Waking in night with heart racing, adrenaline surges

[Paul Michael]

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I have had this issue for many months now. Prior to this I had POTS for any years but a stable series of symptoms, normally venous pooling was the worse.

I am not currently under any consultant, but I am actively researching this issue. I am based in Manchester. There does not seem to be anyone experienced here who knows anything beyond the basics. I am looking at oxygen desaturation and how the body compensate by raising sympathetic tone. Dr Paul Cheney uses either low dose oxygen via nasal or Doxepin/ Klonopin combo.

 

 

any thoughts? Cheers

 

[MomtoGiuliana]

I experienced this regularly when I started to develop POTS.  Over time it pretty much went away.  I am not sure of the explanation for it in my case.  I know it is scary and uncomfortable.  Good to rule out it is "just" POTS.  In my case, my doctor never felt it was serious, beyond an annoyance.  I still take a beta blocker and this may help a bit.

[RecipeForDisaster]

This is one of my most distressing symptoms, also, and none of my doctors are too worried about it. If it happened to them, they would be! Metoprolol has helped but not removed this.... maybe 40 percent improvement and I sometimes wake at 2-3am from it anyway.

[TCP]

I have had adrenalin surges for ten years when my health nose-dived. I was getting sudden wakefulness, adrenalin surge, heart racing, dizziness and nausea. It would take a while for it to settle down each time. Then since I have had a pituitary tumour and I now have to have hydrocortisone as I am not producing the chemical to trigger adrenalin, I still get wakefulness but no adrenalin surge. It feels different and weird. I often wake up during dream-sleep or if I have been disturbed by a noise etc. I have read scholarly articles about wakefulness and sleep disorders in autonomic dysfunction. 

I did in, the past prior to a pit tumour, I had more wakefulness and adrenalin surges when I was anxious or stressed. I've found wearing wax earplugs has helped as small noises etc tend not to disturb my light sleeping as much. My cardiologist hasn't really responded to me mentioning this at all.