# Medical question -- my heart sometimes skips a beat **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 14, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727 "2004-12-14T04:05:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/1 "2004-12-14T04:05:48Z")
Several months ago I developed a condition in which, when I’m lying down at night, sometimes my heart would skip a beat. It can be kind of unnerving and sometimes it wakes me up just as I’m about to go to sleep. Usually it’s just one or two times a night, but sometimes it gets frequent enough that I get so nervous I can’t go to sleep. When it first happened, I went to my doctor and had an EKG, blood tests, and a chest X-Ray. None of those showed anything. My doctor then attributed it to stress. It only happens when I’m lying down, getting ready for sleep. Either side, on my back or stomach. Is there a name for this? Does anyone else experience it? My doctor has written it off, but should I be worried? Could stress (maybe coupled with being pretty out of shape) really be the culprit? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/2 "2004-12-14T04:14:53Z")
Is the skipped beat accompanied by a cough or momentary difficulty in breathing? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/3 "2004-12-14T04:17:27Z")
[Heart arrhythmia](http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=10845) ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/4 "2004-12-14T05:10:55Z")
My heart used to do that around a certain special someone. I was less cynical then. I’m cured of it now. I liked it better then ☹ ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/5 "2004-12-14T08:58:44Z")
I’ve got the same issue for now many years. Sometimes it happens very often, sometimes rarely. There already has been a thread on this topic that you might want to read : [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=5606648](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=5606648) ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/6 "2004-12-14T09:02:02Z")
I experience that occasionally. I had an EKG, but of course my heart didn’t do it while I was hooked up. The doctor said I could wear a heart monitor for a day, but he didn’t make it sound like it was that big a deal, so I just haven’t felt that concerned about it. I question whether it’s necessarily tied to stress, though. I might have an episode of it every few months or so, and I have never noticed that it tends to happen when I’m stressed; it seems pretty random. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/7 "2004-12-14T09:18:07Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > I might have an episode of it every few months or so, and I have never noticed that it tends to happen when I’m stressed; it seems pretty random. Same thing for me. Well…an episode isn’t one isolated occurence, but a period of variable duration during which I’ve several occurences/ day, at worst a number of occurences within a short duration (say, half an hour) several times a day. And though the fisrt explanation I got was roughly “it’s in your head”, I never could notice any obvious trend. It can happen during a stresful period, or during an peaceful one. When I smoke as well as when I quit smoking (which I did several times). When I drink cofee or not. It seems indeed random to me, or at least I never managed to figure out the factor(s) involved. I’ve also some normally unimportant heart condition I don’t know the name of in english (a problem in the heart nervous circuitry), but I’ve been told it’s probably unrelated to this “irregular heart beats” issue (though to my uneducated eye it would seem logical that both are related). To say the truth, nobody ever gave me any explanation beyond “don’t worry” (and I still worry), including a cardiologist. The last thread on the SD has been on the overall more helpful than the doctors. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/8 "2004-12-14T10:17:25Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I’ve got the same issue for now many years. Sometimes it happens very often, sometimes rarely. > > There already has been a thread on this topic that you might want to read : > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=5606648](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=5606648) That links to a reply window. I’d be interested in the older thread, since I have a very similar problem to what **clairobscur** describes. My doctor also said it was nothing to worry about, but it’s more than a little unnerving. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/9 "2004-12-14T11:41:28Z")
> [@Jervoise](#): > > That links to a reply window. > . I probably essed up with opened pages. Trying again : > **[Sudden heavy heartbeats](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=268290)** > > Every once in a while – I can be slouching in the sofa, reading in bed, or sitting by my desk in my work chair – I feel an sensation in my chest: First there seems to be a slight pause in my heartbeat, like an hesitation or a vacuum, following which... ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-question-my-heart-sometimes-skips-a-beat/279727/10 "2004-12-14T16:35:56Z")
Thanks for the replies, everybody. They put my mind at ease. It really is just the heart, no coughing or breathing difficulties. And something in that other thread reminded me that it started to happen soon after I began to drink coffee regularly, every morning, for the first time in my life. I’m gonna try to cut down on the caffeine and see what happens. Thanks again!