Why do I often have chest pain in the middle of the night?

Many people often experience chest pain in the middle of the night. At this time, you should be alert to the common causes of chest pain, such as myocarditis, pericarditis, and arrhythmia. Patients may experience chest pain and shortness of breath, which are common heart diseases.

1. Pain: Patients with myocarditis, pericarditis, and arrhythmia may feel chest pain. The most common is angina pectoris. Angina pectoris often occurs suddenly due to fatigue, excitement, or a full meal. The pain is mostly located in the center of the chest, with a feeling of oppression, burning or squeezing, or even a feeling of suffocation and impending death. Some may radiate to the left shoulder, back, and inner side of the left upper arm. The pain lasts for a short time, disappearing in 3-5 minutes and never exceeding 20 minutes.

2. Shortness of breath: Shortness of breath is a common symptom of heart disease. The most notable features are shortness of breath on exertion and paroxysmal dyspnea at night. Exert shortness of breath is shortness of breath associated with activity. Heart patients often say that they feel anxious and short of breath when climbing to the second floor and cannot stand it. Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea means that they cannot sleep properly at night and sometimes wake up from their dreams due to the suffocation. They have to sit up and gasp for a while before they can feel the dyspnea.

3. Chest pain: When the coronary artery is not supplied with enough blood, the heart is deprived of oxygen and the patient will experience chest tightness. When the ischemia is severe, the patient will feel chest pain. The intensity, nature and duration of the pain vary from person to person. If the ischemia is temporary, the chest pain is usually mild and short-lived, lasting no more than 20 minutes before disappearing. If the condition is caused by complete blockage of the coronary artery, and the chest pain is severe and lasts for more than 20 minutes, it is often accompanied by cold sweat, pale face, squeezing pain in the chest, and the pain often radiates to the left upper arm or back, shock, etc. You should seek medical attention immediately for a dynamic electrocardiogram.

4. Arrhythmia: A normal heartbeat is between 50 and 100 beats per minute. If it is less than 50 times or more than 100 times, or the beat is irregular, it is called arrhythmia. It is normal for your heart rate to increase during exercise. The greater the amount of exercise, the faster your heart rate. If the increase in heart rate during exercise is not obvious, it is often an early sign of heart disease. It is abnormal if your heart rate increases for more than 10 minutes after exercise, or if you still feel shortness of breath for more than 10 minutes after stopping a certain activity. Severe arrhythmia may cause palpitations, sometimes accompanied by shortness of breath, dizziness, and blurred vision.

5. Difficulty breathing: You used to be able to climb stairs easily? But now you have to rest in the middle of the climb? Or you feel short of breath after doing even the slightest activity. You cough and have difficulty breathing when lying down, or you suddenly feel anxious and breathless late at night, and your shortness of breath is relieved only after you sit up. This is usually a sign of heart failure.