Pulse Jumping

[ShinyJabberwocky]

So I've been to numerous sleep studies because I just don't sleep well and wanted to find out why. As a child, I used to sleep walk a lot, which didn't seem to affect me much. As an adult, I essentially act out my dreams for about 15 seconds up to 5 minutes, then wake up and realize I'm doing something stupid and go back to sleep. Apparently my body does not paralyze itself like it should when dreaming so sometimes I just get up and do crazy stuff.

I've been to numerous sleep studies and they can't find anything wrong except for some light sleep apnea issues (AHI is just over 5), but those issues were only prominent when I slept on my back; sleeping on my sides or my stomach seems to help that issue.

Realizing that I do have some sleeping issues, I bought a wireless pulse oximeter just to see what my oxygen saturation levels are throughout the night. They seem to be between 96-97% on average, which is fine I guess. What concerns me is my pulse though. When I look at the graphs for my oxygen saturation, it seems constant enough--sometimes it's at 98% while other times it gets to 94% for a little over 10 seconds. But my pulse spikes to 100-110 bpm, which is weird because I take atenolol and my average pulse rate at night is around 60.

It seems to happen at least once every hour, so what could be causing it? The jumping pulse does not seem to consistently coincide with any dropping oxygen saturation, and usually when I've had my bpm taken for long periods of time by a professional, it's pretty consistent--especially due to the atenolol slowing it down a little.

Maybe these pulse spikes are normal--they never go over 110bpm--but I just wanted to check to see if anyone had any suggestions or ideas. Thanks.

[ShinyJabberwocky]

Hmm...interesting. It just so happens that I have a partially deviated septum in my right nostril and my left has recently developed what I believe to be a nasal polyp. I've been through numerous sleep studies without the nasal polyp thought and the only time my AHI is over 5.0 is when I sleep on my back.

But I wonder why my blocked nose would make my pulse jump if my oxygen saturation at the time was normal? I could see my pulse jumping when my oxygen saturation would drop, as there would be too much CO2 in my lungs and my brain is starting to pump adrenaline into my body to wake me up...

I might try this Magnesium Citrate though just to test it out. I don't know if I mentioned this, but I am taking 50mg of Atenolol for high blood pressure, and I get brachytardia from the meds, which gives me an average pulse rate of about 55-60 bpm when I'm sleeping. I would assume the Atenolol would keep my heart in check but I guess whatever is going on seems to be provoking my pulse a bit too.

And I will warn you, sleep studies are hard to catch anything that isn't really obvious because you're not in your normal environment of sleeping--they won't let you sleep on your stomach, you've got wires all over the place which makes it hard to get comfortable, and you're in your own bed so you won't sleep as deeply. I've been to three sleep studies, and all they can tell me is that I have light sleep apnea when lying on my back (5.3 AHI), and that I have some other REM behavioral disorder.

Good luck though. And I will give the Magnesium Citrate a try and test out the results. Let me know if they find anything in your sleep studies. With my AHI at 5.3, they tried me on CPAP, which actually made my sleep apnea worse...lol.

[Doahh]

I am sorry that I can't help but I am interested in any replies as I have noticed something similar in myself. My pulse will occasionally jump to 120 and like you I found out by buying an oximeter which may be showing light sleep apnea - I see a specialist in a few months.

The only vague hint I can offer is that when I started taking Magnesium Citrate for insomnia my AHI dropped a lot and I haven't seen any spikes in heartrate above 80 - I have not had my oximeter for long though. I think this may be because Magnesium Citrate is linked to preventing blocked noses, and mine is always blocked. I hypothesise that my blocked nose may also be the reason for my apnea. Hence Magnesium Citrate unblocks the nose, reduces the aponea and the heart rate spikes.

Magnesium Citrate should be safe for anyone who does not have a liver/kidney (?) problem. I take 500mg (80mg elemental magnesium) about an hour before bed. It is easily available in health food stores or order on Amazon.

I read that Magnesium Taurate is better then Citrate as it has a higher absorption rate.