keep record of the results. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N9I63PG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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