Rest Exacerbates Symptoms?

[Xhale1991]

I have dysautonomia and CFS. My blood pressure doesn't get low (if anything it gets too high), but I have the classic tachycardia upon standing. Fatigue is obviously one of my main symptoms. I find in the morning after a good nights sleep I feel relatively decent. However if I take a nap during the day for 1-2 hours, I always wake up feeling absolutely terrible. As soon as I stand up my heart rate will shoot way up and all my symptoms are flaring pretty badly. Does anyone else experience this? I've had to stop laying down during the day and just fight through the fatigue because it actually reduces my symptoms.

[srb]

I have this as well. It is quite frustrating. Also hard to explain why I try so hard to avoid naps despite always being so tired.

[Katybug]

I was seeing a sleep specialist for a while. She told me not to take a nap for more than 40 minutes because your body gets to a point of relaxation beyond 40 minutes where you actually lose muscle tone during the restorative part of the sleep cycle. Unless you are going to sleep until you wake up naturally, being awakened during the phase of low muscle tone makes a person feel terrible because your body is not in a state that is prepared to function consciously.

[dancer65]

Katy that interesting, I have found out the hard way long naps make me feel worse, also even though I feel exhausted it also makes trying to go to sleep at night impossible. I found for me sitting down for an evening leaves me with terrible arm, leg and coat hanger pain, just getting up every half hour and walking about seems to help but it is a big effort when I feel so fatigued.

[dizzyallie]

Yep xhale I hear u. Ive had CFS 11 yrs now, Pots for 4. I was too at the time of my pots diagnosis to try move as much as possible otherwise I would decondition fast both cfs wise and dysautonomia wise. Which is **** hard when u feel so sick! I don't sleep in the day. Probably at most if I lay its not beyond 40 mins. The rest of the time is either sitting up on bed, in recliner, on lounge or wandering about. I feel your frustration, at times u have no choice but to lay.

[dizzyallie]

I was "told" is what I meant not "too"

[Batik]

I think it may be about which part of the sleep cycle you wake up during. I was told not to nap for more than an hour, as after that you get into deep sleep. It takes me a while to doze off, so if I set the alarm for 1h15m* that works for me. My partner doesn't have POTS or ME, and he sometimes ends up groggy the rest of the day after a nap, so it's not just us.

Do you have any relaxation practices you can do instead? I really like the app Peaceful Breathing Lite. It's guided deep breathing and totally customisable. I set it for half an hour when I'm meditating at home (well, it's the nearest I get to real meditation) and that's very restful.

* how on Earth did SwiftKey know to predict that?!

[helenhz]

Yes, naps really do me in, but even more so is meditation or any kind of deep breathing relaxation techniques. There is no surer way to get my heart rate up than to be really totally relaxed.

[TCP]

Years ago with the ME and possible PoTS, I could sleep in the afternoon and feel OK when getting up. When the autonomic problems increased then the sleeping in the afternoon made all the nausea I feel get worse. I was dizzy, sick and disoriented. Unfortunately I need to rest to relax the nerves because of the pain, but I try not to sleep which is hard!

[Claired]

Hello,

Sorry you are feeling worse with rest. I know when I used to go to school with POTS, I would come home and have to lie down for a couple hours, but would feel really exhausted afterward that. What sometimes helped was to do some aerobic exercise for 20-30 minutes if possible to recirculate the blood.

It may be useful to note if there are certain times of the day when you feel worse/have less energy, and plan your daily activities around that (ie don't shower in the morning). I often notice a slump after lunch, from around 1-3 pm.

Feel better!

[Claired]

also, I agree with dizzyallie, that it is best if possible not to lie down all the way. Propping your feet up on a couch or recliner is good, but if you lie down all the way it will be that much harder for your body to adjust when you have to get up (that's why they have you raise the head of your bed by a few degrees when you sleep at night - it helps condition the body gently).

Soft cushions are best - for some reason hard surfaces make you dizzy if you sit/lie on them too long.

[dizzyallie]

So true Claire, I can not lay flat. Haven't slept with less than 2 to 3 pillows for yrs! I was warned few yrs back the worst thing is to rest too much. It's hard tho, especially with bad dizzziness, I can't be upright all the time.