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Sleep Heart Rate - Anxiety ?

Jalapeno

Hi

For a number of years I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night feeling very odd, other than a spike in my heart rate and feeling fuzzy myself I have yet to understand what's causing it

Am a recent late diagnosed adult,  my doctors may loan me an overnight heart monitor, as my watch shows real jumps in my sleeping heart rate with low Heart Rate Variation (HRV) which now I'm going to record each day

The problem I see with having just a 24 hr monitor from the docs, is I don't wake up mid-sleep every night and can go months between episodes, and then have a run of them.

My therapist has suggested my anxiety could be a factor - so asking if any of you also notice anything similar ?

Using ChatGPT this morning it, one thing that came up was Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Dysregulation - is this familiar to any of you ?

Parents

  • I have long spells of waking up very early in the morning (0330-0430) but I wouldn't say that I feel odd when I do. It's just that my mind starts immediately whirring through the usual pattern of worry and I can't then get back to sleep. It becomes a bit of a vicious cycle because it happens when I have anxiety but being really tired makes me more anxious. I very rarely have trouble getting off to sleep so it's not really insomnia and I probably get the bare minimum of sleep I need 5.5  - 6 hrs, but it does start to catch up with me, and some evenings I'm wondering if it's bedtime yet by 1900.

    I have good sleep hygiene - no screens or light in the bedroom, keep the temperature reasonably low. I rarely drink alcohol any more and I have cut my caffeine intake considerably but none of it makes any difference at all. I try not to worry too much about it and eventually I will start to get some good nights again. Haven't been able to see any pattern other than, the more anxious I am, the worse my sleep is, which makes total sense.

    I wish you the best of luck getting to the bottom of it. The only advice I can offer is, try not to stress about it. I used to get very worried by bad nights of sleep which is obviously counterproductive. Since we had kids, I guess I realised how little sleep you can actually function on so if I am wide awake, I just get on with my day. It's a chance to get some peaceful time alone to read and I tend to go out for a run early most mornings.

Reply

  • I have long spells of waking up very early in the morning (0330-0430) but I wouldn't say that I feel odd when I do. It's just that my mind starts immediately whirring through the usual pattern of worry and I can't then get back to sleep. It becomes a bit of a vicious cycle because it happens when I have anxiety but being really tired makes me more anxious. I very rarely have trouble getting off to sleep so it's not really insomnia and I probably get the bare minimum of sleep I need 5.5  - 6 hrs, but it does start to catch up with me, and some evenings I'm wondering if it's bedtime yet by 1900.

    I have good sleep hygiene - no screens or light in the bedroom, keep the temperature reasonably low. I rarely drink alcohol any more and I have cut my caffeine intake considerably but none of it makes any difference at all. I try not to worry too much about it and eventually I will start to get some good nights again. Haven't been able to see any pattern other than, the more anxious I am, the worse my sleep is, which makes total sense.

    I wish you the best of luck getting to the bottom of it. The only advice I can offer is, try not to stress about it. I used to get very worried by bad nights of sleep which is obviously counterproductive. Since we had kids, I guess I realised how little sleep you can actually function on so if I am wide awake, I just get on with my day. It's a chance to get some peaceful time alone to read and I tend to go out for a run early most mornings.

Children
  • in reply to McFrost

    Hi McFrost thanks for your advice

    I think I'm fine on 6 hours sleep if not broken, I usually go to bed by Midnight  so maybe I'm just not getting enough rest and poss need to try an hour earlier, that said I tend to stay up late to ensure I'm proper tired before going to bed, but find I'm doom scrolling whilst watching the tv and all but a few nights a week, having a couple glasses of wine.  So may be I need to sort some of this out to give myself a better chance.

    I do have sleep music playing quietly when I go to bed I find this helps distract from tinnitus (which varies based on my anxiety)