why more ectopics at night?

[pvctom]

i am just wondering why my own situation with pvcs, and flips, hard thuds, ectopic beats, the whole array of crazy patterns, happens more so starting later in the evening, night, and when I go to lay down. the bed used to be a place where I would enjoy retireing to after a long day, now I almost dread the bed!!! still up to see the GI on the 16th and my GP and pych on the 29th. this last 8 going on 9 weeks now, is the longest stretch of ectopic beats that I have ever had.

[pvctom]

thanks for your reply. very helpful and very comforting. i will try to get the Insight Timer App on my Ipad. much thanks. I visited the U.K. once in 2009. loved London, went to Taplow, and Bricket Wood when there.
and you know what.... did not have that many PVCs, not many at all that I can remember. It was the difference between an enjoyable trip and you know....

[marlinspike]

Just to add. I totally sympathise with the thing about going to bed. I used to love going to bed early to read, but if I had PVCs I would have to sit up until I fell asleep as I thought I would die in the night. I began to dread going to bed. Of course anxiety just feeds the PVCs. Try listening to the meditations on the free Insight Timer app at bedtime to relax. On the GI aspect, there was an article in the UK Daily Mail about a chemical called tyramine,found in overripe fruit and cheese, that has been linked to heart rhythm issues. Might be worth googling. Best wishes.

[marlinspike]

I have read many times about sufferers who say their PVCs are worse at night or when bending or lying on their left. I think the slowing of the heart rate is part of it, but I recall reading a response about PVCs from a cardiologist who said that when lying in certain positions or bending, the heart can touch the chest wall which may prompt a bout of PVCs. I have found great reassurance from this site, and also the replies of Dr David Richardson on the All Experts cardiology forum - his reply on PVCs was  that they were almost always benign in a structurally normal heart, however frequent. He was a professor of cardiology with thousands of patients over the years, so I guess he would know. I even printed put his answers to read through when my palpitations were bad which helped my anxiety about them.

[pvctom]

thanks again for sharing this article. I am not a medical person, but am learning more about these ectopics everytime I get on this site. all of these explanations make sense to me, where as before, I only could hear replies like unknown, or random phenomenon. I sincerely hope your ectopics let up some or take a vacation for a long time, like mine once did. the best to you.

[pvctom]

Thanks Artaud,

your response is always informative and reassuring. What you described about not feeling them when you are asleep, and upon 1st wink of consiousness, they start up again describes my situation to the letter.

so grateful to have come upon this site. the best to you.

[matu84]

Hi, I've been struggling with these ectopics for a while now :( I know it was a few years ago you posted this but did you ever find the problem of your PVCs?

[pvctom]

thank you so much for your reply. always helpful and reassuring. i am grateful for this site.

the best to you

[Artaud]

Since my outbreak of PVCs on the Monday after Easter, I haven't slept laying down. The odd thing is when I go to sleep, I don't think I get them (though I have in the past). Invariably, I slip from my semi sitting position to laying down, yet the satisfaction of laying and falling asleep is but a distant memory.

They start up in the morning, the sympathetic nervous system reigns dominant then, speeding up the heart rate and waking me just before the alarm.  

[achillea]

When the heart rate slows down as night falls and you get less active, the naturally longer pause between beats provides an opportunity for the 'self-starter' cells of your heart, the ones that are causing your ectopic beats, to sneak in a beat of their own.  Lots of us notice this phenomenon.

Just lying down, lying on the left side, and turning over in bed can trigger some ectopics in most perfectly normal people. I remember reading a study some years ago reporting that lots of young and fairly healthy medical students tossed PVCs whenever they rolled over onto their left sides in bed.

If you can sleep with a bed wedge or anything that gets your chest up off the mattress, you'll feel these beats less.