Dreaming after pacemaker

May be the meds....

by BOBTHOM - 2019-09-27 19:00:35

I had strange dreams but only after they started me on high doses of Amiodarone.  Not only dreams but strange twitches and twinges as well.  I remember one dream where I diied and they were going to do an autopsy and started cutting into my leg and I kicked them off me, then woke up.  As I've reduced the dosages the dreams have subsided.

Dreams

by AgentX86 - 2019-09-27 21:21:00

Jeez, Bob. People pay real money for drugs like that. ;-)

I started dreaming again after my pacemaker implant but it's probably more because I was actually sleeping after I got rid of the flutter.  I've had no really unusual dreams, though there was that one with the blond and the chunky style peanut butter....

Not drugs

by BobDB - 2019-09-28 06:27:34

I can't credit drugs as I do not take any. Before the pacemaker I never had a dream I could remember, although my wife thought that I sometimes had a dream without physical activity.

dreaming

by new to pace.... - 2019-09-28 11:43:34

Just before  i saw this on dreaming was about to write of my experience early this morning Sep 28th. Sometime  between 2 and 3am.  Was dreaming that I could not find the right ending for the word "heart".  The endings were flashing so fast , had a hard time seeing them.  Also was trying to find a symbol to put over another to delete it.  Could not find the right one. 

    Have been sleeping on my righrt shoulder these past 6 weeks since the implant of the Pacemaker.  So i was last nite also.  Felt like i was thrashing around.  When i awoke later than normal.  Did the usual excirsces for both shoulders.  Was amazed with the left one moved like it had  never had any problems.   

  Even shower went really well for the first time in 6 weeks.  Tape over the incision finally came off.

  Have an appt to see the Dr and the Pacemaker clinc tech this Friday Oct 4 for the 6 week checke up.  My neighbor will go with me to jot the answers to questions i will have. Or she might also. 

Dreams

by Snowdog - 2019-09-29 14:09:13

I’ve had my pacemaker for 4 years and before that I was healthy and didn’t take any medication. I’m now on beta blockers and blood pressure medication.. In the early days I would see ‘people’ in my bedroom sometimes random strangers but sometimes people I know.. my husband is often away on business and sometimes I would wake up frightened and sleep with the light on.. it rarely happens now so I put it down to the medication. When my husband is there he does say I wake  him up in the night telling him someone is our room but he’s used to it now !!! 

Here's a theory

by Gotrhythm - 2019-09-29 14:56:56

You're not alone. Changes in sleep and dreaming are not uncommon post pacemaker. Different people experience different things.

For instance, after my pacemaker, I stopped "sleeping like the dead." It started taking a while to go to sleep, when before, I had been asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It's not hard to guess what caused the change. Post pacemaker, I no longer went to be bone-tired. I woke up rested.

My problems with dreaming were pre-pacemaker. I would dream, sometimes serveral times a night that the phone, the doorbell, the alarm clock was ringing and I was telling myself over and over that I had to wake up and deal with it. The dream would only stop when I did in fact wake up enough to turn over and take a deep breath.

I had bradycardia. I think my heart rate and breathing were so slow, I was in danger of them stopping altogether. Anyway, after the pacemaker, the dreams stopped.

Dreaming is both normal and neccesary to our health. Whether they remember or not, everyone dreams. Certain drugs and alcohol will suppress dreaming, and if we are waking so often that our brain doesn't go into the dream cycle--like what can happen with sleep apnea--we don't get as much time dreaming as we need. 

When we have been deprived of dreaming for a while, the brain will actually try to make up for lost dreaming time, and there will be longer dream cycles during the night. Hence a period of intense dreaming.

It's possible that your complete heart block caused many mini-awakenings during the night--not enough to thorouhly wake you, but enough to prevent dreaming sleep. If so, your brain might just be making up for lost time.

Just a thought.

If it was me, I would try some non-drug means of calming the content of the dreams. The kinds of things that calm the body and nervous system generally. Might help.