Dreams, Nightmares, and Heart Attacks

[Dragonrock]

When I was a young child I would have terrifying nightmares several times a year. Once I woke up and realized that it was a dream then I was fine and could get right back to sleep, except for one thing. When awakened by one of these nightmares, I would feel pain in my chest. Not just a little twinge, but a huge, burning, twisting pain that would appear slowly, then fade just as slowly. It was acompanied by the sense that my heart had stopped beating and the pain would begin to fade once my heart started again.

Now, I don't know that my heart stopped as I was never under medical care when this happened, and it hasn't happened in about 20 years, but I was wondering if this might have anything to do with sleep paralysis or something similar.

 

[Xeriar]

Where was it located? Did you have any shortness of breath, a desire to adjust your position (sleeping sitting up, and so on?), swelling, or any other symptoms?

I know I had a lung/ribcage condition which is quite excrutiating but persisted mostly because I didn't do enough excersize. What you described also sounds suspiciously like heartburn, though I'd imagine most people are familiar with that.

Angina is often considered suspicious, and can take many forms. Many describe it as a pressure on the sternum (not over the left side of the chest).

Congestive heart failure, if it onsets slowly, can be triggered by extreme physical stress or an infection of some kind.

Ultimately though, I'm just the son of an expert and not an expert myself. There are a lot of potential causes for chest pain, a number of them heart-related, of varying severity.

 

[athon]

Sounds like it might be reflux, to be honest. I had very similar experiences; constant night terrors as a kid (and still on occasion...overactive imagination, I guess) coupled with a burning in the chest. The latter has disappeared.

As a kid, the sphincter that closes the stomach from the oesophagus can still be rather weak. When frightened, the muscles tense, and in some this can cause the stomach (already squeezing from the anxiety) to push acid into the oesophagus, causing a burning feeling.

It feels like your heart, hence being called heart-burn.

Just a guess...

Athon

 

[Dragonrock]

The pain was more like pressure, it seemed to come from my back. But, I do have occasional reflux now, so that's one possiblity.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I've often wondered how many people who are reported as dying "Peacefully, in their sleep..." actually were frightened to death. I know I've been far more frightened in dreams than I ever have been when awake.
I once clocked my heart rate on waking from a nightmare at 180 bpm. At my age , that can't be good.

 

[casebro]

Familiar with Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

Folks who suffer from OSA have breathing passages that collapse when their muscles relax in their sleep. Your lungs/diaphragm try to inhale, but can't. Possibly 50 times per hour, if you don't fully awake. This brings a bout of suffocation. The patient awakes, gasping for air, and often having had a dream of drowning, choking, or other suffocation. The huge adrenaline flow caused by the fear of suffocation causes hearts to race and blood pressure to surge, and seems implicated in strokes. Ever notice the sirens at 6 AM? You can die in your sleep, and not know it til you wake up. The long term effects of the low oxygen is a likely cause of heart disease. Sleep deprivation causes cars accidents too, you actually CAN fall asleep while going down the hiway.

There is also a central apnea, where your brain doesn't tell the body to breath. It may be related to SIDS (crib death). I wonder if growth spurts in older children bring it on?

 

[Dancing David]

Interesting, there are so many possibilities, but as someone who just started treatment for obstructive sleep apnea , that is what I thought of.

Some people with panic disorder have reported to me that they wake up having painic attacks, I think that shoulder compression or a misaligned rib might also do it.