Hello. First post. New mitral valve and bypass 2 November. Home to recuperate after 6 days. Initially troubled by hallucinations which slowly faded. Chest pain managed with paracetamol. Now left with disrupted sleep pattern. Normally an excellent sleeper but now unable to get to sleep and resorting to moving around the house all night looking for comfortable spot/distractions. Often only manage 2 hours in 24 - around dawn. Exhaustion makes exercise difficult but keen to progress with programme. GP prescribed short course of zoplicone which wasn’t very successful. Now in “waiting it out” mode.
My questions: Is this sleep pattern disruption “normal”after ops of this type? Any coping tips? Anyone any experiences of how to overcome/change situation? Does it pass or does it require intervention? Any info gratefully received. Thanks
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Mog06
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When I had my valve replacement operation I was struggling to sleep for the first 3 or 4 weeks after the op .I was constantly trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in found it was better to sleep in a chair .You’ve got to remember your body as been through a lot and it repairing its self a nurse on my ward described it as your body being in the a 79 mph car crash .
Mog. Unfortunately I am not the best to answer you because two years post triple bypass and three to four hours sleep maximum a night is all I get. GP offered sleeping tablets but I was not keen. Never had trouble sleeping before my surgery and have been told that this can be a reaction to OHS. I now just accept it and read a lot and try to relax thru the night. Speak with your GP and they may offer better advice than I have been given. I have been offered meditation techniques but not my scene but if it works for others then who am I to judge.
I'm' afraid it's quite common. People on here have taken months to get back into a normal sleep pattern, myself included. Try not to push yourself too hard during the day, & take short naps to make up for your lack of sleep at night if you can.The other replies have given good advise. I ended up sometimes propped up in an arm chair watching TV at night !
I know it's difficult, but be patient your normal sleep will come back.
At least you won't be fretting about having to get up to go to work. At night I listen to relaxing plays I find on on my phone on youtube . PG Wodehouse helps LOL stops your mind from going round in circles. As others have said physically & emotionally you've been through a hell of a lot. It's going to take time to get your sleep pattern back in synch
I know it's frustrating, but little by little you will get back to normal. ( don't know why the type changed !)
Welcome to the forum, I had Aortic valve replaced and bypass done 5 years ago, first things first your body as been through a huge trauma and not just your body your brain is still processing what has happened to you, you were also given a huge dose of anesthetiser along with some very exotic drugs! These take longer to work their way through our systems than we imagine.
As already been said getting comfortable is sometimes a challenge I am a side sleeper and the first time I could get on my side was bliss!
You will read lots of posts that say you end up sleeping in the day and that’s normal.
Things I would say listen to your body when it says I am tired rest, keep doing the breathing and coughing exercises you were given by the physios in hospital they help so much remember our lungs collapse when we are on bypass and now all those little pockets need to be filled out again.
Follow the instructions you were given no lifting anything heavier than half a kettle of water no arms above your head and no pulling or pushing movements. You have to let your sternum heal like any broken bone, even though we are wired together we still have to let the bones knit back. Gentle walking, I used to go for my walk and count lamp posts! Try and get to the next one on the next walk, silly I know but it worked. Get on the cardio rehab course it’s really good, being around others who have been through what you have is so beneficial, you don’t feel like an oddity! And they will have all the same aches and pains you have!
Your sleeping pattern will return, it just takes time.
You are now a member of the Hearties family, and are on the road with a mended heart.
Dear MogYes it is normal to have bad sleep post AVR, and no doubt post MVR.
I spent months getting decent sleep. Changed mattress, tried hotter, tried cooler. Slept with a light on. Five pillows plus one under my knees. Changed rooms.
Nightmares horrific. Even night terrors ( i.e. they don’t stop when I wake up).
I determined I would retire at 10pm no matter what. And I would not go to bed during the day. Slowly the sleep returned. I need 7.5hours.
