Can your heart stop working just for a second?

Of course it can. We all have our heart skip a beat now and then. People can be “dead” for a while and then be defibrillated back to life.

It can’t simply happen during your normal day by day life.
Unless you have an heart attack, of course.

Yep, and if it pounds for a second or two really hard then goes back to it’s regular beat that can be normal too. Apparently, it happens to a lot of caffeine drinkers at night, at least that’s what my doctor said. :)

sure, arrhythmia

Sometimes, when I’m completely taken by the sight of a beautiful woman, that causes my heart to skip a beat. Would that be the same as it not working for just a second?

Seems I’ve heard your heart stops beating momentarily when you sneeze???

@rooeytoo. When this question was first asked, I went to Wikipedia to look exactly for that – if your heart stopped momentarily when you sneezed but it had nothing in the article about that. Irregardless, I’ve also heard that when you sneeze your heart stops momentarily.

My heart stops beating about once every second. More often when I’m working out.

@qashqai I am not picking on you. BUT everyone has a missed (or irregular) heart beat every now and then. The one that is most noticed or can be felt by the owner is a PVC (premature ventricular contraction). During a heart attack the heart rhythm is not necessary altered. Sometimes it feels like it is beating kind of hard, but certainly doesn’t stop. Unless it is a fatal heart attack and then everything pretty much stops and there better be a defibrillator closeby. When your heart is not beating, it is filling with blood and is certainly at rest.

Not Mine!!!!

I have a Pacemaker and if I miss a beat for more than one second, it kicks in so that I never go below 60 beats per minute.

SRM

Irregardless isn’t a word. Boo.

@asmonet. There is an entry in dictionary.com for Irregardless and an explanation of why and how it can be used. Sorry if it seemed out of place in my answer above. :-(

@srmorgan HA, At least I can lie in bed, put a microwave oven on my chest and warm up some soup. Not that I would care to do that. I was a cardio PA for years and help put in a boat load of those little dudes. Also (as mentioned a month ago or so ) had to go to the morgue to retrieve them when the owner had no further use for it.

@cardinal, that is a very reassuring comment. Thank you
I will be sure to show it to my wife and children..

@Bluefreedom: No worries, I just have a bit of a brain seizure when I see that word. :p