Can Sleep Apnea be causing my Palpitations?
I seem to sometimes wake up with a pounding heart, but I have been to the doctor twice and had normal ECGs and blood oxygen levels.
Hello!
I will try to answer to your question as simple as possible.
If you have sleep apnea disorder, your heart may be affected by serious health problems, such as:
-heart arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm. It means that heart may have long pauses between beats, even 2 or 3 seconds long, or extra beats.
-congestive heart failure, in which the heart fails to adequately maintain the circulation of blood. So your heart will deliver low blood oxygen level to the body tissues.
You need to remember that all this heart problems appear most of the time during sleep, when you have apnea episodes.
With CPAP treatment, all this problem will disappear.
I hope this information will help you.
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Yes. Untreated sleep apnea places additional strain on your heart. The only way to diagnose sleep apnea properly is with a sleep study. Please speak with your doctor about having one if you suspect you have sleep apnea.
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RN
I just saw a show on something like this. I don’t remember the name of it now, but the guy was having serious heart problems and after seeing many doctors, found out it was because of apnea. When his breathing stopped in the night it caused his heart to race and all sorts of other things to happen to him. The show might have been called something like Mystery Diagnoses or something like that,.
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The other two answers are right….sleep apnea can cause you to have pounding heartbeats, nightmares, restless sleep, and if someone was to observe you when you fall into a deep sleep, you "literally stop breathing".
If you are a smoker, or have gained wt. or injured your head you can be susceptible to this condition…some docs. think that it could be a genetic link to condition as well.
So a sleep study will shed light on what is causing your palpitations.
References :
Hello!
I will try to answer to your question as simple as possible.
If you have sleep apnea disorder, your heart may be affected by serious health problems, such as:
-heart arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm. It means that heart may have long pauses between beats, even 2 or 3 seconds long, or extra beats.
-congestive heart failure, in which the heart fails to adequately maintain the circulation of blood. So your heart will deliver low blood oxygen level to the body tissues.
You need to remember that all this heart problems appear most of the time during sleep, when you have apnea episodes.
With CPAP treatment, all this problem will disappear.
I hope this information will help you.
References :
http://www.sleep-apnea-guide.com