Hello. Thank you for your question and welcome to HCM. I carefully read your query. Both alcohol and caffeine (in energy drinks) disturb, with rather different mechanisms, the pacemaker system of the heart, hence the rapid heart rate. The risk of a heart attack from these substances is low, but other problems can derive, especially after consuming alcohol, both in form of a binge drinking or a long-standing drinking. Not only the heart is susceptible from ethanol intake. More rapidly and severely are the brain and the liver. And, damaged liver can also damage the brain. In the heart it can cause alcoholic cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart) and various arrhythmias, varying from benign to potentially life-threatening. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you restrict your ethanol intake to a maximum of 30 g a day (which means, one vodka-redbull, or two beers). As for the waking up episodes, it could be a mix of the extended action of the caffeine consumed before sleep and from the adrenalin flush in the system, which normally happens during the dreaming phase of the sleep. I recommend you to make the above mentioned changes, and then there will be nothing to worry about. In the end, a heart attack at young ages often is associated with illicit drug usage, since they have the potential to produce blood clots in the body, and the one that goes to a coronary artery, causes an acute myocardial infarction. I hope I was of help. Take care. Regards, Dr. Meriton