I know that I should see a doctor for an official diagnosis and that Yahoo! Answers is not a credible method of determining something like this, but I already have an appointment scheduled for next week and am concerned in the meantime, so this couldn’t hurt.

I have a heart murmur as well as some form of arrhythmia where my heart will skip beats throughout the day. I’ve had this condition since I was young, and after extensive tests by doctors over the years, have been told repeatedly that the murmur is benign and nothing to worry about. However, over the past few months, I have been occasionally waking up gasping for air, coughing, and choking on my saliva as though I’ve just inhaled saliva into my lungs. In addition to this, occurring about just as frequently but on separate nights, I will wake up after having dreamt that I have had an extremely bad case of my heart skipping beats. Since these are just dreams, I normally would not be concerned, but the nature of these dreams reminds me of a specific kind where a previous dream is interrupted by a new dream about something occurring in or near my room.

For example, if I really have to urinate and am in REM sleep, my dream will be interrupted by another dream about me waking up and running to the bathroom to urinate, even though I am still dreaming. These “heart skipping a beat” dreams are very similar to this, especially since I always dream that I’m still in my bed and have just woken up as this is happening. There is often a sense of impending death, and the beat skipping is far faster, heavier, or “harder” than it usually is during the day.

For instance, the last time I slept, I had a dream about waking up in my bed to find that my heart had almost stopped completely, with occasional rapid, “hard” beats. I then REALLY woke up to find myself lying on the left side of my chest where my heart is. Usually, however, the dream involves an incredibly fast heart rate (I’m guessing 250+ bpm) along with skipped beats, a sense of being about to die, and then I wake up on my back as opposed to on my side. I also wake up on my back on the nights where I’m gasping for air and coughing.

As I understand it, sleep apnea may cause the gasping for air in the middle of the night. Doing some of my own research, I’ve also found that otherwise benign arrhythmias can cause sudden death during REM sleep for people who have sleep apnea. As both the gasping for air phenomenon and my arrhythmia dreams seem to be increasing in frequency, how likely is it that I could die in my sleep soon from cardiac arrest?

Thanks!

Tagged with: About • arrhythmia • dreaming • Heart

Filed under: Sleep Apnea Diagnosis

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