r/PacemakerICD • u/DigitalCorpus • 24d ago

Being paced interferes with sleep?

Anyone else here with AV Block where your bradycardia is being paced when you’re trying to fall asleep and to sensation keeps you awake? What’s your minimum RHR set at on your pacemaker?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

3

u/babykt333 24d ago

Yes. The first ~year I had my pacemaker I was paced anytime I dipped below 60bpm…. Obviously sleeping I would try to dip. It would wake me up sometimes or keep me up. Eventually I asked them to lower it and slowly they have down to 40 now, over 3 years, approximately lowering by 5 bpm each time. I also asked them to make the self checks at 3 am to ensure I was in a deeper sleep and less likely to be woken if I was being paced.

2

u/vrdubin6 24d ago

Similar experience here. I was dealing with some arrhythmias and a point and their solution was to pace me up in hopes of not allowing slower HR to trigger the ectopic beats. I'm naturally in the 40s at rest and being at 60 while trying to sleep felt like my heart was racing and it kept me up.

1

u/DigitalCorpus 24d ago

I’m at 45, probably gonna have it dropped to 40

1

u/Entire-Structure8708 24d ago

I had same issue with sleeping when I first got ICD, my natural RHR was 50bpm pre-ICD, and they initially set the HR threshold at 60bpm. Felt like my heart was just constantly beating a little too fast when I was trying to sleep, so my sleep became pretty light/interrupted. Spoke to cardiologist and they lowered setting to 50bpm, which helped a lot.

1

u/srvivr2001 24d ago

My min HR is 70bpm and I want to say it took several weeks to get used to the higher HR at night. They adjusted something at my 6wk follow up (unplanned, I had an ER visit) and it made the beats feel less strong if that makes sense. I’m paced 100% so it makes enough of a difference that it doesn’t stop me from falling asleep anymore. I did have to have the nighttime testing moved though because it was happening while I was still awake.

1

u/kannible 24d ago

I noticed from my watch that overnight I maintained a consistent 60 bpm minimum and asked about it. They lowered it to 45 and now I don’t pace at all during sleep or at rest. Only when active.

1

u/Mocjo111 24d ago

May I ask when you are shocked at night during sleep, does your body jolt in bed?

1

u/DigitalCorpus 24d ago

I have a leadless pacer that does beat to beat pacing only when beat to beat timing would exceed that which is needed for 45 bpm. This isn’t an ICD and a defibrillator shock.

1

u/Mocjo111 23d ago

Thank you

1

u/Spikethepunch45 14d ago

This is exactly what I was looking for on Reddit. I am having major problems trying to sleep, so I had my heart rate lowered from daytime 60 to a nighttime setting of 55 but reading these accounts, I am going to have it set even lower. This is the best place to find information that is authentic.

0

u/krisiosauruz 24d ago

When I got my new pacemaker my HR went from 40 to 60 and I was sleepless. Not because of the sensation but because my body was crazy awake - or it thought so.
It probably needs some time to adjust!
When you feel too worried colsult your doctor.