Does anyone else get frequent PVCs (bigeminy/trigeminy) ONLY in the evening and before falling asleep?

[user01938474]

I've been diagnosed with PVCs. I rarely experience them during the day and never when exercising. I can't even really find a correlation between caffeine/alcohol and them (although I never consume anything caffeinated). I exercise regularly. And I never experience them when exercising.

However, when I do get the PVCs, they come every other beat or almost every other beat non-stop for hours. This bigeminy and trigeminy always occurs in the evening, sometime around 7 or 8 as I'm settling down from dinner and a trip to the gym. As I let my mind and body relax, the PVCs get more frequent and eventually as I lay down to get to sleep the PVCs occur at nearly every other beat.

Lately, I haven't been able to take this at night, so I will jump out of bed and furiously pump out about 50 push-ups without stopping. This gets my heart rate up quite a bit, maybe around 80 or 90 bpm. The PVCs are totally gone in what I understand is called "overdrive suppression". This works every time and sometimes if I'm lucky, will keep the PVCs at bay just long enough for me to fall asleep.

What is really interesting, is that the PVCs don't wake me up, and I'm not even sure they are occurring when I'm unconscious. I have woken up early in the morning before my alarm clock goes off, or even in the middle of the night now and then and have not felt one PVC. It seems that once I'm unconscious, these are also suppressed, or I'm just super relaxed and the heart pumps without anything irritating it to cause a PVC.

Two questions:
1) Has anyone experienced or is experiencing anything like this at all?
2) These facts are always true, and the PVCs are not that random. Don't these symptoms point to a clear cause?? My PVCs occur at slower heart rates so Beta Blockers don't work. And ablation seems extreme still. No other solutions?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Can't sleep :(
Erik

[misszumba]

I am a 59 yr old female with a history of throwing pvc,s. Didnt feel well over the summer and had a heart stent put in after a cardio cath revealed a congenital abnormality ( a bend in the artery) I haven't felt normal since. I previously did zumba twice a week, bike, treadmill, etc.my december  stress test detected bigeminy. Increasing my atenelol to 25mg. am with an additional 50mg pm. I take ativan 25 prn. I also have a back issue which a take flexeril. I just read that flexeril should not be taken if you have a rhythm disorder, so much for my pain relief! waiting for a repeat stress test to see if upping the atenlol makes a difference. looking to see if a change in my diet will affect the rhythm. also looking for stress reduction comments ( ti-chi ?? I am looking forward to resuming my exercise routine but need to be cleared by my cardiologist . hope  to have good news by the end of the month !

[urmusicladyrn]

I am a RN, and have always been very healthy, exercising several days a week, if not daily when I can.  I did have SVT and catheter ablation when I was around 36 (I'm 53 now).  I was told that my form was a genetic issue from birth that shows up in your 20's or 30's. After periodic checkups with my cardiologist, I've always been considered clear of any residual problems as a result of the prior issues.

Just a few weeks ago, at a new nursing job that was EXTREMELY stressful, I started having pvcs and pacs at work.  Then I would have them in the evenings when I settled down to watch tv after working 12 hours.  One evening they got so bad, with my heart literally throwing itself at my chest wall and having trigeminy/bigeminy, I called my ex husband and he felt I needed to go to the ER.  Eventually, they subsided, and I couldn't figure out why they got better when I was at the ER.  I went twice in 10 days to the ER (I'm NEVER sick and NEVER go to the ER), and after each visit, I went to my cardiologist for a follow up.  Both times, the cardiologist said they were benign, and kept suggesting Xanax, saying I seemed to have a lot of anxiety (I'm a nurse, do you think?? Lol).  Having seen a gazillion patients who were addicted to high doses of Xanax, I refused during the first visit.  After the second follow up with him, I did agree to try the lowest dose of 0.25 mg, and told him that I would even cut that in half when I took it.  I don't have an addictive personality, so I'm not worried about becoming addicted to it.  I just don't want to have to depend on an anti anxiety to fix this.  I will say, I'm not sure it's working, as I still am having the crazy heart flips and flutters, although they have lessened during the day and are mostly at night (not every night, though).

I do work out at the gym on the elliptical, and I do interval training, hitting high speeds then recovering, and repeating it for anywhere from 25-50 minutes.  I do not experience any arrhythmias during my workouts, so that's good.  One evening during an "episode", I put a pulse ox on to measure my heart rate, and it would be so crazy, jumping to tachycardia and then immediately to brady.  Scared the bazoozles out of me, and I was afraid I was going to die during my sleep.  I actually slept at a friend's house that night, just in case.  And last night they came on so strong while I was laying in bed watching tv around 10:30 pm and lasted until around 2 am!  I had to get out of bed and come to my recliner so that I could keep my upper body elevated, as it became tough to breathe with all the pounding and flip-flopping.  I'm sure the anxiety I felt from the continues episode didn't help either.  And I do have asthma, so go figure.

I am so glad to have found this site, and to see that I'm not crazy!  I felt as though my cardiologist was thinking I am crazy, because when I said I didn't want to take the Xanax, he said it's cheaper than psychotherapy.  I do feel somewhat relieved reading all the comments about how common it is.  I will try the coffee in the early evenings to see if it helps.  I had them while reading all these posts, and I did try the valsalva maneuver a few times (holding my breath while bearing down) while sitting here reading, and they have stopped, at least for the time being.

Thanks so much for the comfort you've given me tonight!  :-)

[Brianhurst]

This thread has really helped me realise I am not alone, I have my heart doing the 1..2..1...2 in my chest right now and it kept me awake all last night.  I know they are apparently harmless but they sure mess you pat night !

Appreciate your feedback as to who beat these damned things

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

also want to add mine are pac been monitored and every time they are pacs

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

hi, wow do you still have them like that. thank you for talking to us who are very scared of them it helps so much

do you believe you can get them with acid reflux, and i have a lot of back problems can it cause that along with chest dull pains, back fused with rods , have had heart checked out they say its fine. thank you for your info

[pvctom]

what a great thread. you can add me to the list too. never ever thought so many had these annoying PVCs. and yes, at their worst, mine were always worse at night, especially when lying down. thanks to all for the great posts and the young man that started this thread.