Heart Pounding during the night makes it difficult to fall back asleep

Your claimed HR is normal, even low-normal, for someone rising to void and then getting back into bed. I have been a runner/snowshoer/cyclist all my life, and my HR will go to 90 just getting out of bed. I am somewhat reactive, obviously, but I'm soon down into the 60's or lower. Prior to developing atrial fibrillation, my resting HR was in the 40's. Post catheter ablation, two of them, it is about 62 seated or any length of time. So, there is something else going on. A pounding heart might be an arrhythmia, or it might just be an adrenergic response...except that those typically come with an elevated HR in the 90-130 range.

Thank you for your response. That is interesting. My HR definitely is elevated when I get up to use the bathroom. But it goes back down. What doesn’t stop after 3:00 am is the pounding.

I think that you’re having night time depression or anxiety, your heart beat is not high but you mentioned that it beats hard. I’ve suffered with both rapid heartbeat and also heavy heartbeat, both were due to anxiety and depression. It’s curious that so many people have this issue and it seems to be affecting them around 3-3:30am., this is also the case with me, the hardest part is trying to get back to sleep. I don’t take sleeping pills but I take 0.5 mg. of Ativan and it helps me to calm down and get back to sleep, I’m not recommending this medication due to all the negative publicity but perhaps you can get help from your doctor to try another medication to help you with this problem. I know that some people are able to handle this by deep breathing or in some cases they get up for a while until it passes, I’m sure that you will find what works best for you with help.

Hi Zubedude;
My first thought would be that you get focused on your heartbeat and maybe anxious about it. It’s happened to me.
Second thought would be a question-have you been checked for sleep apnea?
I have sleep apnea and wake up with elevated hr-nothing dramatic, but maybe the result of an event. Once I get focused on it, I can feel every beat(or pvc). Apneic events can send the heart, kidneys, adrenaline etc into overdrive(personal experience).
Probably worth mentioning to your dr.

Hello @zubedude, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect.
I'm glad you found this online support group and posted your question. The thing about Connect is we cannot give medical advise, only our opinions. And those can be right or wrong because each person is unique and special and so are their circumstances.
For instance, I had a pounding and fast heart beat (120s) in the middle of the night many times. So bad at times it would literally shake the bed. It definitely caused anxiety. However, my symptoms were all due to Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and since my septal myectomy I no longer suffer from this.
The reason I share this with you is to encourage you to mention this to your FP doctor or if you have a cardiologist mention these incidents to them. We can offer our opinions here, but we cannot diagnosis or recommend treatments. We can share our story, but still...we can only guess what is causing your issues at night. Do you have a trusted family doctor or cardiologist you can see?

Thank you. Yeah, Ativan put me in the emergency room.

My cardiologist says my heart is fine.