There is a vast difference between my heart rate and my husband's during sleep; is it something I should look into?

What are you respective rates during waking hours?

You’re over thinking.

He may be in better cardiovascular health, yet pulse rate is not the best indicator of health. What’s your blood pressure, what’s his? How is his cholesterol, and yours?

72 as a resting rate is not a level where a doctor would be concerned.

Comparing numbers against one person without a complete comparison is not a good way to measure health. And you may be in great shape, but how would you compare to an athlete? Best to compare to what is considered “healthy”.

Is he an athlete or does he have any symptoms of sleep apnea?

@Adirondackwannabe: Not an athlete, but he’s gained 20lbs and snores like a small wildebeest.

Does he stop snoring at times, and then restart with a loud snort? Sorry, not exactly classy but that’s what it sounds like.

@Adirondackwannabe: I’m actually not sure. I just know that where he used to snore fairly quietly and would stop if I shoved him to roll him over on his stomach. Now he’s much louder and continues to snore after he rolls over. It used to not wake me up, and now it does.

The weight gain tends to worsen the snoring, so that could be one explanation. The rolling over and still snoring would concern me a bit. I’d get him in for a physical with his doctor and mention the sleep thing. It can be mean if it’s sleep apnea and it’s not diagnosed and treated.

Your sleeping pulse rate should be about 8–10% of your resting pulse rate. His lower number can simply indicate a nice, healthy, athletic pulse rate.
Does he exercise? Do you?
Now that you have such nice monitoring capability why not try exercising yourself for a month or two and see if your pulse rate decreases. Brisk walks if you are totally sedentary now or moderate runs if you are already in shape.
You have nothing to lose, and plenty to gain. And walking and running are free.

we’re both pretty sedentary as is.

Though now that I think back on it, my surgeon said my HR was a little higher than usual during the surgery so… maybe I do need to follow up?

I’m curious how the bed monitors your pulse rate – do you wear a wrist band while you sleep? How accurate can it be? Does their literature have disclaimers that tell you what their margin of error is?

When I had my tachycardia episode in March, I read up on such things, and over 100 bpm is considered significantly high. My heart rate has always been on the fast side, but my blood pressure has always been on the low side – I wonder if there’s an inverse correlation.

I love my cardiologist but she’s down in Lawrenceville/Princeton area, and I don’t know if you’d want to travel that far. Shoot me a PM and I can give you her name, if you’d like.

@hearkat Heart rate can be measured quite accurately any number of ways. The basic Idea is to look for a signal that repeats regularly within a narrow frequency band for a sustained period of time.and is in the range of interest. I do not know how the OP’s device works. I do know that some devices use low cost, embedded piezoelectric sensors to listen for the signature rush of blood flow and/or the distinctive sound of the heart beat.

Continued…. Look away if you are a conspiracy theorist.
Ready?

You have been warned….

Your heat rate can be determined from a long distance by using optics set to look for the micro-movements your head and body make as your heart beats. No matter how still you sit or stand your body moves when your heart beats. Try it. Stand on a scale or look carefully in the mirror.
The unit compares each video frame with the succeeding 2 or 3 or more and analyzes the change from frame to frame. If the head is bobbing slightly at 60 BPM you can assume that is the heart rate. If it is elevate you can assume the subject has a heart condition or, more importantly, is excited about something.

(That is public info.)

Even though they’re not the same as heart rate, your individual waking pulse rates would be interesting to compare. As soon as either of you wakes up, check your pulse at the wrist for 60 seconds. Or for 15 seconds and multiply by four (or for 30 seconds, etc.).

Home heart monitoring devices are notoriously inaccurate.