Well, it's causing muscle contractions. At high enough intensity, it should raise your heart rate. It's just a matter of what intensity level is tolerable during sleep (and the effect on sleep quality), no?

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Schiendelman 6 hours ago | parent [-]

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.

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econ 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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.

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Schiendelman 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That's an interesting idea. Do you know if anyone's tried it?

	▲	econ 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48755297

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strbean 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> 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 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		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.