Bad Nights Sleep can i cause AF episode

[mjm1971]

Can one nights bad sleep set off AF episodes the next day

i appreciate sleep seems important but was wondering if just 1 bad nights sleep trigger AF episodes the next day .

i was woken up at 3.30am and have been in and out of AF today .

Thanks

Matt

[Paulbounce]

Hi Matt.

We are all different. However for me personally it can. The two years I was in sinus I had a couple of episodes - both were when traveling and 'silly time' flights meant I only had a few hours sleep. A different time zone can also make a difference.

For me rest and sleep are very important. However it could be your afib just returned anyway - it's hard to tell.

But yes - to answer your question I think lack of sleep can affect some. Try and get a goods night kip tonight and see how you feel in the morning.

Paul

[mjm1971 in reply to Paulbounce]

Cheers Paul always a pleasure . Hope your doing well

[Paulbounce in reply to mjm1971]

Thanks Matt. I hope you are doing well too. Rest up tonight - read for an hour or so and get those Zzzzzz's in

Best,

Paul

[Hidden]

Hi Matt,

This discussion is something I'm wrestling with at the moment for myself. I guess it depends on what's going on with your body. Generally my AF is well controlled and I get 3 events a year that are 'full blown AF'. The rest of the year I get from time to time irregular heart rythmns ... whenever. For me, thus far, any irregular rythmn during the night it's down to food I'd eaten the night before with my main meal of the day or pain ( from osteoarthritis in the left shoulder ).

So far, I'm workin' on pain and food/diet and the autonomic nervous system of which I think the Vagal Nerve is part and parcel. Certainly, my (dysfunctional) vagal nerve has triggered AF events in the past and no doubt will continue to do so. Its the link with pain that is fascinating me at the moment. From whatever cause food and/or pain I awake around anytime between 2 and 4. Depends on circumstances, I might stay awake from half an hour to 2 hours. If the catalyst is pain I usually scoff pain killers and get back to bed and sleep if possible.

To more specific - In the past I have been woken with AF in the wee small hours, vigorous activity in the chest and violent enough to get me out of bed and it has lasted for up to 12 hours. The last time it was this severe it was definately down to food.

Thing is - and its just my personal take on it - it won't be sleep per se that is causing your AF, but what is happening within your body WHILE you ARE asleep.

Hope this is of some use.

John

[Pigleywigley]

Sleep definitely. Especially lack of REM (restorative) and if your breathing off, too hot etc. The book Why We Sleep well worth a read!

[Ducky2003]

Lack of sleep can be a trigger. I've always been told it's important to get a quality nights sleep.

[seasicksurf]

This is my experience and understanding based on 5 years of dealing with paroxysmal AF, which ultimately led to my getting an ablation. Like you, I had events that started in the middle of the night and woke me. Early on, before any meds were prescribed, these events would last between 4-8 hours. As my condition progressed and frequency of AF events increased, I was prescribed a combination of metoprolol and flecainide that I would take on AF onset (so called "pill in the pocket" treatment). These meds would return me to sinus rhythm within a few hours, but have me feeling poorly for a couple days with the med hangover . NOTE that when I was first diagnosed with AF, my doctors were very interested in my sleep quality because AF has a strong association with sleep apnea. They did a sleep study and found nothing extraordinary. My own log of events and guesses at reasons why i went into AF at night included: overeating before bedtime, sleeping on my left side causing pulmonary pressure on that side, dehydration, etc.)

After many years of anxiety, wondering, and self-diagnosis and treatment attempts, I eventually adopted the same conclusion the doctors had communicated up front. "You've got bad circuitry developing in the heart, and we don't know exactly why. It could be from sleep apnea, physical or mental stress, high blood pressure, excessive alcohol, thyroid problems, or even genetic. Based on our medical experience, your condition is likely to degrade over time. We recommend an ablation."

This was hard to accept because in my life my body always found a way to heal from whatever malady I had. The doctors' summary diagnosis, however, turned out to be exactly right.

AF is caused by bad electrical "wiring" or pathways developing in the heart--for whatever reason. Whatever trigger you have (for me it was thoracic pressure/straining)--it's the bad circuits that have developed that get turned on somehow, to cause the AF to kick in. And, in my experience, the nasty wiring gets worse over time. The root cause of AF is not a bad nights' sleep or some other triggering event--it's bad circuitry developing in the wrong cells in and around your pulmonary veins at the entrance to the left atrium. We all just have a personal trigger that somehow turns on these rogue pathways or circuits.

In the end, it was PVI in the left atrium and an atrial flutter line in the right atrium (line of ablation/scarring to prevent flutter) that cured me--at least for now. I'm 5 weeks post-ablation and feeling good again, physically and mentally--5 years after the battle began.

All the best to you Matt.