Heart rate spike during sleep

[KittyB52]

I have noticed an occasional strange spike in my heart rate late at night when I am asleep. It's happened a few times now, most recently on Saturday evening.

It shows on the app as happening around 23:59, and my heart rate jumps up from around 60 to 150, although in one instance it was 170.

I am assuming it's a bug/glitch, as it happens at the same time of night each time but I'd like to know what is causing this issue.

[DylanR]

Same happend with me

[Granty]

Hi, I’ve just came across your post (two years after you posted) I also had this but I now know what causes it. Basically what is happening is your airway is possibly getting blocked. May be caused by something called obstructive sleep apnea. What happens is you go into a deep sleep and your airway gets blocked. Your brain realises this and tries to wake you up. Meanwhile it increases your heart rate. This was what was happening to me and I was eventually diagnosed with sleep apnea. I recommend you contacting your doctor as sleep apes can greatly reduce your life expectancy. Good luck

[rain3]

buy an oxy tracker with a computer program to measure oxy levels and heartrate.  Fitbit doesn't measure the oxy.  Costs are about 70 dollars.  You can print out report and see is heart rate is spiking because of decreased oxy (sleep apnea) or in REM dream or.... 

[Chevymama]

Yes thanks, my spikes were due to the medication.

[Brenmax]

Hi!  I’m just seeing your post as I recently started using the Charge 3. Do u know of a good oxy tracker with computer program u refer to in your post?  I understand the Charge 3 is set up to b able to track oxygen sat but it doesn’t yet?  Thanks!  Brenda

[Kapngar1]

There is a possibility of sleep apnea causing the spike in heart rate. I have sleep apnea, and my Fitbit registers the spikes when I have an episode. 

[Jasonvado]

This just happened to me 😱

[kbitdj]

It's been happening to me too, originally only flutters not long after I have gone to sleep which wakes me up but it only lasts a few seconds or so but now I woke up jumping out of bed and saw my heartbeat at 179 but it dropped quite quickly after but I was still shaking. Cant think of anything that would have scared me. Anyway so I looked back at my fitbit history This month and saw that at some points my heartbet has gone to 190 and I havent bene doing cardio. I am more worried that this is something underlying rather than a fitbit glitch.

[Jasonvado]

See your doctor if you’re truly scared.

[Someguy3]

Wife woke me up last night in a panic saying I sounded like I was choking or couldn't exhale. I rolled over and went back to sleep. Looked at my Fitbit this morning and I was at 198 for 24 straight minutes. Don't think it's a glitch considering she woke me up.

[kbitdj]

For me I ended up going to the hospital as it got bad, a few days after my heart was at 120bpm the whole day. Turns out I had really bad GERD, was causing me to choke in my sleep too.

Keep your acid in check and eat alkaline foods, though best to get a check-up to make sure.

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Moderator edit: merged reply

[PaceWithGrace]

This happened to me last night. My HR2 was reporting a hr of 125bpm... So I put on my blood pressure monitor (which reported 60bpm) and my pulse oximeter (which also reported 60bpm)... So I took off my HR2 and went back to bed.

[IanSimons]

I had this happen too. Came upon this thread by google search. Attached is screenshot of mine. There does appear to be a corresponding sleep disturbance, but I do not remember it. I’m hoping a glitch/malfunction because it has never happened before. 

[jspro85]

Have you checked for sleep apnea? Your heart works harder to bring more oxygen when you have issues breathing at night.

[SunsetRunner]

I keep a close eye on it but yesterday my fitbit before bed (went to sleep around 1130pm) showed it was way higher then my normal resting when I was just sitting around.

Could this be from the device not making contact with my arm as I do remember seeing the blinking green light on multiple occasions last night.

Hoping it's just that but would be good to confirm if the device is away from skin that it may give wonky spikes like this. 

HR PM

HR AM

I have a charge 3, screen no longer works but still is tracking data to my app. 

[Fitter81]

I get a spike almost every night at exactly the same time, too! It’s very weird. I’ve been trying to research it and it seems like if it’s NOT the Fitbit, then I have an atrial fibrillation (or mild panic attack) every night at exactly the same time. This seems very improbable, so I suspect a glitch. I will talk to my doctor anyways, and do some medical tracking since I find it somewhat concerning. I really wish there was some way to see if this is a systemic issue with Fitbit though, because it seems it’s got a lot of us worried and consulting doctors (and or Google doom scrolling through health info). 

[joseph.openshaw]

Same here. Several nights a week, at exactly 1:05 or 1:06, my heart rate spikes from 60 to 160; just for one minute. I don’t have apnea; most be a glitch. Thanks for posting.

[sherpa5]

Me too. Same time as well...almost every night. So glad I saw this - was going to call the doctor!! 🙂

[mishyrose]

I have this too! Same time every night 🤯 Did the restart solve this for you?

[sherpa5]

Didn’t try it!! Will give it a shot. Thank you.

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