I'm 15 and I have the exact same problem. Thank you for clearing that up.
About six months ago, this started happening to me. I'm a relatively healthy 29 year old woman. I try to eat a whole food, plant-based diet and I workout 2-3 times a week.
I started having crazy strong heartbeats when I laid down to sleep. I'm a side and back sleeper and when on my left side, my pulse felt so strong that it felt like my heart could break my ribs. I've taken my pulse during these episodes and it is my average resting rate (about 65bpm). It is so hard to explain. I told my husband it's like someone pounding on a drum. It's the same beat a rhythm, but they're just hitting the drum a lot harder.
To me, it doesn't necessarily feel "wrong" but it is so distracting that it makes it impossible to sleep.
I have noticed that is happens with the most frequency when I break my usual routine. I can almost guarantee it when I stay at a hotel and its happening right now when I have a house full of guests. I guess this points to an anxiety/ stress condition but I don't feel anxious. I'm also a very rare drinker and I tend to be drinking in these situations (I had a few glasses of wine tonight) so maybe that is it too?
Mostly, I just want to sleep again. I miss feeling tired and knowing I'll fall asleep without issue.
Hey all,
I'm suffering the many of the same problems you have all described. I am 23, 170 pounds, 6'2", and workout 3-4 times a week, both weights and cardio. I have never smoked and drink alcohol sparingly. However, lately my heartbeat has felt so strong when I even walk somewhere that it feels like it going to beat out of my chest. I can see my chest and stomach beating, especially when laying down and it is driving me crazy; I can even hear it. It started about 9 months ago after a night of serious drinking with some college buddies and when I woke up I had a huge panic attack for some reason, felt as if I was having a heart attack. I went to the doctors and my blood pressure came up relatively high 145/70 (it's never been that high), since then I have obsessively checked it and it ranges from 130-155/70ish. When I lightly grasp my hands I can feel the blood pulsing in them. I am a very active and outgoing person, but lately this has began affecting my ability to hang out with friends and do the things I love. My friends and family think I am crazy because I keep mentioning to them that my heartbeat feels so strong that I can't sleep and can feel my whole body pulse.They all say it is stress and anxiety, however being in the military for 4 years I assure you that I've dealt with stress and never had this happen.
I've seen my family physician, been evaluated for pilot training by a team of military doctors, had an EKG, 2 blood tests, and a chest x-ray, and every test has come back perfectly normal; all the docs said I am healthy and capable of flying military aircraft. The only thing that usually catches their attention is elevated blood pressure which they say may be "white coat" syndrome. My physician prescribed me a beta blocker, but I have yet to take it; I would rather try to do this naturally then resort to a prescription.
I notice my symptoms disappear temporarily after some intense cardio which allows me to sleep, but as soon as I wake up everything is back. I also notice that after eating my symptoms are much worse, especially foods that are high in sodium. After a night of drinking I can barely sleep because my heart is pounding so hard. After reading some of these posts I am going to possibly try Vitamin E, Omega 3, Magnesium, or Potassium as well as change my diet to all organic. Hopefully one of these methods will work as it is driving me nuts, its a relief seeing that other people are going through the same thing. If things don't change I am going to consult a cardiologist. I'll report back if any one of these things work.
Best of luck to all as this is the most annoying thing I have ever dealt with in my life.
Yes i have the same problem with allways feeling my heart beating,its called heart conscousness.I can feel it beating when i'm trying to just sit down and read or try to sleep,even when i try yoga just sitting there breathing deep,you have to ignore it,keep occupied doing things all the time,learn guitar,typing,excercise,walking,i know it's horrible when you try to relax,but you just have to hope it will eventually go away,like i said earlyier try yoga from the computer,you don't have to twist yourself in knots,just do the deep breathing part and sayings over and over be tenacious meaning stick with it, you will get better,don't give up,like i did and drank 30 yeras of my life away thinking there was something wrong with me and doing damage mentaly,ive bin off booze 6 years know and can still feel it beat just keep trying keep accupied there nothing wrong,you stronger then you think.:-)
Well, 3 am in the morning, and again, no sleep tonight probably and you can easily guess why.
To the point where all the doctors say that everything is fine and you are perfectly fine.
But can add several remarks as what I noticed throughout the about 4 year long issue.
Started when I was about 20 y/o, sports very active, work and student. All in all was perfectly fine and healthy. Didn't smoke when it first started, now i do.
Throughout the time noticed these things:
- Stress(both ways physical and mental) doesn't cause this in my case because honestly, most often when i was completely worn out it was actually helping me fall asleep even with the strong heart beat.
- Practically never appears(or is not noticeable) when I'm doing something active and in a vertical position.
- Vitamins didn't help(took Centrum for 3 months and no effect although i am still taking on the basis of 2 months taking/1 not taking the vitamins)
- Waked me up very often at during the night without any reason and doesn't let me fall back asleep
- Sleeping pills didn't work(Don't get me wrong but when you end up taking ten times the normal dose and you're staring at the ceiling for 4 hours meant they didn't work) for me to the point that i was assigned phenobarbital pills which by itself is a sedative and it actually worked. Not a very pleasant end of story here.. Everything was going well for like 6 months, got enough sleep and the issues disappeared completely. Long story short... ended up in detox because during this period I maxed out the prescription as constantly took more everytime I felt this feeling coming back(as the body gets use to the medicine it responds less to it) and honestly i don't want to repeat that experience plus it was messing with my thinking and personality.
