Sleep and Heart Health

[johnnycake23]

Hello to all. It's been a while since I've posted but I do still lurk on occasion. May 19 will be 6 months and I plan to give a report then. In the meantime, I have a question.

Is there a direct connection between heart health and quality of sleep? You see, I generally sleep for s*** and it seems when I feel sluggish my heart gets tachy or has palpitations; not all the time but on occasion. I can be lying down and out of nowhere get a fast pulse for no reason. On the rare night where I sleep great it's like I'm a whole new person. I have energy, feel great and, dare I say, normal. Whenever I tell my gp or cardio about how I feel better when I sleep better, it's immediately dismissed as a concern. And when it's mentioned to anyone else that I don't get enough sleep the reaction is usually, "yeah, well, who does?"

Anyone else out there go as their sleep goes, or am I being way too simplistic? As always, thanks for the input.

 

[Ross]

Man I'm a chronic insomniac. I can feel it and I would say most certainly yes it affects your heart, your entire well being even. I feel pretty much what you, but maybe not as intense? I don't know how to describe it, but it's disturbing.

 

[Duff Man]

If I get less than 5 hours of sleep, I'm expecting a hellacious day of palpitations. Sleep is definitely ultra important for me personally.

I don't know why but I can remember when I was 10 years old, my teacher was talking about the human heart. She showed everyone how to take their pulse, and she asked that we say our heart rate outloud. Mine was like 84 bpm and everyone else's was like 60-72. It's always been that high without medication and it's always weirded me out.

 

[ponygirlmom]

Yes, there is definitely a connection. One of the questions asked me by every doctor is how well I sleep, and if I wake because I have trouble breathing, or if my heart acts up when I'm lying down. The more your heart disrupts your sleep, the more frowny faces they make.

I've had times when I would regularly wake having difficulty breathing and my heart feeling "full." (All that blood regurgitating back in, I guess.) Interestingly enough, this hasn't happened since I had my wisdom teeth out. Instead, I wake up because my jaw hurts. Whoopie. At least I can breathe.

 

[marie]

Of me there is a connection. If I don't get enough sleep I am unable to function the next day. I've always been that way however. My cardio knows this and he asked me in the hospital if I was sleeping well. No I replied and he asked if I wanted Ambien because he said you need your sleep for your heart to heal.
Earline

 

[khawkk]

I sleep great...for about one hour at a time.
Especially in front of the TV.
I've watched 32 episodes of 'Law & Order'
and 44 of 'Monk' and I've only seen the end of a few of them.

2 days ago I actually slept for 4 hrs w/out waking.
I'm now 8 weeks and I am hoping time will help.

It's tempting to use over the counter sleep aids but I
don't recommend it with all the other drugs we are taking.

good luck

Jack

 

[Bina]

For me, not enough sleep, or disturbed sleep, usually results in a low energy level and possible arrythmias the next day. After 2 yrs I was hoping that my PVC/PACs would be gone, but they still show up occasionally during the night. The middle of the night tachy episodes have not been noticed lately (touch wood).

 

[Bonzo Dog]

Quality and length of sleep is crucial for me also. Sods Law means I'm also a light sleeper. Our house is three storey. Bonzooki and I have our bedroom on the top floor. Although the larger nicer bedrooms are on the middle floor. This enables me to get early nights and/or sleep in and/or have an afternoon nap, away from the general hubub of living with teenage daughters. Very lucky to have a large house to set things up that way. Otherwise I'd be permanently run down, tetchy, feeling ill and getting palpitations and other arrhythmias.

If I know an unavoidable bad nights sleep is looming, I try to get hours in the sleep bank. It's not unusual for me to take a sleeping pill the night before the anticipated bad nights sleep and get a good zonked out 8 to 10 hours in.

 

[CThrock]

Boy, this is a great subject!! I'm dealing with the same thing,fatigue,not getting to much GOOD sleep at night. I mentioned it to my cardio dr and he wants me to do a sleep test.(NOT ANOTHER TEST) He said alot of people with heart
vr have sleeping problems. They sent me this long questionnaire to fill out and set the test up for June 9th. I really did'nt want to do another test, but told that this can tell the drs alot on what my heart is doing while I'm sleeping.
Have any of you done the sleep test? If so what happened?
It seems we all have the same problem with sleep. Maybe we can get some answers....

 

[aussigal]

I am with Bonzo Dog on this one...I found an OTC sleeping pill (Doxylamine Succinate) that works for me and is approved by my Doctor and Cardio...I dont take it every night and always break it in half or quarters, probably 4 nights a week if I am having a bad week. Before the OTC pill I was a terrible sleeper waking every hour and often taking 2 hours to fall asleep again......Breaking that cycle of sleeplessness is crucial...
When I am exhausted and sleepy during the day I tend to guzzle too much coffee which would cause heart irregularities.

 

[Duff Man]

it might be worth mentioning that my cardiologist was very interested in my quality of sleep, and they have their own sleep lab.

 

[Philip B]

What's Sleep?

What's Sleep?

My wife noticed that I quit sleeping when I was in graduate school years ago and haven't had normal sleep patterns ever since. I average three to five hours a night. This hasn't changed much since my AVR surgery.

My usual viewpoint is that sleep is overrated and I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I hit the end of the trail and they're shoveling dirt on me.

-Philip

 

[PairoDocs]

Probably not news to any of you, but sleep apnea is extremely common, and increases cardiac events, makes blood pressure and diabetes difficult to control, and depresses immune function. Then there are other causes such as restless legs, medications, etc. Sometimes restless legs syndrome is caused by anemia, electrolyte problems, thyroid problems, and, yes, medications. I probably don't need to mention that all of the above are common in cardiac patients. Some, like anemia, are easier to fix than others, like poor sleep hygiene. Your doctor should probably get sleep studies if it is not one of the easy-to-fix problems.

Beautiful Day in Idaho,
-Laura

 

[CathyK.]

Johnnycake - I am 15 months post-op and I could really relate to your thread. If i can get a good 9 hours of sleep I feel like a new person but if it is less or constantly waking up through out the night I feel very runned down and my heart let's me know it. The problem is that I seldom can get a full 9 hours of sleep with being a Mom of three teenage boys and working and being a wife. But boy when I do get that sleep I really feel so much better. I have always needed more sleep than others it seems. Even when I was a child. The first thing my mom said to me when I found out that I have a congenital heart problem was that she was sorry, she had just thought that my sleeping alot was more laziness than necessity.

I wish I could feel better on less sleep but it doesn't work that way, Philip.

I also have a normal high heart rate. High 80's, low 90's. Blood pressure normally low at around 100's over 70's.

 

[catwoman]

Sleep helps with cellular repair. That's partly why you feel "like a new person," as CathyK described it, when you get a good night's sleep.

 

[Bryan B]

Since I'm posting this message at 4:50AM I can safely say that my sleep patterns have never returned to normal since my surgery. Luckily I generally work from 1-2PM until 8-9PM so even if I have insomnia I can usually get 5-6 hours of sleep. Me and Ross have certainly had our share of conversations on this board at 3AM.

Having said that, I have noticed that since fully recovering from my surgery I seem to function much better than before the surgery when I don't get enough sleep. I'll have some stretches where I might go a week or more where I only average 5 hours a night and and it has not lead to a cranky heart. I do happen to do a lot of physical activity at work, so when I am sleeping I'm usually tired enough that it's a very sound and restoring sleep.