Waking up with rapid heartbeat

[justMongo]

You have stepped into

[trish6hundred]

Hi MikeZZ,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck to you with getting your blood pressure medicine problem straightened out and much success to you as you continue your CPAP therapy.
Hang in there for more responses to your post.

[Sleeprider]

Mike, we don't know what pressure range you had before the change, and whether you are using EPR. As far as using a single pressure, I think most of us get better results from a small range or single pressure once we have an idea of where we optimize events and comfort. I have no idea why tachycardia has visited itself upon you, but ending up with a limited range or single pressure is not that unusual.

[MikeZZ]

Mike, we don't know what pressure range you had before the change, and whether you are using EPR. As far as using a single pressure, I think most of us get better results from a small range or single pressure once we have an idea of where we optimize events and comfort. I have no idea why tachycardia has visited itself upon you, but ending up with a limited range or single pressure is not that unusual.

My pressure range is set between 4-20. The respiratory therapist a year and half ago set up EPR and its on, full time, EPR level is 2. I'm now finding all these stats under the clinical settings that I never checked because things were fine. My AHI overall for the month is 2.5 but last night it was 4.9. Are these numbers telling at all?

[Sleeprider]

Mike, your tachycardia is most likely due to the extremely low pressure set as a minimum on your machine. Any of us could have looked at your data and suggested a range with a higher starting minimum pressure and probably resolved this. This is a common error by the medical community, thinking they can rely on the machine to reach a therapeutic pressure fast enough to prevent apnea and other issues. Our objective is really to have minimum pressure within about 2-cm of your 90% pressure to ensure events are prevented, and the that machine pressure will need to vary relatively little through the night. This is both more effective and more restful.

Your answer, answers everything.

[MikeZZ]

Mike, your tachycardia is most likely due to the extremely low pressure set as a minimum on your machine. Any of us could have looked at your data and suggested a range with a higher starting minimum pressure and probably resolved this. This is a common error by the medical community, thinking they can rely on the machine to reach a therapeutic pressure fast enough to prevent apnea and other issues. Our objective is really to have minimum pressure within about 2-cm of your 90% pressure to ensure events are prevented, and the that machine pressure will need to vary relatively little through the night. This is both more effective and more restful.

Your answer, answers everything.

But why would this start all of a sudden when it's been going well for 1.5 yrs? Do you recommend I change this myself and if yes, what should I change it to?

[Sleeprider]

What is the average and 90-95% pressure you are currently getting?

I can't explain why it happened after a considerable period of time, but a sense of air starvation can trigger panic or rapid heart beat. Heck I dunno! It happened, and none of the doctors found any cause. It would freak me out to try to breath at 4 cm.

Anyway, get the manual for your machine by following the link to CPAP setup manuals at the top of the page. Changing settings is pretty easy, and this one is a no-brainer. Your machine is set wide-open, which is inefficient at preventing apnea, and you can trust the experience of many many people on this forum that the open APAP settings are not your best option. For starters, I'd set the minimum APAP pressure equal to the average pressure for the past 7-days. That is still going to be low, but it beats not changing.

[SideSleeper]

MikeZZ, I have supra ventricular tachycardia. This didn't show up until I had a nuclear stress test--I try to blame it on that but the doctor's don't seem to think that did it. I've had two heart ablations to slow it down--no luck there. I've never been awakened by it during CPAP use, however--my heart rate usually goes way down at night. I've been on a beta blocker for ages--atenelol then labatalol (beta and alpha blocker) for the last 5 or 6 years for blood pressure. The beta blocker does not do anything for the tachycardia. It comes on randomly--sometimes not for days or weeks, sometimes every day off and on. I know how to slow it down. Have you seen a cardiologist?

[DariaVader]

I have a "long RP" episodic tachycardia - have had since at least my teens. I was on metoprolol until recently when I began carvedilol instead (great move for me, btw. the toprol made me feel slowwwwwww. the carvedilol doesnt. ) Yes stopping it suddenly can cause you to have a very excitable heart rhythm!

They routinely have patients do this for stress tests, because it is hard to stress your heart when you are on one. As for being outdated for BP control... still pretty routine if you are already on an ARB or ACE inhibiter (losartan is an ARB) plus HCT (diuretic) and still have a high bp. you are also on amlodipine. The don't like you to have too high of a dose of any one drug - increases side effects.

as you have been advised, wide open auto is not the most effective therapy. 2 below 90% may be too high for you as a minimum, but 4 is almost certainly too low. Most of us feel claustrophobic and even panicky at a pressure of 4. It might be instructive to look at your sleepyhead graphs. The arrhythmic episodes may or may not correlate with pap settings, but it can't hurt to give it a lookie

[MikeZZ]

What is the average and 90-95% pressure you are currently getting?

I can't explain why it happened after a considerable period of time, but a sense of air starvation can trigger panic or rapid heart beat. Heck I dunno! It happened, and none of the doctors found any cause. It would freak me out to try to breath at 4 cm.

Anyway, get the manual for your machine by following the link to CPAP setup manuals at the top of the page. Changing settings is pretty easy, and this one is a no-brainer. Your machine is set wide-open, which is inefficient at preventing apnea, and you can trust the experience of many many people on this forum that the open APAP settings are not your best option. For starters, I'd set the minimum APAP pressure equal to the average pressure for the past 7-days. That is still going to be low, but it beats not changing.

I was told by the respiratory therapist I avg a 10.7 and I max out at 11.5. But here's the part I don't understand and forgive my ignorance, when I had an episode the last few nights I looked at the machine and it was reading at least a 10 or higher. Does setting the minimum to 4 have that kind of impact when I'm guessing I'm nowhere close to that during the night?