POTS and Insomnia: What to Log

Updated 29 Oct 2026

After a bad night, the next upright hour is harder, and after a hard day the night can be worse. Without a record, it is hard to say which came first.

This guide covers what to log about insomnia with POTS: the night itself, the room, drinks and meals, evening symptoms, and the next day. Your care team decides what to change.

Log the night itself

The NHS says you have insomnia if you regularly find it hard to go to sleep, wake up several times during the night, lie awake at night, wake up early and cannot go back to sleep, or still feel tired after waking up (NHS insomnia guidance). It calls insomnia for less than 3 months short-term, and 3 months or longer long-term (NHS insomnia guidance).

Each morning, log four times: into bed, asleep (a guess is fine), any wakes, and up. Add a 0 to 10 score for how rested you feel. Do this before you check your phone for anything else.

After two weeks, the times show which kind of bad night you have: slow to fall asleep, broken, or early waking. That pattern guides the next conversation better than "I sleep badly".

Keep a count of weeks, too. The 3-month mark from the NHS is easier to spot when the start date is written down.

In POTS Journey, the Daily check-in holds the rested score.

Log the room

The NHS lists common causes of insomnia including stress, anxiety or depression, noise, a room that is too hot or cold, uncomfortable beds, and alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine (NHS insomnia guidance). It suggests making sure your bedroom is dark and quiet, using curtains, blinds, an eye mask, or ear plugs if needed (NHS insomnia guidance).

For PoTS, it lists getting too hot among things that can make symptoms worse (NHS PoTS guidance). Heat in the bedroom can matter twice: once for sleep and once for symptoms.

Log a quick note on the room each night: warm, cool, noisy, light. If you change one thing, such as a fan or blackout blind, log the date so the next nights can be compared.

The NHS also suggests making sure your mattress, pillows, and covers are comfortable (NHS insomnia guidance). If bedding is changed, note it the same way.

In POTS Journey, the Daily Journal keeps the room notes.

Log drinks and meals with times

The NHS advises not to smoke or drink alcohol, tea, or coffee at least 6 hours before going to bed, and not to eat a big meal late at night (NHS insomnia guidance). For PoTS, it lists eating, especially carbohydrates like white bread, pasta, and rice, not drinking enough fluids, and drinking alcohol among things that can make symptoms worse (NHS PoTS guidance).

Log the time of your last tea, coffee, or alcohol, and the time and size of your evening meal. Keep your fluid plan as your team set it; the log is there to show timing, not to cut fluids.

Fluids and salt have their own effect on nights. For that side, see how salt and fluids interact with sleep on POTS weeks.

In POTS Journey, the Food Tracker keeps meal and drink times.

Log evening symptoms before bed

The NHS lists PoTS symptoms that include dizziness or light-headedness, noticeable heartbeats, shortness of breath, shaking and sweating, and problems with thinking, memory, and concentration (NHS PoTS guidance). Any of these in the evening can make winding down harder.

For insomnia, it suggests relaxing at least 1 hour before bed, for example taking a bath or reading a book, and not using devices like smartphones right before bed because the blue light makes you more awake (NHS insomnia guidance). If baths make PoTS symptoms worse for you, log that and pick another wind-down.

In the hour before bed, tick racing heart, heat, dizziness, or a busy mind. Nights with a tick can then be compared with nights without.

In POTS Journey, the Flare Tracker marks rough evenings.

Log the next day, then bring the record

The NHS lists daytime signs of insomnia, including feeling tired and irritable during the day, and finding it difficult to concentrate because you are tired (NHS insomnia guidance). It advises not to sleep in after a bad night's sleep and to stick to your regular sleeping hours, and not to drive when you feel sleepy (NHS insomnia guidance).

It says to see a GP if changing your sleeping habits has not helped, you have had trouble sleeping for months, or insomnia is affecting your daily life in a way that makes it hard to cope (NHS insomnia guidance). It says a GP may offer cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and that you should check with your doctor before taking anything for your sleep problems (NHS insomnia guidance).

Bring the night times, room notes, drink times, evening ticks, and next-day scores. For mornings, see POTS morning spike days; for a fuller history, see rebuilding the story for the next POTS visit.

In POTS Journey, the Doctor Report brings it together.

How POTS Journey can help

A notebook can hold one bad day. The harder part is keeping nights, evenings, and next days in one dated record.

POTS Journey is a personal POTS tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. It records symptoms, medicines, test dates, and visits in one dated history. For a side-by-side look at POTS trackers, see the best POTS apps in 2026. Below is what you can use and how each part helps:

• My Meds — Medicine names and timing, such as beta blockers, midodrine, or fludrocortisone, so you can see how a start date lines up with standing tolerance.
• Daily check-in — A short guided pass across symptoms, mood, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds, and external factors, including dizziness, heart rate spikes, salt intake, dehydration, heat, and fog.
• Flare Tracker — Mark a day clearly worse than your usual hard week, with a category, intensity, and duration, so you can tell a one-off spike from a pattern.
• Daily Journal — Freer notes, including voice when fog or fatigue makes typing hard, such as how you felt after exercise or notes after a visit.
• Weekly Goals — Set one small aim, such as a glass of water before getting up or a short recumbent workout three times a week, and see whether it held.
• Food Tracker — Meal or drink lines when meals, caffeine, alcohol, or salt and fluid timing come with worse upright or fog days.
• AI companions — Clara and specialist companions already see your logged history, which helps with visit wording or pacing ideas.
• Doctor Report — Two views: the Appointment Planning Report, a list of questions to prepare before a visit, and Generate Report, a dated summary of your recent progress to show a doctor saved in My Care Team.
• My Labs — Result dates for tilt-table notes, blood counts, iron, thyroid, or other tests, so each result sits next to how you felt that month.
• My Care Team — A profile for each clinician, plus visit notes used before, during, and after appointments.
• Learn — Short education topics on standing tolerance, exercise done lying or sitting down (recumbent exercise), pacing, and visit preparation.
• Weight Tracker — Weight entries when weight or fluid shifts are part of what you and your clinician are watching.
• Period Tracker — Cycle dates and flow, so you can line up cycle timing with upright symptoms or heat weeks.
• My Assessments — Structured check-ins that add context about you across weeks.

Everything you log builds one history. Guided forms include the key questions, and you can add custom symptoms when you need your own labels. POTS Journey is free to download.

Sources

• NHS — Postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS)
• NHS — Insomnia

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