Does Napping Make Your Pots Symptoms Worse?

[looneymom]

Took my son to see a sleep specialist yesterday. He did not know what pots was, but said it would probably be ok for my son to take a nap mid-afternoon. Does taking a nap make POTS symptoms worse or better for you?

[Katybug]

I have to nap (often several times a day) or my POTS is much worse. My POTS neuro just told me that in sleep studies done specifically on POTS patients with sleep disturbances, they found that alpha waves (the type of waves you are only supposed to have while awake) intrude into the delta wave time (sleep waves) in pots patients and that that is often why we have nighttime sleep disturbance /lack of quality of sleep. He said this is most likely the cause of my severe daytime hypersomnia. He was making sure I was armed with this info in prep for an appointment with a new sleep specialist this week. I'm hoping she has some familiarity with this as she has seen several of my geneticist's patients that are EDS/POTS. If I learn anything interesting, I'll post. I'll also see if I can find info on the sleep studies my Neuro was referencing. Fwiw, I don't sleep any better or worse at night with or without naps.

[Tobiano]

I also take naps. Sometimes tiredness just hits and I have no choice. I will often feel better after a few hours. Sometimes I can ward off a bigger episode if I just try to sleep during my very symptomatic days.

[futurehope]

The question "does napping make my symptoms better or worse" is not a relevant question for me. The reason is, when I nap, it is often because I must. I am very sleepy.

As for symptom improvement....the POTS symptoms are with me whether I nap or I don't. Napping causes a different set of symptoms to emerge because my blood pressure has dropped. I wake up exhausted and I look pale and feel disoriented and dizzy. If I had somehow forced myself to stay awake, I guarantee I would feel bad because of that.

So, I cannot really answer your question. The choice to nap or not is not a valid choice for me. When I must nap, I do.

I once had a sleep study done because of my sleep difficulties, and after it all the doctor suggested I don't take naps and everything would be okay. Yeah, right. I tried that for about 6 weeks into I started becoming almost psychotic due to lack of sleep. In my case, forcing myself to stay awake was a recipe for severe sleep deprivation and the symptoms resulting from that.

[Guest Alex]

I rarely nap, but I honestly haven't seen any relationship between the severity of my POTS sx and napping. If I spend too much time lying down, then yes, I definitely deal with a higher standing HR, but napping is OK with me.

Alex

[looneymom]

Thanks everyone. The next time my son asks to nap, I'll say yes. I've been afraid to let him do it because of him not sleeping through the night anyway. He does get to bed by 10pm but wakes up 3- 5 times at night. When he wakes up at 4am, he says he just lies there and cannot go back to sleep. He is always up by 6am.

[sue1234]

I absolutely never sleep during the day. In the last 20 years, I've napped maybe 3-5 times. I just don't get sleepy at all during the day. I get tired, but never sleepy. And, this is with my bad nighttime sleeping. Even if I only get 4-5 hours of broken sleep at night, I am not sleepy during the day. I just must not be meant for good sleep in this lifetime.

[Hope]

I have to nap to get through the day.

[jknh9]

I almost never nap, because I always wake up feeling nauseous and dizzy. I get really tired during the day, but I fight the urge to nap as much as possible.

[Lemons2lemonade]

Circadian rhythms denote sleep wake cycles and blood pressure trends. I nap not out of choice, but recognize that this effects my ability to function at a possibly higher level.

[khaarina]

When I nap, I feel awful for the rest of the day. Lying down without falling asleep however, helps me a lot. I have to do this several times a day. I have a lot of sleep problems. I stuggle to fall asleep and usually am awake until dawn. Some nights I don't sleep at all and even when I do sleep I feel like I didn't sleep soundly. Also, I am pretty sure something happens with my blood pressure when I am asleep because when I wake up I am very weak and fatigued. I can't even make a proper fist until I have been awake for at least ten minutes. I joke with my husband that I have to recover from sleeping. It sounds ridiculous but it is true. I suggest letting your son nap if he needs to. If he is already stuggling to sleep at night, I doubt napping is going to make it any worse. If napping makes him feel bad, you could just have him lay down and rest for an hour or so. Of all the medications and other treatments I have tried, lying down helps me the most.

[Katybug]

Oh...I forgot...the whole reason I'm going back to a new sleep specialist is because the first guy (2 yrs ago) wanted all my hypersomnia to be caused by depression and sleep apnea that was so mild they weren't going to treat it until they saw the hypersomnia show up in the extreme on my daytime sleep study. When my geneticist looked at my nighttime sleep study a couple of months ago, she asked if the sleep specialist mentioned my "poor sleep architecture ". Of course the answer was "no". She explained that we should all get at least 50% restorative sleep during our sleeping hours. I get less than 20%, thus she feels it is no surprise that I have daytime hypersomnia. It is the restorative sleep that allows our cells/bodies to heal, our immune systems to rebuild, etc. She said she often hears from patients that their "sleep specialist" didn't bother to address blatant problems with their sleep architecture which is again, a common problem with eds and dysautonomia patients. So, this may be something to look out for and ask about as you work with your sleep specialist.

[Birdlady]

Yes I take naps and it helps. Sometimes it is more like a crash though!! Sometimes it is physically impossible for me to stay awake, so I sleep. Just the other day I took a 3 hour nap. I felt much better afterwards. There are some times where I don't feel better after a nap, but that happens too infrequently to really worry about it. I may go a whole week without taking a nap, but then another week where I take one every other day. I just listen to my body!

BTW outside of circadian rhythm problems, I don't have problems sleeping at night. I've used one of those CO2 things and I don't show any events at all. I never had a full sleep study though.

[Katybug]

Here are some links:

http://m.neurology.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/80/1_MeetingAbstracts/P03.038 (Alpha-Delta Sleep in POTS)

http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00692471 (Current clinical trial info)

[spinner]

Another great topic. I have sleep apnea, and getting out of a regular routine can definitely make that worse.

But with chronic illness we get exhausted and cant fight off sleep.

It can be a catch 22. Id have to say that napping can make my apnea worse, but not DA.

It seems like REM sleep heals worsening flares.

[Psalm 23]

Napping makes me feel much worse as it interferes with my already poor night time sleeping pattern and the worst nights sleep I get the worst my pots symptoms are the next day. I generally require a lot of rest breaks throughout the day but if I can avoid actually falling asleep I do. Of course everyday is different so some days I achieve my goal of not napping and other days not. I think like in everything else everyone with this condition benefits from such

different things.

Janet

[TCP]

I have sleep disorders, too. I wake up from night-time sleep and naps feeling sick and dizzy. My limbs are stiff and I feel rough for at least two hours after waking. Prior to this my sleep wasn't too bad, even with the ME/CFS. I do need to nap and have to at times. I take it easy when I get up and I'm unable to work, so it has to be part of the routine. The BP needs to level out when I get up so I do it slowly.

[shan1212]

I have to listen to my body too. I'm currently in a napping phase. Thankfully my one-year-old is taking a long afternoon nap and my three-year-old will play next to me while I sleep on the couch. I try so hard to stay awake but I just can't.

In my case, I seem to rotate through my primary POTS symptom almost on a weekly basis. Fatigue which causes napping is one of my preferred symptoms, actually. I'll take that over nausea/motion sickness or tension headaches any day.