heart rate spikes

I noticed this behavior too recently. Not sure if it started after an upgrade or after I had my baby (and was pushing a stroller).

It really worried me at first - I am having extremely low postpartum heart rates. So to have my hr jump to 160+ while walking, in addition to my crazy low resting hr, scared me.

But hubby, who works with interpreting data a lot (including analyzing wave data) was sure it was a bug based on how it spikes. Something about harmonics and not filtering peaks right. So...

We brought out the finger pulse ox, which has a pulse reader. When I got the haptic alert it was spiking (in the HeartWatch app -- GREAT app for the Apple Watch) we put on the second monitor and...

Comfirmed it's a bug.

It could be happening because my wrist is flexed (pushing the stroller), but I swear this "feature" is somewhat new. I've been walking with the stroller for almost two months and only noticed theses spikes in the last 2+ weeks.

I hope Apple fixes this soon! Sure scares ya at first.

Hey,

I regularly get heart rate spikes during swimming and during walking. There is nothing wrong with you. It’s just that Apple Watch is quite often inaccurate. Perhaps it is accurate on average over periods of time but hardly accurate at any given moment. Nothing you can do to fix it. If you want accurate results pair your Apple Watch with Polar H10 HRM. This is the most accurate and consistent heart rate monitor I have used. Unfortunately, it does not work under water.

Apple Watch often misreads my heart rate. I don’t have any heart irregularities or anomalies yet when I climb the steps it can show my heart rate as 60 or 65 while I am panting heavily and feel my heart pumping.

Overall, the accuracy of Apple Watch *****!

I've done all of the above. I went so far as to have a workup with a cardiologist about the heart rate spike and wore a holter monitor for 24 hours, which included an outdoor run. The watch showed the spike and the holter monitor did not. Therefore, it's something with the watch. I do other cardio and this only happens during outdoor runs. Today I attempted to keep my arm still while running and no spike. I started swinging my arm in a normal fashion and it spiked. Is there an accelerometer that I can turn off? This is one of the main reasons I use the apple watch.

I had been using my watch for 3 years. When training it tends to show high readings 150+. That happens when warming up walking on a treadmill or sometimes while I am running. At times a single reading goes high, other times it covers two minutes of it. Either way, it returns to reasonable value 60-90. I have been observing carefully when it happens in order to corroborate actual reading with the one supplied by the treadmill. For example, watch's reading 175, treadmill's reading 98. When the watch returns to a value it matches the treadmill reading of 98. One experiment I made was to start running with the application off for 3 minutes and start it after 3 minutes running. The watch did not show the spike and pick it up and worked correctly till the end of the run. It is not right that Apple doesn't seem to accept there is a problem. But it does have spike and I assume it is often when doing exercise like running. The spikes can be 150, 165, 175.

Haven’t had the spikes anymore since my watch updated to 4.2.2.

I solved my problem by tightening my watch band and moving it about an inch above the knuckle. I think the spike was coming from bending my wrist which raised the watch, causing it to lose contact.

Hi

Apple advises that, even under ideal conditions, Apple Watch may not be able to record a reliable heart rate reading every time for everybody.

For the best performance from the heart rate sensor during workouts, Apple suggests that you consider tightening your watch band beforehand and loosening it again afterwards.

Wearing it with the right fit (neither too tight nor too loose, with room for your skin to breathe) should be comfortable, whilst also allowing the sensors to operate properly:

The sensor is also likely to give better results for workouts that involve rhythmic (eg running) rather than irregular (eg boxing) movements. Other issues that can impact sensor performance include skin perfusion and wrist tattoos.

For workouts that involve flexing your wrists, it may help to move your watch a little higher up your arm, away from the flexing joint.

If you continue to experience issues, for more consistent readings, you may wish to consider pairing an external heart rate monitor / Bluetooth chest strap to your watch.

