 when I'm in bed at night I could swear I feel my heart stop for a few seconds and restart with a thump should I be worried. Okay well at night something interesting happens either there's silence so you are a little bit more aware of sounds and sensations. So palpitations which is the feeling of irregular heartbeats or pounding heartbeats are more common at night not necessarily because they happen at night but because you're more aware of them. Palpitations can be many many things causing them. The thing that you seem to be describing stop for a few seconds is most likely ectopic beats or premature ventricular or atrial contractions the common word for this skipped beats which the majority of the time are benign but we do some tests to make sure they are not of the not benign kind and that there's nothing else going on.