- Alcohol - THE STRANGEST FACTOR - After my detox, problem came back, obviously with no solution. Noticed that after my nights out I could actually go to sleep. After drinking 3 energy drinks and alcohol(which if mixed actually increase the level of alcohol absorption or just gets you drunk faster in other words) one does not normally go to bed and fall asleep in 5 minutes. Repeated this a couple of times and the effects were I was getting enough sleep so tested it on other drinks. Not a very big fan of hard liquor so went for beer. I even timed it, 15 minutes before i went to bed i started drinking 1-2 beers(depending on what and when i ate before that) and honestly that's the point where i am today, with no solution and a risk of having a drinking problem in the future. Not doing this every day though. If you overdo it.... get ready for a sleepless night ahead.
- Sometimes after this stops and i start to fall asleep something like a wave goes through my whole body like arbitrary muscle contraction(which might make either one of my hands, or leg or any part of the body like jump up) but lasts about 1/10 of a second and then the fun part... sometimes it starts again. This is probably is not relevant though as i was explained, it's a normal thing for the body sometimes to do that, but we don't usually get to remember it.
- Worst case i had was getting 10 hours of sleep in a whole week, that's like i slept 10 hours out of 168 hours that a week has.
- Occasionally i have something like vision blackouts, like.. walking down the street and suddenly your vision starts going black to the point where you see nothing and it appears back, not a good thing while driving i might add..... but most often they appear when i suddenly want to stand up after lying in bed.
I can continue but honestly... i think i'm finally ready to get some sleep. Though 4 hours of sleep isn't enough, better than 3 :D
Not the search the internet for a diagnose type, but seems i came to the point i have no other option.
Most situations i have read here have a lot in common, but differ through details, so please do not consider my case as anything related to your personal experience as it will not be relevant, although looking into what i read here is worth a try.
I certainly know it isn't going to kill me(at least not soon), but it does kill some of the fun in living my life... i do not appreciate that, as not getting enough sleep makes me a rather unpleasant person to be by...
Hello I'm 17 years old and I have the exact same symptoms as all of you, the only difference with me is that this started happening to me after I smoked marihuana, I think it gave me like an anxiety attack or something, and ever since then I would feel my heart beating all strong, and my chest became very sensitive, I can not stand wearing shirts anymore, its very uncomfortable, it bothers me feeling the shirt touching my chest's skin. this started happening to me like 4 months ago, it is very annoying and scary sometimes... I feel uncomfortable.I really hope someone can tell me whats going on with my heart o;
oh God!! This thread always give me a comfort while reading those situation which is similar to mine.
I've been reading this thread often when i feel this thing inside of me that really strong, it's something like this one wanted to blast out. Last 7months i had a check.up to my cardiologist and he give a gadget where it's like a EKG things but it's a portable one and same as EKG is has a lot of wires. i forget the name sorry, but this gadget is very helpful, it can record my whole 72hours non-stop on how my heart bit work, everything happened in your heart in 72hours will be recorded.
And after having that gadget for 3 days with a lot of wires that surrounding my chest. I go back to my cardiologist to return the gadget to examine the results after 2 days.
Doctor said: "Your thankful that you have that strong heart bit because it show that your strongly a live."
:)
But right now I'm still wandering to find an answer of why thing happened, Is there a cause of this?
Is there a medicine to take?
but my cardiologist says it's fine. :/ and didn't even give me any medication. but to stay away stress..
So guys don't worry we can have an answer soon about our problems :)
I also experienced this strong heartbeat condition. I don't know if I had it all my life or if it just developed? I just got used to it and it didn't really bother me anymore. The beats were excessively strong after my midnight meal, when lying in bed.
But I have a solution. For another problem (suddenly red hot ears) I got a BETA BLOCKER medication from my doctor. It's propranolol. I take 20mg twice per day. The first thing I noticed after 2 days was that I didn't feel my heart anymore. this is good :-) . I didn't talk to my doc until now. Maybe this helps some people. Beta blockers are originally thought to lower blood pressure but have a wide range of conditions where they are used. Discuss this with your doctor.
This kind of heart beating is caused by anxiety. You might not be clearly aware of your anxiety level, it might well be acting on a subconscious level, but it is really there. Just try to figure out what events in your life could have trigger that, it should be very obvious, such as a divorce, money issue, kids issues, social isolation, coworkers, etc. Medication such as relaxing or anxiety releasing pills should work.
This kind of heart beating is caused by anxiety. The heart beats like it's struggling, without apparent reason and it feels like someone is hammering it inside the chest. You might not be clearly aware of your anxiety level, it might well be acting on a subconscious level, but it has been accumulation there. Just try to figure out what events in your life could have trigger that, it should be very obvious, such as a divorce, money issue, kids issues, social isolation, coworkers, etc. Medication such as relaxing or anxiety releasing pills should work. I was using Ativan, under prescription. But 1 gr of melatonin (pills are found in pharmacy) are free to buy and gave me good results as well. Melatonin doesn't create dependency and doesn't have secondary effects, it's pretty efficient to keep from insomnia and to relax during night time. Not to be taken during day time, only before going to bed.
Just wanted to add, that I felt exactly the same, the cardiac rhythm is the same but the heart is pounding, the pulse pressure at the forearm feels very powerful and most of all this heart bite is very distracting and mentally annoying, impossible to relax and to get back to sleep. Like I said, the anxiety is not apparent at all, perhaps this happens to people who try to not see the difficulties in life so they can just keep going on. But to this type of persons (I'm one of them) the anxiety builds up in the subconscious. It also happened to me when I moved in a new apartment where for some reason I didn't feel comfortable (thin walls, new neighbors, etc).