Sleep study heart rate 250 bpm

[phoebesalva]

I just noticed that my sleep study said my max heart rate was 250 bpm. My dr didn’t say anything about it, but he doesn’t say much about anything. Did anyone else experience that?

[phoebesalva]

Here’s a clearer copy of sleep report

[Jay51]

There is such a thing as POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome).  You can do an internet search on it to find out more if you want to.  Basically, when a person with POTS changes position and moves from laying down to sitting up; or even a greater chance of  triggering POTS from transitioning from laying down to standing.  The heart isn't ready for the "quick" change in position, so the heart skyrockets into tachycardia in an attempt to keep the person from fainting (but fainting or dizziness can still occur).  

During my PSG sleep study, I was in the 50's for heart rate.  I sat up and called the RT into the room twice to stop the rainout in my mask.  At that exact time in my charts, my heat rate went up to the 150's.  The same thing happened once when I wore a heart monitor for a week.  I stood up during the night when I woke up and the monitor showed tachycardia.  

Definitely mention this to your PCP.  A Cardiologist consultation may be in the future to either confirm or rule this out.  Also, be very careful and go very slowly from laying to sitting, and especially laying to standing.  Watch for dizziness.  

And of course, it may not be POTS and could be something else altogether.  A Cardiologist seems to be the person best equipped to diagnose what is going on in your particular situation IMO.

[Sleeprider]

The problem with statistics like "maximum" and minimum is it is an outlier metric by definition. Your highest pulse was 94 bpm and average heart rate 72.6. Without associating a time or duration for the maximum heart rate it could be the result of turning on the recorder, a bad connection or recording error, and that is my best guess. The maximum is a single data point, and without context or looking at the next few data points, has very little meaning. If your doctor was concerned, he could follow-up to determine if it's a data artifact or not, and I'm pretty sure that is what it is. This is the reason Oscar reports the 99.5 percentile rather than maximum. The true maximum is not representative of anything of significance and can often be a misleading and unnecessarily alarming metric. It has no use in diagnosis or medical decision making.

[Gideon]

We do prefer to also see the charts and tables, but here are my thoughts.

The 250 Heart rate was recorded while awake, vs the 94 during time in test.
You had a rather abnormal night's sleep. I'm guessing an inlab study, with all the wires and sensors involved, to the point you cannot even visit the bathroom without some assistance. You were both visually observed and videoed the entire night. The bed, bedding, and pillows all different then at home. In short a very abnormal sleeping situation.

Always be wary of a spike indicating anything more than a need to look deeper into what is going on.

For your peace of mind I'd bet a recording pulse oximeter to monitor both your pulse and overnight SATs. The sat nadir(low) of 82 says look deeper. Now back to my first statement, post a full copy of your sleep study so we can properly help you interpret it.

[phoebesalva]

Jay51 - thank you for the heads up about that drone, I’ll ask my dr about it. I have had my eyes black out when standing too quickly more times than I can count but I thought that was a normal thing. Good to ask my PCP about it.

Sleeprider - that makes complete sense! Could have been anything and may not be significant to me at all.

Gideon - I’ll ask for the charts! Thanks!