Has anyone experienced a rapid heart rate when trying to fall asleep?

[ImHere_Again]

For a couple of days. I have not been able to sleep because of this feeling. I feel fine when I'm about to sleep and then as I am entering a deep sleep I suddenly get waken up by a jerk. I ignore it and try to continue sleeping sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I try to sleep but I just feel my heart racing, making it hard for me to sleep. I give this several attempts through the night. Unfortunately for me, it's a constant cycle. As I fall into a deep sleep my heart just beats faster. It's very frustrating. Its been days and I have lost a lot of sleep due to this feeling. I really hope it's just anxiety.

[Agora1]

Hello my friend x it can be a very common, not dangerous episode which can happen to

people with anxiety or not. Our brain hangs on to the stress of the day and sometimes makes it's appearance just as we are about to fall asleep with a jerk. It's just the muscles trying to overtake the thoughts in the sub conscious mind. The brain which is on guard 24/7 sends out an alert, waking the anxious person up. We then get frightened and go into

fast breathing pattern, fast heart rate which produces adrenaline and sleep is put on the back burner.

Ways to avoid this happening is to not exercise too close to bedtime, not to drink caffeine in the evening, doing meditation and breathing exercises before bed. Most of all know that it is

not a danger to your mind or body but a natural phenomenon that happens to all of us. xx

[Hidden]

Had the same thing after atrial flutter. Found magnesium works well as well as tumeric and no caffeine and cut down on sugar and salt. If you can't quit caffeine and reduce sugar and salt, don't have any after 2pm.

[avaara_01]

Have had this for 3-4 back to back days because of stress and overthinking. After that i decided that i would study before bed everyday and will concentrate on the books. It actually worked. Idk why but we automatically feel tired while reading academic books. So why not we try it now...

[JohnnyBTryingToRelax]

You should look into "sleep anxiety" which is something I used to get a very long long time ago. It was bad, I would literally wake up out of my sleep with my heart beating fast and just run in whatever direction. Or as soon as my body would get to the point of drifting off to sleep id immediately be full of anxiety. What solved it was putting on some cartoons or YouTube, (something you like to watch) until your brain makes you sleep

[pmspaul]

Yes, I had this. I would get really anxious while trying to fall asleep. Had a lot of nights where I'd only sleep 3 or 4 hours and couldn't seem to let myself fall asleep until I was exhausted. Every night for a while I really felt like I would likely die in my sleep and never see tomorrow.

I believe the cause(s) were undiagnosed sleep apnea and anxiety. Whether the anxiety was caused by the sleep apnea or just made worse by it, I have no idea. But since getting diagnosed with sleep apnea last July, things have really improved. I have no idea how long I was suffering from sleep apnea, but it came to a head after months of existing in that scared awake, fight or flight adrenaline-laced hyper anxious sleep deprived mode which can be caused by sleep apnea. My wife said I would occasionally stop breathing (actually long pauses) at night, but I had no idea it was as bad as it actually was.

I don't know what it might be in your case, but as others have mentioned, I cut out all stimulants altogether. At the very least, cut them out before bedtime. Also, like others mentioned, finding something that relaxes your brain before bed. Reading, tv, music, whatever works. I got so bad I had to quit watching tv shows that were messing with my stress levels before bed. I stuck to only comedies, so I didn't have some manufactured worry in my head about some stupid tv character and their problems from the tv show. Stupid, I know, but that's where I was at the time.