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Comment by Schiendelman | original | Healthy but sedentary people show early decline in cellular energy production
[−]Schiendelman · 2026-07-02 Thu 01:10 UTC · link
No, that would wake you up long before it had cardiovascular benefit. You need your heart rate up into zone 2 to 5 to really have a positive impact. That's 120 BPM plus for most people. Once you're around 80 it'll wake up anyone, even someone with very low cardiovascular fitness.
[−]strbean · 2026-07-02 Thu 01:16 UTC · link
> Once you're around 80 it'll wake up anyone

Source? I haven't been able to find info on this. I get resuls on nocturnal tachycardia and such. Nothing on elevating a sleeping person's heart rate and observing the result, though.

[−]Schiendelman · 2026-07-02 Thu 02:27 UTC · link
To be clear, if you implanted a lead, you might not wake them up. It's the mechanism by which you would raise their heartrate that would wake them - the same things that elevate heartrate from external stimulation would also cause cortical arousal.
[−]econ · 2026-07-02 Thu 03:10 UTC · link
I read with the right dream (nightmare) heart rate can climb to 180.

If you slowly condition yourself I think you can exchange sleep quality for increased heart rate.

But I suspect the heart needs rest too and you will die.

An isometric hold would be better I think. You don't get any vo2max improvement but it does improve cardiovascular health.

[−]Schiendelman · 2026-07-02 Thu 03:16 UTC · link
That's an interesting idea. Do you know if anyone's tried it?
[−]econ · 2026-07-02 Thu 03:30 UTC · link