Chiliphil1
02-08-2012, 04:56 AM
Last night I had a panic attack while lying in bed trying to go to sleep. I was sure it was a heart attack, so I got very worried, this morning I woke up and and as I always am after an attack I was very observant of what my body, especially my heart was doing, I checked my pulse and found it in the low to mid 50's, my normal rate is low to mid 60's. I have never checked my pulse and found it to be that low, so it worried me.
Another problem that I have, and I think a lot of us do is morning anxiety, it seems that as soon as I wake up it starts, sometimes it passes quickly other times it leads to worsening anxiety. When I say morning anxiety I mean feeling jittery, anxious not necessarily the kind where I'm scared of something, although as stated sometimes it leads to this.
Either way I am posting this to try and help some of us out that have these two problems and are being bothered by them as I am. When these issues were going on I broke the golden rule and I googled about it. In this case I found a perfect piece of info on yahoo answers. The question was " I have a low pulse rate when I wake up, should I be worried" the answer came from someone who listed themselves as a cardiac physician. The answer is as follows.
Not only is it normal, but it shows very well how the system operates. Sleep requires your body to just "tick over", -so very little demand for oxygen, and so the circulation is minimum. But not only is your pulse rate low but also the pressures generated by your heart drop very low too. If you measure your BP readings at the same time, you'll find they're about half your daytime maximum. Now: the interesting bit.... Upon waking and on rising to start the day, you'll usually get an (automatic) swift "Kick" of adrenaline. This boosts the pulse and makes the pressures rise quickly to make your cardiovascular system ready to spring into action. This phase last perhaps an hour or so in most cases, and gradually fades back to normality. Sometimes .. it doesn't . Then you know something's amiss -illness,. impairment, old age, cardiac failure, -... whatever. So now you can see that if you DIDN'T exhibit the symptoms you describe, THAT would be abnormal. You have no cause for concern.
so, you can see that our bodies naturally do this, our low pulse rate in the morning is normal, and the morning anxiety is also a normal thing. Reading this article helped me immensely this morning, and I truly hope it helps someone else ad well, thanks for reading.
Another problem that I have, and I think a lot of us do is morning anxiety, it seems that as soon as I wake up it starts, sometimes it passes quickly other times it leads to worsening anxiety. When I say morning anxiety I mean feeling jittery, anxious not necessarily the kind where I'm scared of something, although as stated sometimes it leads to this.
Either way I am posting this to try and help some of us out that have these two problems and are being bothered by them as I am. When these issues were going on I broke the golden rule and I googled about it. In this case I found a perfect piece of info on yahoo answers. The question was " I have a low pulse rate when I wake up, should I be worried" the answer came from someone who listed themselves as a cardiac physician. The answer is as follows.
Not only is it normal, but it shows very well how the system operates. Sleep requires your body to just "tick over", -so very little demand for oxygen, and so the circulation is minimum. But not only is your pulse rate low but also the pressures generated by your heart drop very low too. If you measure your BP readings at the same time, you'll find they're about half your daytime maximum. Now: the interesting bit.... Upon waking and on rising to start the day, you'll usually get an (automatic) swift "Kick" of adrenaline. This boosts the pulse and makes the pressures rise quickly to make your cardiovascular system ready to spring into action. This phase last perhaps an hour or so in most cases, and gradually fades back to normality. Sometimes .. it doesn't . Then you know something's amiss -illness,. impairment, old age, cardiac failure, -... whatever. So now you can see that if you DIDN'T exhibit the symptoms you describe, THAT would be abnormal. You have no cause for concern.
so, you can see that our bodies naturally do this, our low pulse rate in the morning is normal, and the morning anxiety is also a normal thing. Reading this article helped me immensely this morning, and I truly hope it helps someone else ad well, thanks for reading.