About 1 in 8 people who die from heart disease will die in their sleep. Similarly, 25% of strokes occur during sleep. In general, your chances of dying in your sleep are fairly low if you have no additional risk factors. If you have obstructive sleep apnea, you may be at higher risk of dying in your sleep.
Doctors say sudden nocturnal death is relatively rare. Here is what to know about the risk factors.
Dying in your sleep, also known as nocturnal death, is most often associated with sudden cardiac arrest and the progressive loss of heart function associated with congestive heart failure (CHF). Lung failure and an end-stage or terminal disease are other reasons people may die in their sleep.
'Peaceful' refers to the dying person having finished all business and made peace with others before his/her death and implies being at peace with his/her own death. It further refers to the manner of dying: not by violence, an accident or a fearsome disease, not by foul means and without much pain.
Researchers suspect sleep apnea causes abnormal heart rhythms, which lead to sudden cardiac death, for a number of reasons. “Sleep apnea may lower oxygen levels, activate the fight-or-flight response and change pressure in the chest when the upper airway closes, stressing the heart mechanically,” he explains.
Agreeing, Dr Guru Prakash A, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Yashoda Hospitals Hyderabad said that heart attacks can happen in sleep in around 10 per cent of patients, especially during early morning hours when catecholamine [a neurohormone] surge is high.
Without the heart's steady pumping action, blood stops flowing to the body's organs. Unless emergency aid restores the heartbeat and gets the blood moving again within minutes, death will result.
For many people, dying is peaceful. The person may not always recognise others and may lapse in and out of consciousness.
Most people are very calm at this time, although some may be agitated, especially if they are finding it hard to breathe. Other symptoms in the hours before death include: Some symptoms a person may experience during this time include: glassy, teary eyes that may be half-open.
Physical signs
Facial muscles may relax and the jaw can drop. Skin can become very pale. Breathing can alternate between loud rasping breaths and quiet breathing. Towards the end, dying people will often only breathe periodically, with an intake of breath followed by no breath for several seconds.
Symptoms of End-Stage Heart Failure
It continues to get worse with each flare-up, or exacerbation, and 90% of people with the condition eventually die of pump failure.1 This occurs when the heart can no longer function as a pump, and circulation of blood and oxygen through the body stops.
During most stages of sleep, the thalamus becomes quiet, letting you tune out the external world. But during REM sleep, the thalamus is active, sending the cortex images, sounds, and other sensations that fill our dreams.
Dreaming about death is fairly common, and most people experience these dreams at some point during life transitions.
While these treatments can make loved ones feel more comfortable, it is important to note that death rattle signals that death is very near. On average, a patient usually lives for about 23 hours after it begins. During this time, loved ones should try to say their goodbyes.
When a patient who has been steadily declining has a sudden burst of energy, this is called an end-of-life rally or terminal lucidity. They may begin speaking or even eating and drinking again. It is important that family members understand that this is not a sign that their loved one is getting better.
This stage is also one of reflection. The dying person often thinks back over their life and revisits old memories.4 They might also be going over the things they regret.
The fear of dying is quite common, and most people feel that death is scary to varying degrees. To what extent that fear occurs and what it pertains to specifically varies from one person to another. While some fear is healthy because it makes us more cautious, some people may also have an unhealthy fear of dying.
You feel comforted about the though of death because death is the end of suffering. It is also the liberation from life. You can work hard in this life not because you are scared of death, but because you know you will be liberated from this life in the end. You are lucky to feel that way.
Contrary to previous notions that brain cells die within 5 to 10 minutes, evidence now suggests that if left alone, the cells of the brain die slowly over a period of many hours, even days after the heart stops and a person dies.
Depending on case definitions and timing criteria, 17–41% of all SCD events occur during nighttime hours. Patients are in a resting state, with decreased metabolism, heart rate and blood pressure, and in the absence of daytime triggers, presumably at the lowest likelihood of suffering lethal arrhythmias.
Usually, the first sign of SCA is loss of consciousness (fainting). This happens when the heart stops beating. Some people may have a racing heartbeat or feel dizzy or light-headed just before they faint. And sometimes people have chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, or vomiting in the hour before they have an SCA.