heart rate at rest on a Sunday (health advice to the sleepless)

Heart rate at rest on a Sunday, 7am (health advice to the sleepless)

saw a health news feature 20 minutes ago where two people (foreign language, German i think, with English voice-over) measured their heart rate with a gizmo in bed, and it was “high” (84 bpm!), so they took something for it, etc. … since i don’t have a blog post … lemme see.

Heart rate at rest. On a Sunday, today, in bed, half-asleep or asleep, before you could respond intelligibly in words, before wheatgrass, before you could recognize faces, before breakfast, before caffeine, before fluorescent light, before watching the news, before logging in my computer (before writing this) is….barely detectable on the wrists or arm, manually (pulse in the arm is in the “inside crook” opposite the elbow, where it bends).

pulse found below the jawline….

using an ordinary wristwatch …. it’s…

56 bpm but it’s probably not accurate, it’s probably between 56 and 58, to 60 bpm.

In my non-expert opinion based on personal experience, getting rested, and kicking in to alertness is about lowering and raising your heart rate. And so, being able to control that, will let you control your circadian rhythm (or is it the other way around?). Just my theory. Control is a big word here — can you determine you heart beat at will? or, can your mind control your heart beat? the ancient yogic texts notwithstanding, ordinary mortals like you and i cannot; (maybe Krishnamacharya and the ancient masters could — slow down the heart beat at will).

i’ve written about this (heart rate) a year ago, in

Still my beating heart (w/apologies

to Sting) gibberish today

and about circadian rhythm  two years ago here

It’s snowing in my blog! My circadian rhythm is back!

(the blog apparently has recurring themes even before the category on health here was created). Since it is not humanly possible to determine your heart rate at will, we have to know what conditions slow it down and raise it so we can create those conditions, and thefore control the circadian rhythm when it goes out of sync. Hopefully, you know how to create those conditions so you can rest when you have to and function when you have to.

What kicks it in, to make you able to detect human communication and moving objects — because 56 bpm is not awake — is: (for me, it depends on the person) thinking about the day about to unfold, using verbal language, drinking wheatgrass and having breakfast, or opening fluorescent light, or ingesting a little caffeine (do not drink more than two cups in a day), or anyone of those.

To begin with, as a background, for those who might be puzzled, as a child: Had chronic anemia and low blood pressure — my parents even brought me to a specialist. They got the number of platelets to normal with iron tablets. As an adult, struggled to gain weight, couldn’t go beyond 80 pounds. A friend introduced me to her gym, went on a weight-gain program (well, Cindy Crawford was in vouge), lifted and benchpressed more than half the body mass, painful, and ingested lots of animal-protein-based food at night; i had stopped smoking a year earlier by running, used to smoke one pack a day at 80 pounds, i’m really glad i got out of that early.

One day at that gym while walking in front of the mirrors, the trainer in charge of my program was looking and crinkled his forehead and said, “Ano uli ang program mo?” (“What again is your program?”) and i said weight-gain; he raised his palm softly on a “stop” gesture and said, “Tama na yan” (“Stop it already”). Now he tells me. On that weight after a year of strength-training, i stopped even the massive animal protein ingestion, IT’S NOT HEALTHY, but never wanted to lose what was gained. [i was told then that, at a party, a lawyer-friend said, what happened to her all of a sudden she got…filled up (?) or filled out (?), it was an indirect quote, and didn’t bother to chronicle health topics] Long story. boring. And so…That explains the starting heart bpm, i used to have anemia and faint pulse. went on weight-gain to normalize.

Circadian rhythm. believe it or not, fluourescent light kicks your heart bpm in, to normal or “alert” level. It’s like daylight. Have become a little personal “expert” in finding out what slows down the body and mind to “at rest” state (everybody needs that) and what kicks the body in and infuses a surge of energy (all those stated above: wheatgrass, running, breakfast, a little caffeine, daylight, fluorescent light; if you’re writing on a deadline and only if so: sugar from softdrinks or pies and cakes will make you alert and raise your heart rate but i don’t think it’s healthy, so… only if you’re rushing work and need it). So you find a way to put back the circadian rhythm to normal (normal means good sleep nighttime, fully alert early morning entire day) everytime it gets out of whack. This happens on rush work when one has to raise the adrenalin for 20 hours straight to submit work to comply with requirements.

Believe it or not, and this is based on years and years of seesawing and being able to put back the circadian rhythm to normal after it gets out of sync countless times, the lighting can either relax you or keep you awake, fluorescent light keeps me awake. Daylight will also not let you get a good kind of sleep, that’s why it’s not healthy to have an inverted circadian rhythm.

Don’t ask me why, no use arguing. That’s how we’re wired — the body produces certain hormones like melatonin, etc. only when the sleep is at nighttime; if your body doesn’t produce those hormones, in the long term, your resistance to certain diseases and conditions is weakened. (That’s why in Labor Law, regular employees who are required to work nights instead of days are required to be given a night differential payment, because the law recognizes that not sleeping at night and instead, on days, is detrimental to one’s health and social life).

that’s how our species evolved, there’s nothing you and i can do about it, 30 million years, those who were awake in the daytime survived better, gained in numbers, interbred and became stronger etc etc blabber blabber and that’s how our species got to where it is.

Maybe i should have a daily blog post on this, like the lucky color of the day….Except that, it’s going to be really bo-o-o-oring (boring). same numbers every morning. This one seems to be already boring you as it is….soweeee.

Maybe i should have a daily log if it gets inverted, so you could watch how it gets back to it’s usual sync. Maybe…

if i’m going to do that, i should use gizmos so it’s easier; oh… why bother. blabber-blabber. health post supposedly…

Stop the stream- of- consciousness already, probably still asleep and not making sense. Hope this has been both educational, useful, and entertaining to you. Always consult an expert and don’t rely on this post. try to get to know your body well, what will give you rest, what will kick you in, daytime preferably, and how to taper off and slow down when it’s time to do so, then how to get back on the….(i was going to use an American cowboy idiom) etc. Happy weekend!