Heart palpitations at night

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My wife, who's 60 and also has AS, often experiences extreme heart palpitations with increased blood pressure just as she loses consciousness while falling asleep. It wakes her up, and she then stays awake for at least one and sometimes several hours.

My wife usually has steady low blood pressure and pulse. She's had a full cardiovascular check-up which revealed nothing that explains these palpitations.

We're both wondering if this symptom has anything to do with her AS. Do others have this experience?

AS doesn't cause cardiac symptoms, however anxiety can and it's often a comorbid of AS and can hit at any time in life. I've had the exact same thing as your wife.

You have said she has had a full cardiac workup, so I'm assuming that she's worn the holter monitor overnight so that they can see these on EKG?

I've had this happen to me as I was falling asleep and here is why. As you relax and your mind starts drifting, you notice irregularities more than when it's occupied. The "palpitations" I had were actually premature beats. That's very, very common and most people have them all the time and we don't notice them. It feels like our hearts skip a beat, then beat fast, but what it is is, your heart having a beat too fast, then regulating itself. It can frighten you to feel it and so the body naturally dumps adrenaline into the system, which in turn speeds up the heart beat, causing more fear etc.

If she hasn't worn a holter monitor at night to catch it on a strip, then I'd suggest you mention that to the doctor and see if it's possible. If it's not, and he's sure she's fine heartwise, then I'd suggest talking to a therapist that specializes in anxiety disorders, because feeling "irregular heartbeats" and "palpitations" is a very common way for panic disorder to start. Like a headache, it's much easier to prevent when you first start getting it than it is to treat the full blown thing.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I used to suffer from rapid heartbeat; I'd wake up in the night with my heart pounding 150 bpm's, until I learned through trial and error that I have a wheat allergy. I've been off wheat for almost a year now, and feeling much better in the heart department.