Do Your Symptoms Subside At Night?

[Guest Hanice]

Mine improve at night a bit, do yours?

[Guest Alex]

Hanice,

most of my tachy & chest pain episodes before I was diagnosed happened in the middle of the night, between 2 and 4 AM.

Usually I do tend to feel better in the evening and as bed time approaches, but I still wake up in the middle of the night and feel that my heart is racing or that my chest hurts or I have nasty adrenaline rushes (or whatever they are).

To this day, almost 2 years after being diagnosed I have a hard time dealing with this "postural" terminology thingy... as most times my symptoms are not relieved by recumbency .

Alex

[Guest Hanice]

Alex Hi. Have you gone to an endocrinologist and tested your adrenals? I am not a doc but I recommend doing two 24 hr urine catches for you catecholamines metanephrines and cortisol. Have you ever heard of pheochromocytoma? If you get headaches sweating and adrenalin rushes you should consider taking the test.

[Guest Alex]

Hanice,

thanks for your suggestions.

I've seen an endocrinologist and have had my adrenals tested countless times - blood work, urine, CT scan of my adrenals, it's all good. (I've done 5 or 6 24 h urine catches for a pheo - all of them came back normal). No headaches, no sweating, no swings in BP either...so it's definitely not a pheo.

I do suspect that my adrenals are not working properly though, particularly now, after I have weaned myself off the florinef (which is notorious for messing up with one's adrenals), but all my test results are all "pristine" like my dr said.

Alex

[Relax86]

At the start of my 2012 flare I usually felt better in the evenings. I would go to bed, sleep all night and wake up with all the symptoms returning again. I was also negative for my adrenal testing but I did start to use hydrocortisone for Adrenal Fatigue (which is allegedly considered an internet diagnosis). Adrenal Fatigue felt relevant for me and the treatment did make a difference. As I moved into recovery I actually stopped noticing a distinct difference in my days vs evenings and seemed to have struggles t/o the day or good times t/o the days. Later in recovery I started to have nighttime adrenaline surges during sleep....usually within an hour of falling asleep and sometimes again around 2-4am.

I think feeling better in the evenings can be typical for some poster's here...and not just the people who feel they fall into the Adrenal syndroms....

Good luck ~ Tracy

[louloutinks]

My worse times are a 2-4 hours after waking and also later in the evening. Those times are when my pots symptoms are worse.

[Canadiangirl73]

My symptoms do not subside at night, they flare up. Although I have absolutely no problem falling asleep, I wake up between 2-4 with adrenal surges. I suspect it is either a way for my body to compensate for a dip in my BP or I am hypersensitive to the hormones the body releases at night so we slowly wake up in the morning... or both. I also feel pretty miserable in the morning until I take in enough fluids.

[dpeeps]

Let's see, I feel terrible in the morning, terrible while I am at work, and terrible at night and then I wake up all night long!! LOL

Things are pretty black and white for me - when I am feeling good, I am relatively symptom free, except for the tachycardia, light-headedness, and sesitiviity to heat, strong perfumy smells, and overly busy environs - those never leave me.

When things are bad (flare), they are bad all day long and all night long and I experience 80% of all possible POTS symptoms.

By the way, I still exercise. I have never felt any better or worse as a result. I keep doing it, because I am afraid I will get worse if I stop.

[1tiredmama]

My son is better late at night. During his worst flares of severe nausea and weight loss, he could only eat around 11pm. He didn't even want to go to bed because he knew he'd wake up to a new day of nausea.

[lynnie22]

My symptoms get better at night when I'm lying flat and sleeping. I don't need a bb then. But evening is not good and late AM is worst.

[UnderwaterThing]

Night is usually better in terms of my GI issues and appetite. I'm on Verapamil extended release so by the evening it has worn off and the tachycardia and difficulty breathing become more intense. I would say night is often better for me though

[imapumpkin]

My symptoms get much better at night. Apparently the natural 24 hour daily cycle of blood pressure plateaus in the evenings and is at it's lowest before 12 noon and it's highest at night. It makes sense that symptoms might get better at night...higher blood pressure, lower barometric pressure, typically cooler temperatures with the sun down. Feeling better at night is why I stay up so late, I want to actually be awake for the hours that I feel okay.

[Guest Hanice]

I totally agree with wanting to stay up at night! I go to sleeo around 2:00 am for the same reasons. But if I start to watch sone tv shows or movie I get suppppper anxious.

[Freaked]

I used to get night time adrenaline rushes, but lately my symptoms are normally better half an hour or so after dinner and when I'm sleepy. The only exception being that it's very warm here at night atm, which doesn't help with sleeping or symptoms. Ironically, this night time respite may be related to a largish cyst on my pineal gland producing more melatonin (the body's sleep hormone) than normal. Also, there's the lying in bed factor, which does mostly help. I'm also constantly starved, and even though digesting can cause symps at times, it seems that dinner is the only meal that really fills me enough to calm my system. My blood sugar has been fine, but I have raised pancreas and liver enzymes and I think something weird going on with eating, insulin and adrenaline. Pre-dinner hunger is often my worst time of day.

I'd guess diurnal rhythms effect those of us with hyper-pots symps more than others. I also normally stay up pretty late just to enjoy feeling okay.