Thread: Heart Skipping Beats

In my case, it's mostly due to anxiety. I have anxiety symptoms even when I'm not in any emotional distress. I had those a LOT when I was in my teens. I even had to wear a heart monitor. The doctors wrote it off as caffeine. It wasn't until the last 10 years or so that anxiety was mentioned as the cause.
It could also just be because of changing your breathing?
Perhaps a check up is in order. But I wouldn't worry about it unless you have them at other times or they change in intensity or duration.

The person who used to be my boyfriend had that problem. He also had "chest problems." He had a good diet. But he was extremely stressed, anxious, etc. That fits with Zhaylin's post, at least.

How do you know that your heart is skipping a beat? I can't feel my heart beating at all at its regular pace unless I hold my hand up to an artery. It seems that if it skipped a beat, I wouldn't notice it.

Hi - I've had it quite badly when I get stressed/anxious. I wore a monitor and had a full check up by a cardiologist. In my case it was "premature ventricular contractions" but as long as these are not caused by any serious underlying disorder (which mine were not), he assured me they were completely harmless. Apparently a lot of people have them and don't ever even notice. I know each one feels like your heart is going to stop, but it isn't! Of course, go to your doctor and get this checked out first, and then just practice ignoring it and not getting anxious each time it happens

I have the same thing from time to time, though I find it's usually unrelated to stress (or, at least, it doesn't happen specifically when I'm anxious or anything). It might happen, on average, once or twice in a two week time span. If it happens more often than that for you, I would see somebody about it. I doubt it's supposed to happen as often as it does for me (sometimes it's more than once in a day, but usually after that day it's a long time before it happens again). I figure it's just an occasional, and in my experience, harmless foul-up my body makes. I've been experiencing these missed beats since I was like 9, as far as I can remember.

Really, the decision to see a doctor about it is one that you should make based on your feelings on the situation. Knowing your family's heart/health history, experiencing the missed beat yourself, knowing yourself and your body, you should be able to decide whether this is alarming enough and/or risky enough to see a doctor about. Unless you just don't have the money, don't forget it's you you're talking about. Investing in your health is probably worth the money.

I don't normally notice my pulse UNLESS it's skipping lol or if it's unusually fast. When I was a kid, I rode my bike a LOT and I always likened the feeling to pedaling regularly, then in reverse, then regularly again. That description has stuck with me all my life, but people look at my like I'm crazy It's just a "flip flop" sensation that's VERY noticeable.
Whenever I'm laying down, I can see my pulse where my ribs meet, and I can always see my pulse in my wrists and near my ankles.

Once I figured out the flutters weren't going to kill me, I thought they were the neatest things in the world. When I got one, I would often feel like coughing and I would try to change my breathing pattern to trigger another one Since I've been on anti-anxiety meds, I very rarely experience them at all anymore.

Thanks for all the posts guys. I'm not really stressed out or anxious at all. I'm normally very relaxed and laid back. As for how do I know, when I lay down to go to sleep I sleep on my stomach and I can feel my heartbeat in my chest. It doesn't happen too often, maybe once or twice a week, but it still scares me when it does happen. My family doesn't have any sort of history of heart problems so I don't think its hereditary. I might just bring up to my doctor next checkup though. I have to go for a physical in a few weeks anyway so I might as well.

Do you have high(ish) blood pressure? Afaik, that can cause the palpitations (noticeable beats) you're feeling when lying down. Oddly enough, the same thing happens to me, but only if I'm lying on my back. As you might be able to guess, I sleep on my stomach or on my side. I only ask about your blood pressure because I only experience this if I've taken my prescription for the day (Adderall--it causes my blood pressure to raise). If I haven't, I don't notice my heart at all unless I try to, and normally I have pretty low blood pressure.

No, my blood pressure is fine. I actually just gave blood last week and it was 115/78, or so. I'm rather skinny though, and if I do any rigorous excersize you can sometimes see it beating.

I recall this happening once and MY WORD did it scare me. I thought maybe it happened in a dream, but reading through this thread I am starting to second-guess that belief. I go to regular check-ups, they've found anything with my heart. I'll mention this to the doc next time.

What I've realized from my experiences with meditation and drugs, is that the heart is just another muscle that our brain has control over and if you want to you can stop it. It's really amazing that it never stops beating. I've had irregular heart beat making my heart stop but not wanting to die so it kept beating lol

Sounds like you might have an arrhythmia. I don't know how common this is in humans, but I work in an animal hospital and I'd estimate that maybe 1 in 5 dogs that come in have some sort of arrhythmia (not the reason they are brought in). So it's really common and not usually anything to be worried about, even though it may seem alarming to you. It's always best to get checked out by a doctor though, of course.

Cardiac dysrhythmia (also known as arrhythmia and irregular heartbeat) is any of a large and heterogeneous group of conditions in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The heart beat may be too fast or too slow, and may be regular or irregular.

Some arrhythmias are life-threatening medical emergencies that can result in cardiac arrest. Others cause symptoms such as an abnormal awareness of heart beat (palpitations), and may be merely annoying. These palpitations have also been known to be caused by atrial/ventricular fibrillation, wire faults, and other technical or mechanical issues in cardiac pacemakers/defibrillators. Still others may not be associated with any symptoms at all, but may predispose the patient to potentially life threatening stroke or embolism.

Some arrhythmias are very minor and can be regarded as normal variants. In fact, most people will on occasion feel their heart skip a beat, or give an occasional extra strong beat; neither of these is usually a cause for alarm.

Read More: Cardiac Dysrhythmia

Probably what Nina said. Do you smoke, or used to? .. any drugs?