Gaps in heart rate at night

[Sianyy]

I've been having a recurring issue with my charge hr since I got it a month ago.
Not every night but around 3 nights a week it shows a gap in my heart rate for 20mins and then a spike to about 120bpm straight after before everything returns to normal.
Does anyone know why this might be happening? Is it likely to be an error with the fitbit reading or more indicative of a heart issue?
I do have tachycardia and ectopic beats but my last 24 hr ecg showed no issues
Thanks

[Mamatanya5]

This is interesting.  My 15 year old has gaps almost every night and she leads a pretty sedentary life( not active at all).  She has a Still’s Murmur, lower than normal heart rate, currently wearing an event monitor, and has a mildly abnormal EEG with diffuse theta slowing in waking possibly indicating cerebral dysfunction.  Has a 24 hr ambulatory EEG in a week to see if seizures are problem

[Mamatanya5]

We have noticed gaps but if anything my 15 year old wears it too tight maybe cutting circulation on left arm while sleeping on it??  Possibly

[herbieh]

I had a Charge 2 and juts got a Charge 3 couple weeks ago. It worked fine until last night when it did not record about 2 hours of heart rate (and sleep). I wear it the same as the 2 and sleep the same as I did a couple weeks ago, so obviously there is a problem with the 3. 

Fitbit, if you're reading, this is another notice of something going wrong in this area. And I don't have sleep apnea, low blood pressure, etc. etc. 

[Marrrmaduke]

@herbieh If heart rate is not recorded, sleep won't be either. Please reboot your tracker. Also, make sure the battery is not critically low.

[HR12345]

Hi, I have arryhthmia and sleep apnea. During my sleep last night I was aware of fluttering and arryhthmia. I woke up with a strong headache.

This is when I decided to check my Fitbit data and it shows two period of gaps last night including right before I woke up. I agree with you that this gap represents an event, though I wish I had a better idea what happened. I do have a CPAP and will try and access the data for these gaps to see if it can shed more light if there were breathing abnormalities.

[Agnes_Bloom]

I had this problem last night - an hour of no recorded pulse & no recorded sleep just after falling asleep. I have a low resting heart rate of around 54 and sometimes drop to 47. Am definitely not an athlete, have me/cfs. I know my heart can’t actually stop beating for that long and  still here....I’m just wondering if my pulse becomes very faint as I have been told by my partner it does (ex nurse, takes my pulse) is it possible that the fit bit cannot record it?? For a long while now I have suspected central sleep apnoea (not the more common obstructive sleep apnoea) and wonder if periods of not breathing bring on faint pulse. Others have suggested low heart rate (but I believe this is detected fine by Fitbit) but no one yet suggests weak pulse. Anyone relate?

I don’t believe it could be that Fitbit had slipped or position of my arm as I’d only just fallen asleep and generally stay pretty still, apparently.

[Agnes_Bloom]

Another thought is ‘can readings be disrupted if the watch is pressed up against the skin too hard?’ I sleep on my left and wear the watch on my left?

[Cazzle]

I have the same problem every night. Deep sleep for approx 1 hour. Then at approx 1am a 2+hour gap. 

[SuzyH13]

I am also having a problem with my heart rate too I keep getting gaps in it and I have a deformed flap on my heart . So I’m wondering if it’s medical. I take it this is not normal for a Fitbit to have gaps in it? 

[SuzyH13]

I forgot to Mention that I’m awake when my heartbeat does this when I have gaps on my Fitbit it’s not when I’m sleeping

[angelalr1]

I’ve noticed blank spaces on the chart during sleep at night? Does that mean ur heart stops for couple seconds and starts again?? Or is the Fitbit not working correctly? 

[caralynB]

This is interesting! I love  that you did the science bit to check the device first. I have occasional gaps and suspected sleep apnea, but interestingly I’ve just been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome where my blood supply disappears and pulse drops off the chart.  

[Basti11]

this happened to me also and panicked a bit and landed on this thread.

I just wanted to share the other tracker of heart rate in the sleep section of the app, inside restoration.. the heart rate monitoring there did not show any gaps for me. this calmed me down. still dont know why it shows a gap in the heart rate monitor in the main page of the app.