You may be suffering from anxiety at night. Even though you are sleeping it can still occur. Or, you may be having episodes of SVT (supraventricular tachycardia). This occurs when an electrical pulse comes from the wrong area of the heart. This causes your heart to beat like crazy. It can and often does come down on it's own.

Other symptoms you may have with it are dizziness, shortness of breath, sweating, chest pain or discomfort, and feeling or seeing the pounding of your pulse. Depending on how frequently these episodes occur and how long they last some people don't need/require treatment at all. It can be treated with a multitude of medications (most of which will lower your blood pressure), cardioversion, and ablasion to name a few.

I'm not sure how frequently you're having these but if you are back to normal with in a few minutes it's not worth the side effects of the treatments most likely. Though it is very bothersome and frightening when it happens (I got carted off on the ambulance about 5 months ago with a pulse of 160-170).

If your pulse remains elevated, you get dizzy, you have shortness of breath, or chest pain you should go to the ER. Though you can try bringing your pulse down on your own by performing vagal maneuvers (bearing down such as when trying to have a bowel movement) you should not do this without your doctor's approval. He can also teach methods to perform these maneuvers. When that doesn't work extreme measures have to be taken sometimes to bring the pulse down (cardioversion is sending an electrical shock to your heart to reset the rythym). If these episodes start getting more frequent or lasting longer visit with your doctor again about possible treatments.

Ablasion is one option where they go in and actually "kill" the tiny area of the heart where these abnormal impulses are coming from. This generally takes care of the problem. Unfortunately my friend suffers from SVT and is unable to get the procedure because the insurance company says her episodes of SVT aren't frequent enough for them to justify covering the cost. She often wakes up in the night with similar symptoms as yours but generally has to go to the hospital to get her pulse down.

I can't say for a fact this is what you're suffering from but it does sound similar. There is tons of information out there about it so if you suspect this may be the problem you can do some research and talk with your doctor. I hope it's been informative and best wishes!

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. Everything you have mentioned seems to narrow down what I feel to be true...and by what my doctors have said so far, it does seem to be one of the two problems you have mentioned, or perhaps a combination of both because when my heart races I do get anxious. I hope to be able to follow-up with my doctor soon, but I am presently at a disadvantage because of loss of insurance coverage....therefore when I pay to go see a doctor I am lucky to get more that a couple of minutes of their time.

I hope you have been able to resolve your own problem, or at least control it. Thank you again for being kind enough to share with me....I appreciate your time very much.....take care...