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One little sentence explained so much (heart pounding - sympathetic overdrive)


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Though I've been doing much better the last couple of years than the few preceding, there are still a great many frustrations in my limitations and remaining symptoms. 

I wouldn't necessarily say sleep is as much a problem for me as it has been for some others, but getting to sleep and especially waking up and getting out of bed are often disastrous. 

I could never figure out why my heart is always still pounding in bed, but this one little sentence makes a ton of sense and let's me realize that I'm not as far along as I thought I was. 

My sympathetic nervous system is still in over-drive! Which explains many other remaining symptoms as well. 

Quote

If when you lie down you feel your heart pounding in your chest — beating hard, not necessarily fast – Dr. Bateman suggests you’re probably in the sympathetic nervous system overdrive category...

https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2024/03/18/unraveled-4-chronic-fatigue-fibromyalgia-long-covid-sleep/

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Yeah I've been thinking about this one a lot lately too, mine'll pound at 75bpm and it's unsettling in the moment. I'd just been assuming it's from poor circulation or something and chalked it up to maybe needing to take in more salt water to help with blood flow. So I'll sit up and drink some water and hope that it passes (and not me 💀)

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Also, yeah, doctors seem big on prescribing benzos for these issues.. can't say I'm a fan

Flexeril/cyclobenzaprine is also kind of an intense rx for them to be throwing at this group of patients, I thought it was a CNS depressant and an anticholinergic. Not crazy about the idea of taking drugs that directly impact catecholamines unless it's with the intention of taking them to specifically help resolve a known imbalance. Used to take Flexeril for my back a long time ago when I was healthy, it helped a lot with pain, but I would feel so groggy and hung over from it well into the next day. Even splitting the 5mg tablet in half was still rough to shake off the next day. It's not practical..

There are a ton of natural ways to fix sleep issues, I like Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum's take when it comes to that one. 

The times when I'm having a trouble getting to sleep, it's usually from stress or ironically from the stress of the ongoing sleep deprivation.. sometimes doing little things to address the anxiety and stress around it will go a long way.. Taking magnesium powder and going to bed leaving some dim ambient lighting on and/or falling asleep with calm music softly playing on loop will usually do the trick for me, it's whatever puts you at ease at the time.

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