Resting Heart Rate And Heart Rate Asleep

[[old] Carl Henrik]

Hello!<br><br>The night before yesterday I fell asleep with a heart rate monitor on. When I woke up it had registered a minimum of 37. That was very low so I tried it again yesterday. I didn't succeed in falling asleep but registered a minimum heart rate of 41. <br><br>So what I am wondering is wether 37 is a "legit" RHR or something else, since I was asleep (Let's just asume it wasn't a monitor/chest strap error and that I had that heart rate for at least a minute). <br><br>Cheers

[[old] Coach Gus]

<!--QuoteBegin-Carl Henrik+Jul 12 2004, 10:11 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (Carl Henrik @ Jul 12 2004, 10:11 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> (Let's just asume it wasn't a monitor/chest strap error and that I had that heart rate for at least a minute).  <br><br> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br>If you make those assumptions then I'd say it's legit. Personally I'd want to see it a couple more times before I'd start thinking it was my resting HR. <br><br>Some coaches have their athletes regularly sleep wearing their HR monitors as they feel the HR while sleeping and it's variations are a great indicator of how the athlete is handling training.

[[old] sekitori]

Take your pulse manually, either at your neck or wrist. It's more exact than any monitor can be. If the result turns out to be 37 beats per minute, you can believe it. A pulse rate of 37 when you wake up is quite legitimate. As long as your average pulse rate during the day is also on the low side and as long as you have no symptoms and feel well, just accept it and be thankful that it is so low.<br><br>My average resting pulse during the day when I'm sitting quietly varies from 40 to 50, and sometimes it's even a little lower than that. I don't take my pulse very often the first thing in the morning but when I do, it generally is lower than the daytime figure to some degree. My alltime low when waking up in the morning is 31. That's close to being dead. At first, I couldn't believe it. I took it again and it was the same. The low number was kind of scary, but I felt fine and I just assumed that everything was okay since my average rate during the day is also fairly low. If I had any other problems along with it, I of course would have had them checked out. Low resting pulse rates alone without any symptoms no longer bother me. Unexpectedly high ones on the other hand, would. <br><br>

[[old] Carl Henrik]

I've slept with HR Monitor for for nights now. Min HR: 37,39,37,34(!)<br><br>The second night I did a rather tough 30 min erg session just an two hours before going to bed. Maybe that pushes HR up?<br><br>The fort night I started monitoring in bed and got a max HR of 72 (nightmares?), a an average HR of 42 and the minimum of 34. <br><br>I wouldn't have any problems with this if I could pull 6:20 2k's but I haven't even done one under 6:40 <br><br>Now I must stop woussying on the erg and pull harder. Next time I will start the finish sprint at 600m to go and see how that goes.

[[old] PROformance]

Hi Carl,<br><br>Don't want you to think I'm stalking or anything (just replied to another of your original posts about vo2max...), but I wanted to add some information here as well...<br><br>First, it wasn't mentioned - but you probably know - the difference in heart rate from lying to sitting position can vary almost 15 beats due to gravity pressure and the surface area of the body affected. This is even higher if fast movements are involved (bolting upright in bed when your heart rate monitor goes off).<br><br>I'm not sure how you fell asleep with your chest strap on as well, but it probably indicates how deep of a sleeper you are... which brings to the next topic of the minimum heart rate...<br><br>If you were hooked up to a direct Metabolic cart at the same time you could have also recorded your breath by breath analysis of ventilation numbers, but most likely your lowest numbers if only for a few seconds were caused by a quite common case of mild sleep apnea or mild hypoxia where you basically miss a few breaths in after breathing out.<br><br>Not to disagree with Sekitori, it is important to note that many people are innaccurate in checking their own heartrate manually, probably sensitivity to feeling the internal rythms .<br><br><br>Good luck<br><br>

[[old] Carl Henrik]

So what you are saying is that it is quite likely, that my value of 34 was just for a few seconds when I missed a few breaths, wich is common?<br><br>Then that's great <br><br>I think I'll call my RHR ...hm what should I choose....40

[[old] sekitori]

PROformance, it is true that finding the correct finger placement on the radial or common carotid arteries may be difficult for some people to do. And when they do locate their pulse, they often may not be sure that they're measuring it properly. I was referring to people who can easily and consistently check their heart rate manually. It's very accurate and I personally think it's the best method.