Waking with Rapid Heart Beat

I've been scanning through posts trying to find information about problems I'm having.

I have to say that the posts I read seemed to be in another language . I have been on my devilbiss intelipap (My first and only machine) almost 2 years now and all I do is put it on and go to sleep, so I don't know a lot about all the technical lingo. I have loved it! But recently I have been waking in the night with the same problems I had before I began using it.
I wake feeling short of breath with my heart beating like I just finished a marathon! I have horrible insurance now & I'm hoping I can solve the problem on my own, (with help from the good people on here ) It's a scary feeling to wake like that again.

I have tried changing the pressure from my norm of about 8 up to 12 and also down to 6; no help.
I use the ResMed Swift FX Nasal Pillow Mask.

I'm hoping some on here will have some suggestions for me.
Thanks,
Manifest

I don't like giving advice when the heart is involved. My first thought would be to see a doctor...soon. But, if you are not going to do that, I would recommend going to a pharmacy and purchasing a puls ox ($50-$60) to check your heart rate and oxygen level. Often, from my own experience, I felt that my heart was racing, but when I slipped the puls ox on my finger I found that it was not that high.

This is really quite serious. Get back to your doctor regardless. When you have an apnea it desaturates your oxygen and causes damage to your heart and brain and leads to stroke, heart attack and dementia. Don't play around. Get serious help. You may need another sleep study or maybe just a simple tweaking but see a doctor.

If you had a sleep study in a clinic then they should have told you if you suffer from heart problems. It's possible that they did but you don't mentioned it here. What have they diagnose you with?

I don't have any heart problems. Just a few months ago I did my routine EKG Stress test. I'm in reasonably good shape and health for a 50 yr old male. I just think my problem is that my airway is not staying open, and thus the same problems as before I started on CPAP therapy.

Thanks to all for your advice and concern.
Any other suggestions?

It may be that your machine needs to be adjusted. Is it capable of giving you data--I'm not familiar with those machines to know which models have data.

You could try to figure out how to view the data yourself or call your sleep doctor or DME. Sometimes we change and the former settings are ineffective, but you are just taking stabs in the dark if you try to change the settings without data to guide you.

Manifest Destiny wrote:I've been scanning through posts trying to find information about problems I'm having.

I have to say that the posts I read seemed to be in another language . I have been on my devilbiss intelipap (My first and only machine) almost 2 years now and all I do is put it on and go to sleep, so I don't know a lot about all the technical lingo. I have loved it! But recently I have been waking in the night with the same problems I had before I began using it.
I wake feeling short of breath with my heart beating like I just finished a marathon! I have horrible insurance now & I'm hoping I can solve the problem on my own, (with help from the good people on here ) It's a scary feeling to wake like that again.

I have tried changing the pressure from my norm of about 8 up to 12 and also down to 6; no help.
I use the ResMed Swift FX Nasal Pillow Mask.

I'm hoping some on here will have some suggestions for me.
Thanks,
Manifest

Your description sounds like "classic" mouth-leaking (losing your therapy air) and your therapy is virtually non-existent.
If you're waking up with dry mouth, that would be a big clue. You're using a nasal mask and your symptoms sound like someone who has lots of apneas and hadn't started therapy yet........that's what jumped out at me and is somewhat common to someone who wear nasal masks and leak air out of their mouths while they sleep. If that's the problem, increasing pressures is only going to increase the amount of therapy air you're losing.


Den

.

You could have early atrial fibrillation (often a result of apnea) and, not to upset anyone, but normal EKG's happen every day, followed by MI's on the next day... definitely not the test of much at all. Do talk to your doctor and try to optimize your treatment here and I agree you should use an oximeter.

I also had a major problem waking up with tachycardia. In my case it persisted for several hours.

I do not think the problem I had is what the OP is experiencing, I am only mentioning it here as the topic may draw attention of someone that does have the same problem as I had.

I'll try to keep this short. I do have cardiac disease (blocked artery, one stent inserted), and high blood pressure - 66 years old)

After experiencing tachycardia several times, I went to see my cardiologist. Took a stress EKG, no problems found. He sent me for a sleep study (been on CPAP for 6 years, he wanted to see if anything changed). He also sent me to a specialist (electrophysiologist?). I had an EP study and potential cardiac ablation. No abnormalities were found, no ablation performed - thank God!

The cardiologists put their heads together and decided to change my blood pressure med from carvedilol to sotalol.

I have not experienced another tachycardia since - almost a year!

I am mildly annoyed that they did not change the meds first to save the pain and expense of the EP study (they basically run electrodes through a vein in your groin into your heart looking for electrical problems, the ablate (burn!) and suspected problem areas.

Anyway, for anyone having tachycardia, consider that perhaps one of your meds could be at fault......