Tachycardia When Settling Down To Sleep??

[blueskies]

Hi,

For at least a year now I've been experiencing a strange phenomenon. Just as I've settled down to sleep (ie, gotten into bed, adjusted pillows etc., and settled down, or been lying in bed reading and put away book and turn the light off and settle down) I will suddenly get a surge of tachy and get very hot and have to throw any covers off me for a while. This usually only last a couple of minutes (although it has lasted longer than that) then it passes. I have this happen to me most nights, but not all. I can't relate it to anxiety about anything. It's not an anxious feeling but it's certainly a 'alert' one.

It can be so annoying. Often I'll get to the point of dropping off to sleep and then find myself wide awake again with this tachy and overheated feeling. I'm not frightened by it but I do find it unsettling and exhausting as often I will have to get up and go and watch some tv, or read a book or something before I try to go to bed and fall asleep again after yet another 'final' trip to the toilet to pee. Those are the nights the phenomenon has lasted longer. The nights when it's only lasted a couple of moments I'm usually able to go to sleep soon after.

This has happened in both winter and summer so I can't relate it to having to many covers on and being overheated because of it.

Any one else experience this?

Many thanks,

blue

[tinkerbella]

When we lay down we feel things more than when we are up and active. My doctor told me this. Are you possibly eating anything with caffeine hidden in it that may still be in your system @ bed time. At one time I put a long list of items on here that people were surprised that caffeine was in. My heart will go faster when I first last down, but it hasn't adjusted from my active moving around heart rate. You might want to buy a oxy/pulse meter that goes on you finger so you can see what is going on with your HR. Walgreen has a good one for 39 dollars.( The sale ends today.) You're true heart rate is after 5 mins in each position. I believe our hearts flip, flop, and race while it's getting regulated to lay down. Also, if you take bedtime meds, it may be adjusting to that also.

That's my 2 cents worth of info ~ Bellamia

[JenJen]

i get palps that wake me up just as i'm drifting off. only happens at night. people with RLS have a similar problem, symptoms emerging just as they're ready to relax. is there something about the transition into sleep that is alarming to the disautonomia effected nervous system? My doc told me the sympathetic and parasympathetic NS take turns where one is mostly on and the other mostly off, switching at night and in the morning. when they go haywire, you end up with POTS (and perhaps a NS that thinks falling asleep at night is something like loosing consciousness in the middle of the day).

[martiz]

I have this too. For years. Very annoying.

I always thought it was normal levels of oxygen reaching the brain once I was laying down as opposed to cerebral hypoperfusion.

JenJen, I think you may be onto something. There has to be a hand-off between the two systems during the change of state called sleep.

I find that if I don't lay completely flat but keep my head and legs elevated (like the zero gravity position), then I can minimize the symptoms but really, Benadryl is the best answer I have found so far.

Also, I spray about 7 sprays of Bach's Rescue Sleep Homeopathic Spray. This helps to calm things down.

If I am emotionally upset about something, I will spray a few sprays as well (Like the Rescue Remedy).

Helps to calm down.

[martiz]

Forgot to add that I usually eat some carbs before I lay down which helps to make me drowsy.

[blueskies]

Thanks all,

it's reassuring to hear that some of you have the same problem. It drives me nuts. I was a little amused last night to find that after I'd posted about this problem in the forum I had absolutely NO tachy. But I can have the occasional night when this does not happen. Post menopause it's so hard to sleep soundly. I wake every couple of hours. Drives me nuts. And hubby wakes me as well to complain about how I'm disturbing him. (not sure how I'm doing this in my sleep but it makes me want to to throw him or myself out of the house). I do the carb thing, have a good knowledge of what contains caffeine -- JenJen's doctor's opinion makes a lot of sense. I get much more 'jerking' when I go from almost asleep to being jerked awake as i get older but had become used to it. But the tachy stuff makes it a bit harder to settle.

[Darlene]

i too get tachycardia during sleep, if i get up and walk around a minute it goes away. i notice though, if i take benadryl before going to bed, this helps. i also take a beta blocker.

i think maybe... my blood pressure drops during sleep, and this is the reason for tachycardia.

[Anoj]

i have the same thing. seems to happen at night when i'm relaxing/getting ready for bed. i hate getting asked the question whether i'm anxious. no, quite the opposite.

i used to get horrifying fainting spells in the middle of the night- that would wake me from my sleep! this is when i got diagnosed. it was also pre-crash/hospitalization.

[julieph85]

i too get tachycardia during sleep, if i get up and walk around a minute it goes away. i notice though, if i take benadryl before going to bed, this helps. i also take a beta blocker.

i think maybe... my blood pressure drops during sleep, and this is the reason for tachycardia.

Yes I believe that is the cause, when I first got pots I would faint in my sleep nightly, and would wake up with room spinning and hr's in the180's

[Angelika_23]

I'm curious, how do you know if you faint in your sleep? I have had episodes where I wake up feeling like I'm falling and HR very high.