I did use a tinnitus relaxer. This plays white noise plus a choice of relaxing noises. I like waves on the beach. About £35.
It is now so good to get proper sleep and I do get very tired at 10pm. Before, I reckoned I was on a 25 hour clock and I would stay wake until midnight.
Thanks Colin. Had an amazing response to my post. Regards, Ross
Hi Mog. Sorry to hear you're having sleep issues. As other have rightly said, sadly it's a common event after such invasive surgery. After my CABG I had very disturbing, anxious dreams for first couple of weeks and also had problems trying to find a way to sleep. I found I slept best propped up on the couch which supported me well at quite a steep angle (when I was in hospital I could only rest with the bed at a steep angle). As someone else mentioned, I also found I slept better if I had the TV on in the background, I had news24 or a film that I knew well (Oceans 11 😂) on low volume which helped me to zone out at relax my mind allowing my body to rest. This also really helped recently when I got a bad bout of sciatica and had trouble sleeping due to back and leg pain.
Hope you find some way to sleep soon, all the best.
Blimey now I’m scared, I’m waiting for aorta valve replacement and a small hole between the ventricle chambers, forgive me for not knowing the technical terms and sorry for gate crashing your post Mog06, I’m 2 yrs past my original surgery date now and it’s just been put back again, I suffer with slight sleep deprivation anyway so now after reading your post I know I’m going to experience what you are going through but I can see we are not alone mate, I hope you can find a little technique to help you rest, my dad use to do a lot of shift work and he always said that even if your not actually asleep, just resting is equally as important, luckily you are retired so can grab sleep as and when, I’m actually dreading it, as I’m only 45, a self employed mechanic so after surgery I need to return to my work or I’ll sink, DWP are completely useless for any help and with the whole covid situation, I’ve wiped most of my savings i had set aside for surgery and recovery 2 yr ago but it is what it is mate. I’m hoping it’s going to be all positive’s once the surgery is done coz it’s been 10 years of feeling like rubbish before the diagnosis, i was hoping the sleep thing would be a bit better after but possibly not for awhile I’m guessing now lol.
I hope you find your thing that helps you relax and grab some shut eye, my dad used to listen to the Orb album when he was going from night shift to day shifts as it’s an 1hr30m of mellow music but he was a 70’s peace love and unity man. It’s whatever I guess helps that matters lol👍🏻.
All the best mate, I come back in a couple of weeks (hopefully) and find out what you did to help you lol. Stay safe all and good luck Mog06👍🏻
Youve already had some great replies. I had a bypass in October last year and my sleep pattern was a mess for about 6 weeks. I'm normally a great sleeper - 8 hours a night was my norm. But, like you, after my operation 2 hours was about as much as I could get - in my case my best time was early in the night (about 11 pm to 1am). At that point, like you, I would abandon the bed and go downstairs to try to nap in a chair. So I had blankets, pillow, cushions, torch, book, phone, and electric heater set up in the lounge. Sometimes, I would go back to bed after a few hours downstairs and try again. Sometimes I could get to sleep for a while - sometimes not. I would make myself cups of tea during the night, and it helped me to have something warm in my stomach. Hot chocolate is recommended too. Sometimes I'd watch the TV quietly or get the headphones on and listen to music. My wife managed to sleep through it all OK!
The important thing is to sleep when you can for as long as you can - day or night. If you feel sleepy during the day, grab the chance for 30mins snooze! It all adds up and it DOES gradually get better. I guess I got a total of about 4 hours sleep in 24 hours for the initial few weeks. For me things got much better when it was really comfortable to sleep on my side.
Medication is worth a comment. After my bypass operation I was put on amioderone, a medication that is supposed to stop arrythmias. I was fairly certain that it was disrupting my sleep and I was desperate to stop it at the first chance, which came at my 6 week review with the cardiology team. You may also be on some medication that your body isn't used to.
Hope this reassures you that your experience is not unique.
