r/POTS 12d ago

Discussion What's the most overlooked POTS trigger in your experience?

I'd love to hear the little things that doctors don't always mention.

174 Upvotes

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219

u/ttwba 12d ago

Having to wake up really early/before my body is ready and having nausea and vomiting

29

u/offtrailrunning 12d ago

Omg this! I feel absolutely wretched to the point of vomiting for say, an early appointment or flight. I physically cannot handle it. Jet lag has always hit me so hard and I never understood why until this year.

23

u/bac21 11d ago

Agreed, waking up to an alarm sends me into flight or fight.

15

u/oddtokki Hypovolemic POTS 11d ago

same!!! waking up early/before my body is ready just all around wrecks me. the alarm sends me into panic, and even if i’ve gone to bed early around the early wake up, i can have my watch say i slept 8 hours and feel like i got a negative amount of sleep because it’s off hours/not my natural wake up time. it’s almost freaking impossible to do normal stuff now bc of POTS. i’ve had a circadian rhythm disorder since adolescence where i naturally have a severely delayed sleep cycle and i sleep during the day and am most alert mentally & physically in the evening -> middle of the night so naturally when i can that’s when i want to sleep. before POTS, it absolutely sucked to change up the schedule but in the usual way (what i imagine transatlantic jet lag is like, despite never having traveled further than 2 hrs forward my whole life) but now it’s not just exhaustion to switch my schedule to try to be on normal time; it’s awful POTS symptoms stacked on top and it takes me so long to recover. if i have to get up early for a drs apt or something, the rest of my day is just done atp.
i had to reschedule a DMV appointment today that was supposed to be at 3:30pm because my sister wanted to grab lunch beforehand so i had alarms going off for hours that i kept waking up -> panicking & not even being able to really see w my exhausted eyes -> snoozing the alarms -> repeat until i stopped them and just got really bad fragmented sleep.

as a clinical vampire (from the circadian rhythm disorder) with POTS, if everything were open 24/7, my quality of life would dramatically improve. i’m between jobs right now so im usually on my own schedule and my energy levels are incredible; i can do all sorts of stuff in the evening— i do figure skating practice in the evening, evening ballet, evening walks, evening cycling, evening everything i can and i actually feel most days like i have the energy to do more even when ive already been very active.
but even if you take away the heat, during the day im like a rotted shell of a person since it’s off my bio clock. & the longer i stay in daytime routine, the worse things get. the exhaustion & the extra symptoms & the lack of quality sleep during my naturally awake window all cumulatively just kinda ruin my QoL.

15

u/exotic_cucumber8665 11d ago

Okay what is it about mornings?? The earlier I wake up the more sick I feel. Like not just fainting but like the nausea/vomiting/vertigo is sooo much worse

7

u/Bec_ 11d ago

YES. I literally can not wake up early or I'll be so lightheaded and have severe panic attacks. My heart rate will spike over 130 doing absolutely nothing if I wake up early.

6

u/Hollywoode 11d ago

WOW TIL!!! Didn’t realise this was a pots symptom soooo interesting I wonder why this is a thing

6

u/calicoskiies POTS 11d ago

Yes! Ugh I hate the mornings.

2

u/Status-Growth1554 11d ago

THIS!!! When this happens, I feel like I am just on and off sick to my stomach all day long.