Experiencing higher heartbeat during sleep at night

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christodoulou_george
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:18 pm
Location: Athens, Greece

Experiencing higher heartbeat during sleep at night

Post by christodoulou_george »

Hello there,

I am experiencing lately a phenomenon in Yin Yoga that I did not have it when I was not practicing everyday.

It is about 2 weeks now that I do Yin Yoga every day, and some times I might break my about 1 hour program, into 2 half hour programs during the same day.

But in the night when I sleep I wake up a couple of times because my heart starts to beat rather strongly and rather more fast.
Usually after a good sleep my heart beat is very low and I do not have it this period that I do Yin Yoga everyday.

I also have a feeling of stress. My sleep is not very restful.

Have anybody experienced something like it?

Any insight will be much appreciate it!

PS. I use the programs of Paul Grilley this period, the new ones (Functional Approach) mainly for the spine
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Post by Bernie »

You are obviously connecting your Yin yoga practice to your heart and sleep problems, and there may be a linkage, but there may also be a lot more going on. Any time the heart races (called fibrillation), you should get it checked out by your doctor. It could be a sign of some significant underlying problem, usually ones that can be easily addressed. The dangers in not addressing fibrillations are the possibility of a stroke or a heart attack. I think both of these are unlikely in your case, but you should really check this with your health care team.

What else is going on in your life? Have you had these occurrences before? Are they common in other family members? Has your diet changed, are you under more stress lately, did you recently do much more physical work than you normally do? Have you been consuming more caffeine than usual? There are so many other things that could be happening beyond your yoga practice that could be affecting your heart and sleep.

Could it be your Yin practice? Anything is possible, but I have never heard of such a linkage. You could try skipping a few days and see if that makes a difference. Or, try switching your practice/postures/flow and see how that goes. Avoid postures that may stimulate/stress the vagus nerve (no neck or upper body work, maybe skip lifting your head in Sphinx pose.) But, again, do all that after seeing your doctor.

Good luck!
Bernie
christodoulou_george
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:18 pm
Location: Athens, Greece

Post by christodoulou_george »

Dear Bernie,

Thank you so much for the reply and your insights.
I think you helped me in some way quite a bit. I think to do a medical exam is not a bad idea at all. Just being proactive is a good thing.

The other is about the vagus nerve that you mention.
This rang a bell into me. The last year I do very often swimming and I feel my upper part more stiff as I used to be in the past ... I think I need some investigation on this. Because I do Yin Yoga relatively regurarly but not some much Yang Yoga because of the swimming!

But I have to tell you something that it is very relevant of what you questioned.

From the 3rd of August till the 9th I was in a TURBO Tai Chi course in Czech Republic. Also from Romania to go there by car it is about 2 days driving.
I am saying a Turbo course because we worked from 8.00 am starting with Chi Kung and end at 10.00 pm. Of course there the meal times but it is very intense work. Everybody had sore muscles. And I thought what a heck I might so some Yin Yoga to eliminate the pain.

Well this did not go very well. Perhaps it was too much for my body, too much healing energy work.

So I had the sleeping problems since then. It got a bit worse when we were driving back to Romania since we were driving many hours.

Since you answer to me, I contemplated a bit. Yesterday I did not do Yoga at all. My sleep was sound and my heartbeat all day was slow as it is usual and should be.

So I think that Yin Yoga might brought into the surface an underlying block perhaps on the upper part of my spine area. Is this the reason that you said to avoid working on the upper part?

Since not many people from your experience had not problem like this is a good sign. I shall dig deeper.

Thank you very much Bernie. I appreciate your insight answer and taking the time.

George

PS. Do you teach in Europe at all?
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Post by Bernie »

Hi George

Firstly, no -- I don't teach anywhere outside of Vancouver, Canada. Sorry about that!

Secondly, the reason I suggested to avoid upper body work was to avoid affecting the vagus nerve which runs through the neck to the organs in the torso. If head or neck movements were affecting the vagus nerve, that could be a source of your sensations. Again, I doubt that this is the cause, but your doctor should work with you to figure this out. Knowing the cause is the first step in finding a resolution.

Finally, your report of an earlier beginning to the problem sounds more plausible as a cause than your yin practice. It would be good to tell your doctor about all that as well.

Good luck!
Bernie
christodoulou_george
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:18 pm
Location: Athens, Greece

Post by christodoulou_george »

Dear Bernie,

Thank you for your reply.
I will be total honest with you and also with friends that look at our conversation.

I trust more You and Paul Grilley than most of the Western Doctors.
Wester Medicine has violated the Oath of Hippocrates in which believes.

Hippocrates before he died said that the BEST MEDICINE for the body is MOVEMENT. Also he taught along with allopathic medicine homeopathy. Conventional Doctors do not believe in homeopathy! This is a very serious violation of the Hippocrates Oath!

Also in your country, in US and in my mother country (Greece) we have every year thousands of people dying from drugs (from the ones which are used in chemo, opioids etc)

Doctors know many things about very narrow area of human existence.

These are not doctors for me.

For me doctors are like Shivago Comarpaj who was the physician of Sidarta Gotama Sakyamuni, the Buddha, Ayuverdic Doctor, who was the founder of Thai Massage and a Great Yogi. In Thailand they believe that he was the founder of Traditional Thai Medicine.
For me doctors are the very well trained TCM people, the true Shamans and all these people we do not see human body just a machine.

I do not believe in Western Medicine because Doctrors are clients of Pharmaceuticals.

My family has several doctors and one of them was the head of on of the largest hospitals in Prague (Czech Republic). She had cancer. Her colleagues gave her 3 moths life after she went to chemo. She still lives (20 years now) because she decided to detoxify her body and she started Chi Kung.

I believe more in very well trained Yogis, because the do not have only theoretical knowledge but they experience their knowledge if it is valid through our more precious instrument: our body.

Sorry, that I have been so blunt. But I wanted to be clear of how much I trust conventional doctors.
That been said I will do the check up, just to be more wholistic.


Thank you very much Berie and appreciate the time you spend with me

George
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