When's The Best Time For You To Take Your Beta Blocker?

[It'sMyLife]

I take Bystolic 5mg once daily. It works very well for controlling the hyperadrenergic POTS symptoms for me. The only drawback is the daytime sleepiness. I know it's the med and not the POTS causing this because I had to stop the beta blocker for the first trimester of my pregnancy and just went back on it when I started the second tri. As soon as I went back on it that desperate need to take a nap after 12 o'clock struck again. It's not just fatigue, it's pure sleepiness like I wasn't allowed to sleep at night. While I did feel just terrible without the medication in my first trimester, the one thing I did not experience was this extreme sleepiness.

So, to get to my question: When do you find is the best time for you to take your beta blocker to combat the sleepiness it causes? Right now I am taking in in the morning. I used to take Toprol XL at bedtime because the side effects were even worse. I do not remember now why I started taking this one in the morning. I want to say maybe it's because I had trouble waking in the morning if I took it before bed, but I have trouble waking no matter what now. Thanks for reading!!

[Babis]

I am taking Metoprolol Tartrate, 6.25 mg, 2-3 times a day and it stops my heart palpitations without making me sleepy or hypotensive. I take it in the morning and afternoon.

Metoprolol Succinate (= Toprol XL) is not effective for me, it is like taking a sugar pill.

What dose of Toprol XL were you taking? Did you ever try the non XL version (metoprolol tartrate)? Why were you switched to Bystolic?

[derekliz]

when I took my meds in the am, I was sooooooo tired. I take my metoprolol at nite about 8pm.

I just posted an article about the best time to take hypertensive meds....read when you have a chance...it's long

Bystoloic made me feel horrible....like I was drugged...even got into a car accident...did not like that medication

[Lette]

im on 80mg Inderal LA slow release tabs, they are heavy duty so I take them in the morning and they seem to work throughout the day!!

[ramakentesh]

Since POTS patients experience the worst symptoms of cerebral hypoperfusion and orthostatic intolerance in the morning, it makes more sense to take beta blockers in the evening to reduce sympathetic symptoms at rest. But sleep can be an issue.

[Tautologist]

I take propranolol 20mg four times a day. They only seem to work for a few hours, so its the regularity that matters for me. Although I find there's not much point taking it last thing at night, because my heart rate goes pretty low when I'm lying anyway. It sounds like some other kinds of beta blockers are slower-release?

It's kind of difficult to tell if they make me sleepy without stopping taking them

[ramakentesh]

I find a beta blocker at night makes me feel better the next day. There are a number of chinese herbs that act as long acting, mild beta blockers.

[Annaliese]

For me, beta blockers at night were a nightmare as i have low lying bp. I spent a year refining my beta blocker regime and it ended up being a dose at 8 and the again at 2. But, everyone is different. Its useful to look up the time it takes to reach peak levels in the blood and also the rate at which the drug is removed from the blood in order to keep relatively constant levels.