Why after 3 drinks, do I have a racing heart and cannot sleep?

Question

Ever since I turned 40 I have noticed if I have one drink or two I have no issues. When I overindulge at a party I get home and fall asleep then I wake up with very fast palpitation and it is scary. I find it hard to catch my breath which cause more panic. I have had a heart moniter, ekg, and everything looked great. I am very athletic so this is puzzling me.
I know that they figured it was a bit of panic or anxiety but I have noticed other people suffer from this. Why does the alcohol do that to me?

- i even try taking a gravol and that doesnt help me sleep
I dont have high blood pressure if I drink it is lower blood pressure

Answer 1

Get tested for sleep apnea by a good clinic. You spend a night in a "sleep lab" hooked up to an eeg and they watch your sleep habits on a video monitor. They found I stopped breathing literally dozens of times over the course of the night. You don't want to let this go because the problem can cause more serious issues such as stroke and heart disease.

I now use a CPAP breathing device to stop the problem.

Here's specific information from a study re: alcohol consumption and men:

Alcohol increases sleep apnea and oxygen desaturation in asymptomatic men.

* Taasan VC,
* Block AJ,
* Boysen PG,
* Wynne JW.

Using standard sleep techniques, we performed a placebo-controlled and randomized study to assess the effect of alcohol ingestion (2 ml/kg of body weight) on breathing and oxygen saturation during sleep. Twenty asymptomatic men volunteered for the two-night study: 11 were given a placebo on night 1, and alcohol on night 2 (group A); nine were given alcohol on night 1 and a placebo on night 2 (group B). We compared the incidence of sleep events (apnea, hypopnea and arterial oxygen disaturation) during the nights the subjects received alcohol and during the nights they received the placebo. Alcohol was associated with significant increases in the occurrence of the following: the number of sleep events (207 to 383,p less than 0.01), the events of arterial oxygen disaturation (118 to 226, p less than 0.01) and the number of apneic events (20 to 110, p less than 0.01). Alcohol had no significant effects on the number of times hypopnea occurred. Values obtained during sleep on the control night after alcohol ingestion also showed that the episodes of arterial oxygen desaturation remained statistically increased over control values before the ingestion of any alcohol (p = 0.01). These results show that in asymptomatic men alcohol ingestion increases the incidence of arterial oxygen desaturation and disordered breathing during sleep and that the increase in arterial oxygen desaturation persists for an additional night, even when no alcohol is consumed.

PMID: 7258218 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


ADDED NOTE................................................................

What are you nuts taking an over-the-counter med when you are already experiencing difficulty? Meds are meds. You need a doctor. Stop diagnosing yourself and prescribing your own meds. If you don't believe me, here are some of the side effects from Gravol.

Gravol: The ABCs

Gravol® is a trade name for the nonprescription drug dimenhydrinate. Gravol and similar medications are used to prevent and treat nausea and vomiting.

Some people abuse these drugs because large doses can produce a "high" and hallucinations. They are inexpensive and easy to obtain.

To prevent the abuse of these drugs, Alberta pharmacists keep them behind the counter.
Short-Term Effects

* At recommended doses, Gravol can cause drowsiness, dizziness and blurred vision. It can impair your concentration and motor coordination. For these reasons, you should use Gravol with caution if driving or doing other things that require you to be fully alert. It can be especially dangerous to combine it with alcohol and other depressant drugs.
* Dry mouth, excitation and nervousness (especially in children) are other side effects.
* Abusers often take 5 to 25 tablets. At the lower doses, you can experience feelings of well-being and euphoria. At the higher doses you can hallucinate. Taking Gravol with alcohol, codeine and other depressant drugs intensifies these effects.
* Large doses can also cause sluggishness, paranoia, agitation, memory loss, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and difficulty swallowing and speaking.
* Overdosing can result in confusion, irrational behaviour, muscle uncoordination, high fever and convulsions. Serious heart and breathing problems and coma can follow.
* Children experience these symptoms at lower doses than adults, and are especially prone to convulsions. Prompt medical attention is needed to treat overdoses.
* Overdoses ranging from 25 to 250 mg per kilogram of body weight can be fatal in adults.

Long-Term Effects

Chronic heavy users report problems with depression, confusion, loss of energy, vomiting, urine retention, and difficulty thinking and socializing.

Answer 2

Your heart and body doesn't admit alcohol.You have to ignore alcohol absulutely because you can receive a heart attack!!!
Ever all examines there is some problem.Do you want to live,or do you want to make yourself a hero for drinking alcohol?This is not a proud!!!
You can start with some yoga exercises,yoga breathing and not so rushing life.Recomend you to eat no fat food and no meat even.
Take some bee honey in the evening before you sleep.
You need live in the nature and no physical efforts.
Keep well.

Answer 3

After the age of 40 your metabolism does weird things to you. If you've been checked by a cardiologist and he says you are okay, you might see if it is a sleep apnea of some sort.

I have problems with apnea even when I am not drunk, but they are compounded when I have had a few drinks. Might be something to look at.

It could also be sugars. Alcohol is treated like a sugar by your body. As you get older you body does weird things with sugars as your slowing metabolism needs less to get its work done. It may be that that extra drink or two are hanging out and causing a hyperglycemic reaction.

Thats what occurs to me. You've eliminated the most alarming possibility cardiac dysfunction , so it should be amatter of elimination from there.

Answer 4

If I drink too many beers on the weekend, I notice that sometimes my heart skips a beat as the alcohol begins to leave my system.

It sounds as if you are having panic attacks because of the heart palpitations that you experience. Once the alcohol wears off, you might find that these attacks worsen.

Alcohol does disrupt sleep patterns. If I've indulged in my beer, I sleep like the dead and don't remember dreaming.

However, the following night I often have very bad dreams. DH goes through the same thing the day after drinking -- we call these dreams 'poison dreams'.

Answer 5

Alcohal raises blood pressure. This is not good for heart. As you said when you take drink three times, and when you get up early in the morning, your heart is papitating rapidly which is not good sign. You get yourself examined by a heart specialist and consider the feasible method to control your palpitation of your heart. Good Luck.

Answer 6

It may actually be an allergy. When you get enough of the certain substance your body has a reaction. You can look up alcohol related allergies on the web. Or try the search with your preferred drink .

Answer 7

Give your dog a bath as opposed to paying someone else to undertake it.

Answer 8

Alcohol causes red blood cells to coagulate together in sticky wads, slowing circulation and depriving tissues of oxygen. Your brain tells your heart it has to work harder to insure effecient oxygen delivery to organs and tissues.

In some it causes issues with sleeping.

Answer 9

Slide a modest trampoline under your couch as well as pull it out for Residence of Cards marathons.

Answer 10

Preset the timer with your TV to turn off after an hour to remind you to want to do something more active.