| HEART
RATE DURING SLEEP: IMPLICATIONS FOR MONITORING TRAINING STATUS |
Miriam
R. Waldeck and Michael I. Lambert  |
MRC/UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department
of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
| Received |
|
11 August 2003 |
| Accepted |
|
09
September 2003
|
| Published |
|
01 December 2003 |
©
Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2003) 2, 133-138
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Resting heart rate has sometimes been used as a marker of training status.
It is reasonable to assume that the relationship between heart rate and
training status should be more evident during sleep when extraneous factors
that may influence heart rate are reduced. Therefore the aim of the study
was to assess the repeatability of monitoring heart rate during sleep when
training status remained unchanged, to determine if this measurement had
sufficient precision to be used as a marker of training status. The heart
rate of ten female subjects was monitored for 24 hours on three occasions
over three weeks whilst training status remained unchanged. Average, minimum
and maximum heart rate during sleep was calculated. The average heart rate
of the group during sleep was similar on each of the three tests (65 ± 9,
63 ± 6 and 67 ± 7 beats·min-1 respectively). The range in minimum heart
rate variation during sleep for all subjects over the three testing sessions
was from 0 to 10 beats·min-1 (mean = 5 ± 3 beats·min-1) and for maximum
heart rate variation was 2 to 31 beats·min-1 (mean = 13 ± 9 beats·min-1).
In summary it was found that on an individual basis the minimum heart rate
during sleep varied by about 8 beats·min-1. This amount of intrinsic day-to-day
variation needs to be considered when changes in heart rate that may occur
with changes in training status are interpreted.
KEY WORDS: Sleeping heart rate, training response, reliability.
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