Rem Sleep

[imre]

I believe rem sleep causes tachycardia, and sometimes I wake up from dreams with tachycardia which is uncomfortable. Anybody else experience anything like this? Also, taking a low dose of propranolol at night seems to help.

[Katybug]

Sir Digby,

I can't look for it right now, but in mid-2013 we had a research paper posted on a thread regarding a sleep syndrome that they found affects POTS patients. ....the syndrome I think is called Alpha Delta sleep syndrome (or something close to that). It might be of interest to you.

[Appleblossoms]

I saw dr. Grubb last week and he did tell me tachycardia during REM sleep is normal in non pots patients and exacerbated in pots patients. I often have tachycardia that wakes me up at night. He said this is normal due to rem sleep. He increased my bedtime dose of mestinon to help with it.

[imre]

Thanks everyone!

[blueskies]

Years ago, during a period when I was experiencing some symptoms of pots but just believing doctors' regular assertions that it was 'all in my head,' I went through a prolonged period of waking in the night with tachycardia. I'd come straight out of sleep, heart beating rapidly, and my response was to get out of bed and go to the kitchen and drink a glassful or more of water straight down. Sometimes I woke up when I was already out of bed heading for the kitchen. I still wonder, looking back, if then I was unconsciously treating low bp/high pr with water which raises bp. At any rate my heart would very quickly return to normal and I'd go straight back to bed and back to sleep. Strange days indeed. BTW, there was no fear involved so these were not, in any way or form, middle of the night panic attacks. I never associated it with rem sleep but I could have been waking from it. I was very fit at the time too, and my resting heart rate was athlete levels. As was something else the docs tested. One asked me is I was an athelete' I was very fit but not competitive athlete levels.

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