Stress · 5 min read ·
A racing heart at 11 pm usually has a trigger. Learn to spot yours, and know when your heartbeat needs a doctor.
If you have 30 seconds
- 1Your heart speeds up when your body is on alert: the main triggers are caffeine, alcohol, too little sleep and big late dinners.
- 2In the moment: sit down, breathe in twice through your nose and take one long breath out, one to three times.
- 3Over the week: three coffees a day, four at most, a lighter dinner and seven or eight hours of sleep.
Heart palpitations from stress are heartbeats you feel as strong, fast or skipping when your body is on alert. There is usually a trigger: caffeine, alcohol, a short night, a large late dinner. A heartbeat that lasts, or that comes with other symptoms, is one for a doctor.
It's 11 pm. A day full of decisions and three coffees, you lie down, and your heart takes off. I hear this often from the business owners I work with: it arrives when you stop.
Heart palpitations from stress: what are the causes?
Under pressure your body releases cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline, which speed up the heart. Then come the everyday triggers, and at night they arrive together.
- A fast heartbeat at rest. You are sitting still, and you can feel it racing.
- An extra beat. It has a name, an ectopic beat: a thud, and the rhythm carries on.
- It arrives when the noise dies down. After dinner, as the day switches off.
Why does my heart race at night, when I finally stop?
Because the alert switches on fast and switches off slowly. In a busy day you do not notice it. You notice it when the noise drops.
Coffee works on one of your heart's brakes. Your body produces adenosine, which slows the heartbeat down and reduces how fast and how hard it contracts. Caffeine takes its place without removing it, and that brake loosens. It is also in tea, chocolate, cocoa and energy drinks. If caffeine does not suit you, you feel it straight away.
After a short night, coffee weighs more. When you are really short of sleep, the cardiovascular risk of stimulants goes up. It is the loop you know: you sleep badly, you drink more to keep going, you sleep worse.
A big dinner plus movement: double the work. Digestion already keeps your body busy, so adding activity on top, even gentle activity, puts your heart under a double load. Wait a couple of hours. Alcohol at the table plays its part, and I have written about that separately.
The way your heart beats at night is shaped during the day.
What to do in the moment, and over the week
In the moment, slow your body down. No pressing on your neck or your eyes: those are not things to do on your own.
Sit down and make your out-breath longer. As you breathe out, your heartbeat slows down on its own: your body is built that way. Breathe in twice through your nose and take one long breath out through your mouth, one to three times.
Put the cup down and pick up water. No more caffeine today, chocolate included. Have a glass of water, drunk slowly, instead of pacing the room.
Over the week, four fixed rules. Three coffees a day, four at most, the last one straight after lunch. A lighter dinner, three hours before bed. Protect your seven or eight hours of sleep the way you protect a meeting. And measure your heartbeat when you wake up, before you get out of bed: after a few mornings you know your normal.
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Test yourself
It's 11 pm, you are in bed and your heart is racing. What do you do?
A fast heartbeat in the evening often means your day took more out of you than you gave back. Take away one trigger at a time and watch what changes. If it keeps coming back, take it to your doctor with your diary.
