Cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Resting HR spikes (and sleep HR goes up) when sick

I've had my Fitbit HR since March now and I've been sick many times, and Very Consistenly I notice that my resting HR spikes up to "72" and stays there while I'm at the peak of sickness, and comes down when I'm well. Whatever formula they have seems to be extra magical in predicting the onset of viral illness because it starts to go up 2 days before I get any symptoms. Interestingly, the resting HR doesn't directly relate to overnight HR -- my overnight HR is "normally" 54-59, and when i'm sick and my resting HR is 72, my overnight HR is in the mid-to-high 60s. Most people's reactions to this is that the scale of change is insignificant (I'm a scientist / I get comments from other scientists), and I'd agree except that it's alarming precise and these noticeable spikes *only* happen when I'm sick. Anyone else noticing this magical prediction ability and mirroring of illness state??

 

Screen Shot 2015-10-21 at 6.39.41 AM.png

Best Answer
93 REPLIES 93

@Rocket2guns wrote:

I've had an awful headache sickness for the past week, noticed the same thing on my Fitbit. Figured I would also add the data to this thread.

 

My RHR is consistently 55 for the last year (I'm 35 year old fit male). Seeing it spike to 70 has been a bit scary!

 

RHR


I am curious what your cardio fitness level is.

Best Answer
0 Votes
My normal RHR is anywhere from 56-59. I am a healthy 60 yo woman who runs competitively. When I had a cold last November it spiked to 68! Just the body’s way of healing itself.

Sent from my iPhone
Best Answer
0 Votes

I’m a 59 year old male. I work out 3-4 times a week, but other than walking I don’t do much cardio, aside from elliptical sprints in the gym. My RHR varies between 48-52 bbm, and FitBit puts my “Cardio Fitness Score” at 50-54. I don’t get sick very often, and it’s been a long time since I spiked a fever for any reason, so the occasional illness-related rise in RHR for me has generally been low—2-3 bbm. I also notice occasional small spikes due to stress — a work deadline or looming business trip will do it.

Best Answer
0 Votes
My cardio fitness is 44-48.

Sent from my iPhone
Best Answer
0 Votes

Age 78

Cardio 42-46 was 44-48

RHR 54-56.was 51-53

Weight hasn't changed but average steps gone from 10k to 7k

 

 

 

 

Colin:Victoria, Australia
Ionic (OS 4.2.1, 27.72.1.15), Android App 3.45.1, Premium, Phone Sony Xperia XA2, Android 9.0
Best Answer
0 Votes

When ever I have a bad cold or a migraine, my heart rate will spike those nights a lot because I'm just not sleeping well. Other things like inflammation or up tight mid to upper back will keep your heart rate up at night or even during the day more than usual. Rising heart rate is one of the things the body does to fight sickness. For me the 69 is nothing to be worried about.

 

I attached my heart rate for this year so far. I'm normally in the 64-65 range even though at night it gets down to 54 at the lowest. My heart rate went up for a couple months and now has decreased and I have no idea why except I'm outside more now that the weather got nice.  My 2017 heart rate average went from 67 down to 65 and the two big spikes were the two times I was sick. See the second chart. I hope you'll see an abrupt drop soon like you see with my 2017 sick spots.

 

Heart Rate 2018.JPG

Heart Rate 2017.JPG

Best Answer
0 Votes

Thanks so much for this! I’m going through my first illness since a heart attack (six months ago), while travelling, and have noticed exactly the same thing -  was a little freaked out about it!

Best Answer
0 Votes

i had one of them about 10 years ago. had a stent put in. you will panic about alot in the first year or so. 

Best Answer
0 Votes
Yes, I seem to have a panic every few days. Every time I feel a little pain
or eat something that was too salty.... but overall things are getting
better. I had one stent put in.

--
Colin Ripley OAA MRAIC
Professor
Department of Architectural Science
Ryerson University
tel. 416 979 5000 x6507
cell +1 647 333 0858
fax 416 979 5353

Office location:
ARC 300H
325 Church St.
Toronto ON

Mailing Address:
ARC203
Ryerson University
350 Victoria St.
Toronto ON M5B 2K3
Best Answer
0 Votes

I was noticing this just a few days ago, and ended up coming down with a nasty head cold yesterday afternoon......so YES!

Best Answer
0 Votes

Yep experiencing that right now! I also have anxiety issues so I can have elevated numbers during periods of stress. Would be cool to take action and take a lot of vitamins ahead of time to prevent illness based off of seeing your numbers climbing. 

Best Answer
0 Votes

Just to say was encouraged by this. My resting heartbeat has increased by 6bpm over two days which is significant as it averages around 50. I have just a mild cold. Makes me wonder how much it would rise if I were really ill!

Knowing this has probably resulted me being prudent with regard to exercise today. Ordinarily I would probably have gone to the gym this morning as usual and soldiered on. Saw this as a cry from my body to rest and recover and listened. 

Best Answer
0 Votes

I only just got my Fitbit this month. After a nice steady 58-60 RHR for two weeks, it started climbing three days ago. The evening of the following day I felt my throat getting sore and my glands swelling - I’m sure it’s a virus. Up at 65 now. It seems to correlate very well with the progress of the infection.

Best Answer
Yes, it’s great to actually have a “visual” to your symptoms. Makes it easy to rest instead of brushing it off.

Nadine Cook
Best Answer

Great post! Yes, I definitely notice exactly what you describe. And now I have two devices to compare. I've had a Fitbit with HR monitoring for two years, and this past Christmas I got an Oura Ring (which btw, I'm finding much more accurate than Fitbit, especially for HR). 

 

Anyway, I"m pretty sick right now, have been for maybe week. When I look at my stats over the past two weeks, my resting HR started to go up nine days ago. Oura concurs, as well as showing my basal temp slowly going up. I didn't begin to feel truly sick until about five days or six days ago.

 

Both Fitbit, and Oura showed my RHR go from high 50's, to high 60's over the past several days. 

 

So yes, I do believe Fitbit is proving to be a pretty good indicator of health.

 

-Holly

Best Answer
0 Votes
Thanks Holly. Hope you’re feeling better soon and see RHR come down again.
Best Answer
0 Votes

I’m here because I noticed the same pattern with my Fitbit and googled it. I have a terrible cold and the heart rate started to creep up before the onset of symptoms. It hit the highest point today, but I have felt worse for the last two days and can barely breathe. It’s a spread of about 60-70.

Best Answer
0 Votes
Yes, amazing isn’t it? Your fat burning also intensifies but it’s not the typical fat you burn. I forget the name of it but it’s a type of fat that promotes healing when burned.

Sent from my iPhone
Best Answer
0 Votes

Screenshot_20190217-184806.png

 

I'm experiencing the same! It started rising a couple days in advance of any visible symptoms manifesting. My normal RHR is around 62, sick RHR 70 and sleeping sick HR 65. 

Best Answer
0 Votes

@angelafoodcake  I am also a scientist ... but retired (if a scientist can ever retire) and I have noticed the same thing. I got my Charge 3 at the beginning of December, and then got 'mild' pneumonia, and since then have been treated for 4 chest infections.  I have also noticed that my heart rate goes up a couple of days before my temperature does; in fact, the last two times insisted on going back on antibiotics before I got really ill again because I could see what was happening.

RHR Dec to March 2019 resized.png

In the image I have fused all the photos since the beginning of December, and then squashed the time-line.  This shows clearly that I have probably never been free of infection since I had 'mild' pneumonia?  It seems to me that these resting heart rate record would be very useful to GPs when they're trying to work out what is going on?

Best Answer