AP at night

[austin21]

Hello, I have had AP for years and it comes and goes but lately I am getting those as soon as I lay down in the evening..does anyone get the same symptoms ? Is there anything I can do do about those?

[Hidden]

I guess you mean AF?

Lots of people get this at night/in bed especially if you lie in your left side. This can aggravate the vagus nerve which is a known trigger for AF.

THe other possibility is sleep apnea, again it goes hand in hand with AF

[austin21 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your mail, I appreciate your comment!

[Polly159]

As many people on here say and as I'm slowly and sadly learning, Afib does increase as time goes on though obviously medicines, procedures, life style changes can help. By increasing I mean not just in frequency but, I think By being more easily triggered. The left side trigger seems fairly standard and I suppose the straightforward solution has to lie on the right side or on your back- not always easy or comfortable. There have been times when I've turned over to the left, sensed my heart was threatening afib and immediately turned and successfully avoided it, but other times with less success. I sometimes wake up on my left side and find that it is afib that has woken me. It's that pesky old vagus nerve, but knowing your enemy van sometimes help.

All the best.

Polly

[Polly159]

I'm also wondering if you lie down after a meal? That can be a trigger too and some find it helpful to eat less or to eat earlier.

[Zozzy]

As I understand it AF describes the symptom (fast / irregular heart rate) not the cause. It appears there are multiple causes - one of which is what they call "vagally mediated" which seems to triggered by/via the vagal nerve - again not really a root cause, rather a pathway. That's the sort I had, and from your description you may well be similar.

If you read about the vagal nervous system you'll understand that it controls a lot of the organs which dictate "how you feel" and IF you have intolerances of any kind then they could affect your vagal nervous system and bring on AF. Finding your intolerances is not easy - they could be intolerances to activities, foods, emotions etc. And they will not likely be absolute in nature - you may tolerate things (or their absence) better in small quantities or when you're feeling strong and less well in larger quantities or when feeling weak or emotional. Consider arsenic - a medicine AND a poison. In fact most medicines are poisonous in large doses, and human intolerances are not consistently similar enough from one person to the next for any reliable clues to what will trigger YOUR AF. However, it does seem that statistically you're more LIKELY to experience vagally mediated AF when resting (e.g. at night), or after eating a "heavy" meal (whatever that means for you).

Some people will tell you that chasing your triggers is futile - consider that if your AF is triggered by how you feel (subconsciously) then removing one trigger may simply make you more susceptible to another. I found (and managed to avoid) some of my triggers, but never managed to find them all or stop the AF which became more frequent over time. In other words I had more success provoking AF than I ever had preventing it. As a result, I'm inclined to the opinion that whilst it's worth identifying your most common triggers, you should not dwell excessively on them - statistically, it seems unlikely that you'll succeed in preventing your AF that way.

The good news is that vagally mediated AF appears to have a relatively high success rate for treatment by ablation if you choose to go that way. Personally, I could have lived with the AF symptoms but I did not like the uncertain quality of life it caused, nor could I tolerate the alternative that I was offered: bisoprolol. I reduced my consumption of beer, red meat, and took to sleeping on my right side, but I think I only succeeded in slowing it's progress. In the end I went for ablation.

Steve

[EngMac]

My experience is the nerves in our back trigger the AF when we lay down. If you get up immediately, you may find the AF will stop. Then laying down in a different position may not trigger it. I find the right side often better but not always. Some people prop themselves up with pillows and this helps. I have tried all these things, even sleeping in a chair to avoid AF. Now, after trying many things to fix my back, how and when AF starts and stops is entirely different. The question is why. Heart doctors don't focus on this possibility so you will need to experiment on your own to see if back issues could be a factor.

I listened to a man who broke his neck and back and had severe pain for 20 years. One thing he mentioned was he could always tell if a storm was coming because of pain symptoms. He thinks that a change in barometric pressure affected his back. I have also noticed this. Lowered barometric pressure used to trigger my AF but it is less likely to do so now.