PS. While Zopiclone may help you sleep, I suspect is also makes your brain fog worse.
Good morning, Thanks for taking the time to pass on your experiences. It all sounds so familiar and is a great help. Exactly what I needed. I was interested to hear about your experience with zoplicone. It definitely brought back some of the hallucinations which are a scary part of the process and which no one warned me about.I have been amazed and heartened by the speed and amount of replies. It definitely helped to know that I wasn’t the only person to go through all of this. Best regards, Ross
Thanks. My zopiclone comment was not my personal experience but my father's some years ago. He found the dose was tricky to get right : too little and it didn't work, too much and he was in a brain fog most of the day.
Been there, although to be honest I’m not a good sleeper anyway.
The more you worry about it the less likely you are to get to sleep. I suspect anxiety levels are still high whether you’re aware of it or not, it’s hard to get comfortable and you’re not yet doing enough physically to properly tire yourself. It will pass, just give it time and if you nod off during the day then take advantage of it. Things will gradually improve but it takes a while. Take care and don’t expect things to happen quickly x
I had a cabgx4 in June and had the same problem sleeping that lasted about 6-8 weeks post surgery It does get better but understand not easy when unable to get sleep take care mark
As other have said not an uncommon problem. My solution was to sleep in a very comfortable recliner chair. After a week or so back to bed with a large triangular foam wedge, sort of half sitting half lying. It probably took 6 - 8 weeks before proper sleep returned.Don’t worry if you can’t sleep, rest with legs up, lights out is OK
I had a CABGx4 at age 47, 15 years ago. Sleep was definitely disrupted, especially in first few weeks ... but it did return after a while. I think it's par for the course after a traumatic cardiac event. At least we are alive to have this sort of problem.
Yep. All still working. I'm probably a wee bit more neurotic and sensitive to aches and pains ... but my kids are grown up, and I have 4 grandkids now. No angina since the op ... and only 3 weeks' worth before the op. So pretty good really. (It changed the way I think about life too. Maybe not so driven as I was. But happier ... and better able to cope with tensions etc. 😀)
That's great, hope I feel as good in 15 years time. My bypass is scheduled for next month and I have seen cases on here where issues return in a few years. So, your outcome is very reassuring to me.
Hi, for severe disease, CABG (despite its invasiveness) is much better than stents. It's really important to follow the rehab advice - especially diet. I have become a bit too complacent about exercise ... should do more. Have travelled a lot since my bypass - including a circumnavigation of the planet visiting family and friends in Oz and the US. Also Europe, Middle East, Peru, Ghana ... pleasure and work.
Hi, I had my mitral valve replaced in June (age 52) and my sleep was very disrupted. In the first couple of weeks I was dreaming a lot about being in ICU and kept waking up with a start. I think it took at least 3 weeks before I could sleep more than 2 hours at a time. One of the problems was sleeping on my back but my general patterns seemed to be very disrupted by the anaesthetic and possibly also by all the painkillers in ICU - I had morphine (which made me hallucinate), fentanyl and ketamine (both made me vomit), so pretty strong stuff. Other contributing factors were probably that I was sleeping during the day, and not doing much in the way of exercise, but that's just how life is in the first few weeks after surgery like that.
In the first few weeks I tried to get back to sleep by putting on a podcast fairly quietly - nothing funny or serious - just chatter. Seemed to help a bit. Gradually my sleep increased and after about 6 weeks I was able to sleep some of the night on my sides which helped enormously. 6 months on I still can't really sleep a whole night through, but that's more because I usually get up for the loo at least once a night, sometimes twice. But apart from that, I'm not usually spending too much time awake at night now. So, I would think it's all fairly normal, and it will pass, gradually. It is frustrating and exhausting though - I really sympathise.
Thank you for your message. Hearing the experiences of others really does help. I have been very surprised and pleased by the number of people who have taken the time to reply.Thankyou, Ross
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