Heart failure: symptoms during sleep should not be ignored

Heart failure should be checked if the following symptoms appear during sleep:

Difficulty breathing when lying down

One of the common signs of heart failure is that the patient feels short of breath when lying down, forcing them to prop themselves up on pillows or sleep sitting up to breathe easier. The cause is fluid accumulation in the lungs, obstructing breathing, according to the health website Medical News Today (UK).

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When you stand, gravity helps blood flow to the lower part of your body. But when you lie down, more of this blood flows to your heart. A weakened heart cannot pump this blood effectively, causing it to pool in your lungs and make you feel suffocated.

Waking up suddenly from suffocation

Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea is a condition in which a person suddenly wakes up from sleep with a feeling of suffocation. This feeling can last from minutes to hours, often occurring in the middle of the night, causing the person to sit up or get out of bed to breathe easier.

Cough, wheezing at night

People with heart failure often have a persistent cough, especially at night. This cough is not caused by a sore throat or flu, but is a result of fluid buildup in the lungs. The cough is usually dry, and in severe cases, it will be accompanied by pink phlegm due to blood.

Nighttime wheezing is often confused with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The difference is that people with heart failure will have additional symptoms such as leg swelling, fatigue, and shortness of breath when lying down.

Frequent urination at night can be caused by heart failure.

A healthy person usually does not need to wake up to urinate more than once a night. However, people with heart failure often wake up to urinate many times a night. This is because when you lie down, the fluid that accumulates in your legs during the day is reabsorbed into your blood, filtered by your kidneys, and produced into urine.

Experts recommend that people who regularly wake up 2-4 times/night to urinate, accompanied by leg swelling, shortness of breath or fatigue, need to have their heart function checked, according to Medical News Today .