Atenolol, Metoprolol - Propranolol to lower heart rate

[Jerry_NJ]

I have used Toprol, Metoprolol (longest, several years) and now Atenolol for the past year.  I moved from Toprolol and Slow Release beta blockers to generic to lower cost.

I was looking at Propranolol which I see is a "non-selective" beta blocker, and it may therefore have an unwanted sleep disturbance side-effect.  Yet, it is prescribed, I read, to lower nightmare problems by lowering the higher heart rate and adrenalin associated with nightmares. .. yet is is advertized to have an potential for insomnia and "vivid" dreaming.  I'm not sure what a vivid dream is, but conclude while it can be troubling it does not rise to the level of fear, high heart rate and high adrenalin associated with night mares. Propranolol is also prescribed for psychological problems like panic and anxiety - seems like a conflict of applications to me...just ramble.

My question is:  anyone use Propranolol for heart rhythm issues such as tachycardia.

[Jerry_NJ]

John,  My high HR is driven by Atrial Fibrillation, not a poor cardiovascular system.  I was a runner up to age 67 when my battle with AFib was finally lost and I am now in permanent AFib.  The AFib struggle went on for over 10 years with shock and meds keeping me in normal sinus rhythm and running with a resting HR about 60.  The high (ventricle) HR is due to a bombardment of pump signals from the atrium and the beta blocker, primarily, blocks enough that I have a resting HR in the 70s and a sleeping HR in the upper 50s.  The heart inefficiencies caused by the AFib prevents me from running or swimming laps.  My EF is over 60% so the left ventricle is working fine.

Elli, thanks one of my "problems" is dreaming every night and waking up often, yet I seem to get enough sleep to not be overly sleepy during the day time.  I have what I call trouble-mares, not nightmares or at least not often do I have nighmares.  I do not think the beta blocker is causing the dreaming, and I suppose they are "vivid" in that I remember the dream when I wake up, and soon forget them after I wake up - nonetheless the dreaming gets my mind into a active grinding on the trouble or depressive part of the dream and makes it hard to go back to sleep, and if I do another dream ramps up.  The non-selective BB,, such as Propranolol should make dreaming more problematic...but it also has some psychotic affect beyond the potential of causing vivid dreams.  This is a subject I have engaged in in the "Sleep Disorders" Community for a couple of years.  I haven't found any answers.  Some obstructive breathing (apnea) problem resulted in me undergoing a hospital supervised "sleep study" and it showed I get marginally sufficient REM sleep and if I do not feel sleepy during the day then I am indeed getting enough sleep.  Yet I hear/read all the time all adults need 8 hours sleep a night - sounds great to me, but it doesn't happen.

My interest in Propranolol was driven by the need to control/lower my HR and to find some relief from dreaming.  Lucid Dreaming methods seem to offer a solution but I haven't concentrated on that enough to accomplish it.

[Elli126]

I used propanolol for years. Didn't seem to do much for me. Still had a lot of episodes of SVT which I couldn't self convert. Since switching to metoprolol they have lessened in duration and I've been able to convert on my own (so far) as far as sleep goes, I've had insomnia all my life and never sleep more than four hours at a clip, and I've always had vivid dreams and night mates. Sorry couldn't be more help with that.

[JohnWright]

Stop all of the drugs and their debilitating and potentially life-threatening side effects, and get swimming goggles and start lap-swimming at a pool for 45 minutes a day stopping every 5 minutes to let your heart relax. You will see a steady drop in your resting heart-rate over weeks and months and, if you continue the program, you won't need Beta Blockers or Calcium Channel-Blockers because your heart-rate will be down to where your doctor will have no reason to prescribe them.