Nightmares, heart issues, and sleep study

I had a terrible nightmare during my sleep study (last week). It got physical. I was almost certain I had heart issues right after and maybe during. Actually, I thought I was having a heart attack...the stereotypical symptoms, and it wasn't GERD.

Do heart irregularities show up in sleep study graphs? They have heart sensors on you, correct?

I suppose I might have stopped breathing, and I realize this might cause an oxygen drop with a chain reaction requiring my heart to overexert itself to push more oxygen into the blood. Is that measured too?

I know there was an oximeter on the finger, but is the BPM (beats per minute) measured too?

They would have video of the incident, correct? It was pretty wild.

It shouldn't have been physically wild, because limbs are "frozen" during REM, and nightmares occur during REM?

Are nightmares figured into scores that would be relevant to CPAP? How about heart issues?

Does anyone have a clip from a sleep graph so I can see how a nightmare might relate to a heart mess that might relate to apnea (or other breathing event)?

I don't want a heart issue to escape notice....

Thanks for your expertise!

If you are worried I'd go to a doctor, not the internet. Jim

Zeds wrote:I had a terrible nightmare during my sleep study (last week). It got physical. I was almost certain I had heart issues right after and maybe during. Actually, I thought I was having a heart attack...the stereotypical symptoms, and it wasn't GERD.

Do heart irregularities show up in sleep study graphs? They have heart sensors on you, correct?

I suppose I might have stopped breathing, and I realize this might cause an oxygen drop with a chain reaction requiring my heart to overexert itself to push more oxygen into the blood. Is that measured too?

I know there was an oximeter on the finger, but is the BPM (beats per minute) measured too?

They would have video of the incident, correct? It was pretty wild.

It shouldn't have been physically wild, because limbs are "frozen" during REM, and nightmares occur during REM?

Are nightmares figured into scores that would be relevant to CPAP? How about heart issues?

Does anyone have a clip from a sleep graph so I can see how a nightmare might relate to a heart mess that might relate to apnea (or other breathing event)?

I don't want a heart issue to escape notice....

Thanks for your expertise!

Hi Zeds. Sorry it was such a bad experience for you. It can be surreal. There are wires hooked up all over you, measuring things like limb movement, heart rate, etc. I don't know enough to answer medical questions, but can tell you that your doctor should be able to review the results and help you understand them. You've taken the first step toward dealing with your sleep disordered breathing.

Your heart rate (BPM) was measured along with bunch of other heart stuff because they attach EKG leads as part of the in lab sleep study.
So you essentially had an EKG all night long. So yes, heart irregularities that show up on an EKG will show up.

Your oxygen levels are also monitored by the finger tip pulse oximeter that you wore all night so any drops would be recorded.

Request a copy of your sleep study and all this information will be in the report.

Goofproof wrote:If you are worried I'd go to a doctor, not the internet. Jim

Thanks. Great advice. The doctor part is handled.

Within the last year, I had an aerobic heart test (EEG?), and they stopped the test because I was way healthier than the testers...

I'm just wondering what a sleep graphic looks like. I don't know what all those sensors in the sleep study measure and am especially wondering if nightmares have a typical graph pattern. Like, do the peaks and valleys go wild?

Zeds wrote:

Goofproof wrote:If you are worried I'd go to a doctor, not the internet. Jim

Thanks. Great advice. The doctor part is handled.

Within the last year, I had an aerobic heart test (EEG?), and they stopped the test because I was way healthier than the testers...

I'm just wondering what a sleep graphic looks like. I don't know what all those sensors in the sleep study measure and am especially wondering if nightmares have a typical graph pattern. Like, do the peaks and valleys go wild?

Wondering too much adds stress and causes heart trouble.

The bad thing about heart tests you can pass them and die from a heart attact on the steps of the Doctors, or you can be texting walking to the parking lot and be killed by a bus. Life isn't a sure thing, death is. Jim

Hi Zeds. Pugsy and Bertha have given great information. Since the study does monitor oxygen level, heart rate, and gives you a report on your heart like an EKG, anything that happened the night of study in those area would show up. I've had really bad dreams before where I woke up with my heart pounding, breathing rapidly, and scared to death almost. It's amazing what nightmares can do to us.

And it's good to know you've been in contact with your doctor with some heart testing in the last year. Due to my family history, I've had quite a few cardiac-related tests over the last year (all with good results). As Goofproof stated, good results from testing don't guarantee a person won't have a cardiac event, but I believe it's much more likely you won't, especially if multiple tests show good results.

And after you get the sleep study report, talk with your sleep doc about the results related to your experience.

Thanks, all!

xxyzx wrote:

WearyOne wrote:Hi Zeds. Pugsy and Bertha have given great information. Since the study does monitor oxygen level, heart rate, and gives you a report on your heart like an EKG, anything that happened the night of study in those area would show up. I've had really bad dreams before where I woke up with my heart pounding, breathing rapidly, and scared to death almost. It's amazing what nightmares can do to us.

And it's good to know you've been in contact with your doctor with some heart testing in the last year. Due to my family history, I've had quite a few cardiac-related tests over the last year (all with good results). As Goofproof stated, good results from testing don't guarantee a person won't have a cardiac event, but I believe it's much more likely you won't, especially if multiple tests show good results.

And after you get the sleep study report, talk with your sleep doc about the results related to your experience.

======

IT may catch some things

but to be sure a full range of tests need to be run by a cardiologist with all channels of an EKG not the abbreviated one done in a sleep lab, plus many others like echogram, artery blockage scans, etd.

Don't leave out, the infamous treadmill test, monitored by a person who's job description is keeper of the whip, driving you into a heart attack then and there, I was lucky to make it out to my truck alive.... Jim

I had already had two stints and a quad by-pass, this was their last chance to kill my, I thought, I was wrong, one year later they installed a Di-Fib, single chamber, With DEFECTIVE LEADS. It's been in over eleven years, still defective, running on the same battery.

Out of nearly a dozen sleep studies, only once was the doctor open to reviewing any video with me, and that was because of being studied specifically for limb movements and there was a specific time frame at issue. It's a lot of hours of footage, unless one can narrow down the time in question. If you do ask your sleep doctor (wouldn't expect your GP to know) you might want to consolidate your concerns because several wide open questions might be a bit much to hit them with. As has been said, your sleep study will specify any arrythmias recorded. For instance mine described PVC's and PAC's. If you do ask the doc, here's kinda what I'm thinking...
Can you identify from the data in a sleep study when a nightmare is happening? (Only requires a yes or not answer.) Tell them that during the
study you had a nightmare and woke with symptoms that made you concerned about your heart. Ask them if anything in the study indicates a need for
follow up with a heart doctor.
That said, before treatment I was haunted by bad dreams where someone or something was always on the verge of death. Sometimes I woke wondering if I needed to call 911 due to my heart. In retrospect, I believe those times were classic OSA events. But I guess with the heart there is no such thing as being too cautious, and I was probably foolish in assuming I was ok. Hopefully your test results can put your mind at ease.