I’m hoping some of you here with Apple Watches can help me out with something. I’ve been wearing my Apple Watch for about 2 years. I had no idea until about a month ago that it was monitoring my heart rate and saving the data. I thought it only took my heart rate when I told it I was exercising or when I wanted to measure it. Anyways, once I found that out, I went through the data and discovered that my heart rate dips into the 30s and 40s on an almost daily basis - and I am not a world class athlete. Most days there is only one reading that low, but more recently there was a day where I had 6 readings that low during an hour long stretch. I brought this up to my PCP because (I’ve seen way too many ads for Afib medications lately and) I thought it might be an issue. She seems convinced it’s a problem with my watch since I don’t pass out.
Anyways…I was wondering if anyone here had an Apple Watch and could check their data and see if they also get a heart rate in the 30s or 40s. If these are “rogue” readings and everyone gets them, I’ll let it go. But if I’m the only one, I figure the next step is to have someone else in the family wear the watch to see if it’s a problem with my watch and/or push it with my doctor to get a referral to a cardiologist. Thanks!
Wrist wearables are extremely inaccurate for HR measurement. Even though Apple claims that it is the most accurate of all wearables (debatable), it is still only about 90% accurate.
It’s common for heart rates to be low at night - even into the 30’s and 40’s. This doesn’t sound like what’s happening with you, but I thought I’d through that out there.
Afib is a high heart rate, so I wouldn’t be worried about that.
I’d see a cardiologist. You can get a 24 hour monitor which should catch it if you think it is happening daily.
Thanks. My PCP blew it off as the watch being inaccurate. I don’t wear the watch at night, so not a sleeping pulse rate. I’d still like to know if other people see crazy heart rates with their watch. I have seen them touting it as the most accurate, but it sounds like that’s not really much of an accomplishment.
I have a friend who also is not an athlete and can get low readings occasionally. Her doctors are aware but don’t seem worried since she has had this her entire life and has no other symptoms.
I have an Apple Watch 2 that I’ve worn daily for not quite a year. Before that I had a Fitbit Blaze. I’ve had some resting dips down into the high 40’s but that doesn’t surprise me. Normally I’m in the mid 50’s on resting HR. I do run and am fairly active and I have from time to time taken my own pulse just to check.
Honestly, when it does dip down that low I am literally doing nothing but breathing. If I’m sitting down with my feet up and maybe reading a magazine or watching tv then it is fairly low. I’ve used chest straps before and have had other trackers and they all seem to give me very similar results. I know there is an error factor but I try to look at the data over the longer run to see if I notice any trend changes based on my eating habits or activity levels.
I don’t wear it when I sleep since I charge it at night. You really have to look at what were you doing during the time you are getting low readings. It could also be how tight it is on your wrist when you are resting. I think the location of how high or low on your wrist you wear it can impact the results.