anyone noticed fluctuations in their resting hrs correspond with things?  If I go on a big drinking session the next day I can be something like 10bpm higher and it slowly drops back down to 48ish.  likewise if I’m getting ill I will see a steady increase.

but what cause a big drop?  just had a sleep on the sofa (not much sleep last night) and I’ve dropped to 38 and awake I’m less than my usual average.  last time this happened I felt pretty rubbish and got a bit worried about it using various hrms to check the figures.  after about 2 hrs I went back to normal.

currently got a bit of a headache and a very sore neck from physio manipulation.  haven’t done anything stressful for a while.

so whilst increase seems to be linked to illness / poisons like alcohol is low to do with fatigue / pain?

anyone researched / an expert

Your heart slows when you sleep, it doesn’t instant pop back up as you’re still in a resting state.

yes I know it slows, but if “usual” resting is 48 when you sleep what might account for 10 bpm drop .  I wear a fenix so have 2 years of ‘sleep data to add to lots of years of activity tracking.

generally the range is 48 – 52 depending on wellness.

or have I mistaken how resting is calc’d?

I’ve been fairly on the money detecting illness before I feel symptoms by watching the resting hr increase so wondering if it decreases if that might mean something else

Do you mean RHR as measured first thing in the morning before you get out of bed?

I’ve found a rise of 10-15% a precursor to illness but not noticed any similar drop or anything to correlate to that. Also it depends what you mean by “fatigue” – something like overtraining can lead to a higher RHR

not entirely sure how the fenix works it out, I presume it is something like average after an obvious sleep periiod.  as it was I I was looking at the hr figures when I was awake but sitting and it was only 42 hence why i checked.

fatigue is lack of sleep rather than overtraining.  I’m lucky if I average 7hrs a week / 2.5hrs deep so one rough night generally wipes me out heavily next day.

noticed this twice now.  Google is not helpful reading about bracyhidia (no idea how to spell it…)

#everyoneisdifferent

#nopointintryingtoanalyseit

#donethisthread1.4mtimesbefore

Fenix doesn’t know you were asleep.

It doesn’t recognise naps during the day so as far as it sees you were awake and conscious but with a low HR which skews your RHR

Or certainly is the case with my 735xt

Bradycardia is a resting heatbeat below 60.  thats all it is.  Most athletes have bradycardia and I know one chap with a resting heart ate of 32 who wears a medic alert bracelet so he does not get a pacemaker fitted if knocked out and taken to A&E ( he is probably overthinking it)

When you get down to resting heart rates that low ecg traces show up stuff that would normally be an indication for a pacemaker but so long as your BP is not dropping its no issue

Think of your heart as a pump.  You need x amount of flow to maintain your bloodpressure – when you are properly fit with a low resting HR your heart is actually pumping more per beat than the non athelete.  this is why your heart rate drops

So as long as you are not suffering low BP then a low resting heart rate is fine

Fenix definitely has a crack at knowing if your asleep as it records hours slept / deep / light in connect – presume this is a mixture of movement and hr.

Good point TJ about BP.  I was checking it every day but after an ECG came back low, but GP said ok as was an athelete I stopped.

Sometimes I was recording quite a gap between high and low values, its all logged in a little book somewhere…family has a history of high BP / young heart problems hence I check though normal people might regard as being bit OTT

I’ll dig out the machine and run it for a few weeks and compare to the old results to see if there is any change

yes I know it slows, but if “usual” resting is 48 when you sleep what might account for 10 bpm drop .  I wear a fenix so have 2 years of ‘sleep data to add to lots of years of activity tracking.

You’re looking too much into HR are not constant they vary all the time.

“Fenix definitely has a crack at knowing if your asleep as it records hours slept / deep / light in connect – presume this is a mixture of movement and hr”

And does it show you were asleep between the hours you were having your day time nap .

Unless the fenix does something very different it only ever shows my main night sleep in Garmin connect.

The free “Elite HRV” app uses your resting heart rate to advise you of overtraining, providing you use it regularly.

Used to find it a handy guide, but was awful at running it daily before my first caffeine of the day and ideally before getting out of bed!

Booze seems to make a huge difference to mine, sometimes raising it by 20 or so.

Good evidence (if any was really needed) that it doesn’t do you much good!

Wrist HRMs are sensitive to how tight the strap is done up and how high up your arm you wear it.

Wrist HRMs are sensitive to how tight the strap is done up and how high up your arm you wear it.

Yes. I wouldn’t trust a smartwatch HRM for anything important. I have a Garmin, it occasionally shows my sleeping HR dropping down below 40, from a normal of 55 or so. I’m pretty certain that’s just misreading because the strap isn’t tight enough. A good drinking and eating session will see it jump up into the 60s for a few days.

Mine is usually about 45 when sleeping, 50s when resting, beer will always raise my heart rate and blood pressure for 24 hrs after drinking.

Mine once stayed low when I woke up for a few hrs which was quite scary, doc did an ecg which came out normal.

i wear an Apple Watch now so I can see the trends but it does vary week to week but always in the same ball park.

Your friend seems sensible TJ, when I was younger – I used to always get medics looking worried with my 40 bpm resting heart rate I had in my late teens to very early 20’s.

Booze seems to make a huge difference to mine, sometimes raising it by 20 or so.

Mine too. If I’m lying awake in bed after many beverages (not usual, I normally drop of immediately) I can hear my heart hammering away like the clappers.

Your resting heart rate will also vary considerably depending on whether you’re lying down, seated or standing. If you’re going to use it as some sort of crude recovery / wellness index, you need to make sure you’re consistent as to when and how you measure it. Caffeine will raise HR for example.

If you want a more useful measure, the ithlete app will measure HRV (heart rate variability) as above, which is a useful way of monitoring recovery from training, but also gives an interesting perspective on other factors which impact on your state – quality of sleep, diet, stress, illness etc.

What I like about it is that it’ll give you a kind of traffic light red / amber / green indicator as to how well recovered you are and, if you fork out for the pro version, slightly more detailed advice. Kind of like a resting HR measurement with bell on. Good if you tend to ride yourself into a black hole.