Day/night mode when the clocks change - daylight savings time?

Hi, I have a new biotronik pacemaker and live in the UK. I have a day and night mode (because I asked for it, I have the impression most patients at my clinic are not offered this) with my floor HR set to 50 at night. 

I am paced much of the time both day and night, and whilst 50 is OK for lying in bed, it is not adequate for me to get up and function. CLS is not yet activated, this will be done at my next check. 

Can anyone tell me what will happen when the clocks change if you have a day and night mode?

The technician "thinks" it should just reset to the new time but doesn't know as has never been asked before. 

Is this right or will I be stuck in bed an extra hour in the mornings?

I know is sounds really spoilt complaining about a HR of 50 now when I used to have 40 in the daytime but going from 50 to 60 in the morning does still make a definite difference to my quality of life.

Thanks xxx

 

 

 

7 Comments

Pretty sure that nothing happens

by crustyg - 2022-03-18 11:58:44

Your device stays in the same time zone until told otherwise (at an in-person programming session).  I can understand that *some* PM vendors might have built in automatic daylight saving, but not BostonSci (yes, I know that's not *your* vendor).

I asked this question when I considering long travels away from home (remember those days?), and the answer was 'you'll need to have it adjusted before you go/when you come back.'

When world+dog almost all shared the same start/end of daylight saving it was fairly easy to standardise.  Then USA changed (caused havoc for MS) and they (the device vendors) may have just given up.

Looking at the Programmer guide from Biotronik, even the programmer doesn't support automatic daylight saving - it's entirely manual.  And it explains that the programmer can be used to set any timezone for a device.  They recognise that having exactly correct time for the programmer is important (it can pick up correct time automatically using a UMTS modem - i.e. it picks up time from the cell-phone network) as:

"The importance of this [Automatic time synchronization (sic)] for the transmission and processing of device messages should not be overlooked, as several functions are time-controlled."  As you have realised.

I think I'd mark that as beta-minus for the vendors.  I use time sync a lot for work (NTP) and it is rather important for troubleshooting.

Day/night mode

by AgentX86 - 2022-03-18 15:52:52

Medtronics don't understand DST at all. I made the mistake of having mine turned back to 11:00 and found that it was too early.  After the time change, it's good.  DST fixed it.  Fortunately I didn't have the same settings done on DST.  It would have been a real problem.

Traveling to another time zone is the same.  The pacemaker doesn't understand anything that's going on around it, except you.

The Medtronic programmer doesn't know either.  It has to ba manually set and it's not normally done.  My PM tech had to call Medtronic to figure out why my PM was an hour off after she set it.

Guess we will find out!

by Daisies - 2022-03-18 16:18:01

Thanks for the replies!

I have rescheduled my next appointment for 3 days after the clocks go forward so I can observe what happens and if I end up on the wrong time I can get it sorted at that appointment. 

It would be really good if the time on a pacemaker updated itself like most modern appliances!

I will definitely pop back on here with the result in case anyone else is looking -as I spend much of my time at my paced HR it is very easy for me to identify when I have switched from day to night mode and back by whether my HR is 50 or 60.

xxx

Modern appliances

by AgentX86 - 2022-03-18 16:51:33

What happens when the politicians muck with DST again? Replace the appliances?  Yes, some are Internet connected (IOT) but it's really a dumb idea.  I have a clock that receives WWV time signals but it's unusual these days.  Of course our cell phones...  But there is no way for our PMs to do these changes.  They're specifically designed to be unchangeable by any other means than the manufacturer's programming station.

If you don't believe that politicians will do this again, there is a bill in the US congress to do just that - to eliminate standard time.  It has bi-paritsan support (truely amazing) and will likely be passed into law, unfortunately.

time change

by new to pace.... - 2022-03-20 18:44:19

I do not understand why one would have their pacemaker set to both day and night time.  What happens if you stay up later or go to bed earlier?.  Or get up earlier  or stay in bed longer?.

new to pace.

Why?

by AgentX86 - 2022-03-20 22:57:45

I couldn't sleep with a high heart rate but my EP didn't want to lower it (PVCs), so the day/night setting (80bpm day/50 bpm night) is a compromise.  Yes, doing anything physical during set back can be a problem but that's the price of compromise.  The real problem is travel. It would be a super-jetlag.  If I was going across the pond, I'd probably get it turned off temporarily.

 

Old fashioned clock!

by Daisies - 2022-03-31 03:46:01

Hi I found out my pm clock did not update itself and was an hour out after the change.

I could have got it changed at the clinic but sadly have lost the opportunity for a night mode to let me rest as this is not available with the Cls now activated. I have posted separately about this as am gutted to have to choose between being able to sleep comfortably and having an adequate and responsive rate during the day.

xxx 

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So, my advice is to go about your daily routine and forget that you have a pacemaker implanted in your body.