Heart rate??

[karessamom]

Can heart rate drops and spikes prevent you from getting a good nights sleep?? My AHI's are really good so I shouldn't be having a lot of arousals like I have. The only thing I can figure is my heat rate. At times it dips into the 30's at night and averages between 40 and 55 at night with frequent spikes in the 80's and sometimes 90's Iam on meds to control the afib/flutter but Iam so tired and trying to figure why Iam not sleeping as good as I should be

[LSAT]

My nightly heart rate averages 40-50 also, ( I am a very shallow breather) but I am not aware of any spikes. I would assume a spike to 80-90 from 40-50 would tend to disrupt your sleep to some extent. Do you wear an O2 monitor at night?

[Country4ever]

A couple things.......are you by chance going through menopause? if so, that can wake you up alot at night.

Another........are you on an APAP setting or straight CPAP? When I first started out on cpap, the doc put me on APAP settings. I was waking up all the time.
As soon as it was changed to straight cpap, I started sleeping through the night.

[karessamom]

Yes I wear an oximeter at night and plug this info into SH (that's why I know I have alot of ups and downs.) As far as menopause goes I went thru that a long time ago when I had a complete hysterectomy when I was only 30! I am also on straight CPAP at pressure of 10! I know I'm dealing with PSVT, Atrial fib/flutter and maybe SND (Dr. didn't think so on the SND and thought he'd clearly ruled it out when he did an ablation in April, however subsequent EOB's from my insurance company keep coming back with SND dx so I'm not totally convinced either way. I know I am also at least occasionally dealing with a few sinus pauses at night as shown on a holter monitor on 2 different occasions--but don't know if that's every night--just those 2.

[oak]

karessas mom, i wish i had the answer to your question also. during my sleep study a month ago, my heart rate went up to 140 a few times, according to the report. now i know from recent cardiac rehab that my resting heart rate during the day is about 85. the only time it would get into the 140 range is when i was on the treadmill.

so my question is, if one is "getting to treadmill heart rate in your sleep," is that resolved with CPAP? any way to tell without another sleep study?

my cardiologist hasn't heard about this and wont be sharing the sleep study results until my follow up in Dec.

would some kind of holter monitor or similar device tell me whats happening to heart rate with CPAP?

ps my oxygen was fine in the study both before and after cpap

[Pugsy]

so my question is, if one is "getting to treadmill heart rate in your sleep," is that resolved with CPAP? any way to tell without another sleep study?

Sure there is and relatively easy and cheap for a change (well at least compared to some of the stuff we buy or another sleep study).
Get yourself an overnight recording pulse oximeter and use it a few nights. It tells desats as well as pulse rate.

http://www.pulseoxstore.com/Downloadable-Pulse-Ox.html
Check the various models out at the above link. Sometimes found cheaper on EBay via slow boat from China.
I used the above store because their software support is exceptional and I thought I might need it. I bought the CMS 50 D Plus because it was the least expensive and I figured I wouldn't be using it very often (and I was right) because I really didn't expect it to show anything exciting (and I was right there too.)
SleepyHead supports the 50 D Plus and the others except for maybe the blue tooth model...it appears to be problematic with SH.

[oak]

This sounds like something my insurance would pay for if my cardiologist wanted that info. Cost precludes my buying an oximeter. Thanks for the info though.

[Pugsy]

You can ask your DME if they will request an order for an overnight pulse oximeter to confirm that the oxygen levels are stabilized as well as the pulse rate if you can't afford to buy the pulse oximeter right now.

[oak]

would the order come from my primary physician? i dont have a sleep doc yet and just changed primary physicians so i would need to give my doc a heads up.

[Pugsy]

would the order come from my primary physician? i dont have a sleep doc yet and just changed primary physicians so i would need to give my doc a heads up

The order can come from any physician.
Since you have just changed doctors I would contact him/her and ask them to put the order in and explain why you would like the overnight pulse ox test. Then follow up with the DME and tell them what to expect and from whom and for them to let you know if they don't receive it.
The DME probably will not be able to give you a copy of the results but you can request them from your doctor.