More information:

Your heart rate. What it means, and where on Apple Watch you’ll find it. - Apple Support

Use the Workout app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Use Bluetooth accessories with your Apple Watch - Apple Support

I see what seem to be too high heart rates when I’m dancing for exercise (as “Other Activity”). I wonder if this is a manifestation of a “HR cadence lock” as described in the Heart Rate Accuracy section of this review: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/11/apple-watch-series3-cellular-fitness-sport-r eview.html

Unfortunately, two studies have found that the Apple watch is the most accurate of this type of heart monitor. The challenge is in getting a device on the skin at the end of your arm to monitor what your heart is doing. I'm assuming what it actually monitors is the pulse of blood traveling through the tiny blood vessels in the skin. It is easy for such devices to be fooled. At the same time, there are cases of episodic tachycardia (rapid heart beat) that do not produce symptoms, so it is important to at least check your own pulse if your watch says there is a problem. This is hard to do if you're asleep, of course. If you're concerned, see your doctor. Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT): MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

So a follow up from my last post on this subject. I am NOT endorsing anything, but wanted to share something that helped me “catch” the phenomenon. Got an app called FFITV pulse (free). It allowed me to watch my workout live on my IPHONE, my heart rate data real time from my Apple Watch. This way I could watch my heart rate on my phone (I set it on the exercise display in front of me) without having to constantly look at my watch. Since my exercise equipment has heart monitors as well, I had a means to double check when the reading showed a spike. So far I have caught the phenomenon 3 times by watching the monitor on my phone from my watch - and all three times when I grabbed the hand held heart rate monitor on the exercise equipment during the phenomenon/spike, it showed completely normal - no heart rate spike. One spike event lasted 3 minutes on the watch, so I was able to play around with the watch until I got it to stop (by eventually taking it off my wrist, and putting it back on). All events have happened while my arms were in motion (elliptical). If /when I end up figuring out exactly what triggers/fixes it, I will post again.

I haven’t had the heart rate spikes at night since I updated my watch to the 4.2.2 release. Not sure if it’s because they fixed it or it just hasn’t happened again. It was happening 2-3 times a week and now it’s been fine. So who knows, maybe they really fixed it.

As far as I can tell, Apple has not addressed this issue (yet).

I have had this problem with every generation Apple Watch. I am an avid runner and initially bought my 1st generation Apple Watch so that I could ditch my heart rate strap. The issue is slightly better with the Series 3 than previous generations, but it routinely reports completely bogus heart rate data. Often the watch reports heart rate in excess of 200 bpm, but my maximum heart rate is probably around 185. I have tried tightening, loosening, etc., and the only strong correlation is cold -- when I run in the cold, and my hands get cold, the watch seems to report running cadence (one footstep = one beat) rather than heart rate -- yeah, my cadence is 200+ when I'm running fast. (It happens in warm weather too, just much less often.)

Perhaps the Series 4 will be better...

I have noted also a random ultra high heart rate reading roughly once a day using my Apple Watch 2. At one point I received a heart warning notice of 145 for 10 minutes, after having checked the time in the morning. I had set the watch down on its heart reader on a ceramic counter in the bathroom... I wasn’t wearing it! I notified Cardiogram App folks thinking it was their heart rate algorithm (I joined a heart study at the time) and they told me all readings were controlled by the watch workout app and Apple algorithms, not the app. Genius Bar replaced the unit. But I still do have one wack-out high reading nearly daily, 30-60 points above nearby normal readings, and a low reading (50’s-60’s) when I’m up on my feet, when my ‘normal’ is mid 80’s to mid 90’s.

I do have heart murmur, that I erased 10 years ago with focused weight training over several years. Its possible a random reading is tied to that condition. Guess I will return to diligent weight training again!

I've got the same problem. Only started noticing this when downloading SleepMatic recently. First two nights data was pretty solid at 70 bpm during the night. Third night? Abrupt spike from 70 to 115 then down to 70. I was trying to figure out if this was an apnic episode or not. Following night, got a drop to 53 bpm then back to 70. Hmmmmm. Next night, seeing a drop to 53 before I even went to sleep....when I was watching a movie on TV and would have KNOWN. Last night? Spike to 120 at 6 am with the watch strapped snug so it can't move.

I'm pretty **** sure if I was hitting 120 I'd be waking up panting. Now, I've had an extra heartbeat my entire life, and I'm wondering if what's happening here is a misinterpretation of the data if the extra beat kicks in.