Sleep stage, bradycardia, and digestion/peristalsis

[pbdanzig]

Good morning.    On days that I eat my last meal at 3PM, my night time heart rate drops below 45 BPM (e.g. last night 41 was the 5 minute low).   On these nights, my fitbit deduces very little deep (9%) and REM (10%) sleep.    On days that I eat my last meal towards 9PM, my night time heart rate may only drop to 49.   On these nights, my fitbit deduces that I've experienced twice as much  deep (11%) and REM (20%)sleep.   I suspect that the algorithms for heart rate variability confuse peristalsis with sleep stage during periods of heart rate in the 40s.   I believe my fitbit can't tell the difference between  REM sleep and peristalsis.  Fitbit engineering?  What do you think?

Best,

Peter

[ctfklug]

I didn't link digestion to my thought process (yet) BUT I do think that the Fitbit may have trouble with sleep stage on individuals with bradycardia. This is the first thoughts I've seen online linking these topics. If I figure out anything conclusive, I'll keep you posted. 

[Washrick]

I’m interested too, just flunked an ekg because of bradycardia ( which I’ve experienced for decades) 

Fitbit doesn’t sense resting hub of anything lower than 57-61 yet the ekg recorded a period of 48 bpm

[Alan1945]

I too have bradycardia with my pulse rate while lying down is a sustained 39 - 42 bpm.  At least half the time, my Fitbit does not record sleep stages.  I consistently finish dinner by 8:30 pm and go to sleep at 10:15pm.  I also have severe sleep apnea (46 events/hr-untreated) which is very well controlled with a cpap machine (4 events/hr).

[Guy_]

Hi @pbdanzig - is it possible that increased digestion activity when eating later causes deeper sleep rather than it being linked to heart rate per se.