If you use an average of 80 beats per minute, your heart beats about 4,800 times per hour. That's a whopping 115,200 times per day. Over the course of a year, your heart would beat about 42,048,000 times! If you live to be 80 years old, your heart would have beaten approximately 3,363,840,000 times! That's over 3 billion heartbeats! Tachycardia, also called tachyarrhythmia, is a heart rate that exceeds the normal resting rate. In general, a resting heart rate over 100 beats per minute is accepted as tachycardia in adults. Heart rates above the resting rate may be normal (such as with exercise) or abnormal (such as with electrical problems within the heart). At rest, a normal heart beats around 50 to 90 times a minute. Exercise, emotions, fever, and some medications can cause your heart to beat faster, sometimes to well over 100 beats per minute.
Palpitations are feelings or sensations that your heart is pounding or racing. They can be felt in your chest, throat, or neck.
You may:
- Have an unpleasant awareness of your own heartbeat
- Feel like your heart skipped or stopped beats
The heart's rhythm may be normal or abnormal when you have palpitations.
Normally the heart beats 60 to 100 times per minute. The rate may drop below 60 beats per minute in people who exercise routinely or take medicines that slow the heart.
If your heart rate is fast (over 100 beats per minute), this is called tachycardia. A heart rate slower than 60 is called bradycardia. An occasional extra heartbeat out of rhythm is known as extrasystole.
Palpitations are not serious most of the time. Sensations representing an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) may be more serious.
The following conditions make you more likely to have an abnormal heart rhythm:
- Known heart disease at the time the palpitations begin
- Significant risk factors for heart disease
- An abnormal heart valve
- An electrolyte abnormality in your blood -- for example, a low potassium level
Heart palpitations can be due to:
- Anxiety, stress, panic attack, or fear
- Caffeine intake
- Cocaine or other illegal drugs
- Decongestant medications, such as phenylephrine or pseudoephedrine
- Diet pills
- Exercise
- Fever
- Nicotine intake
However, some palpitations are due to an abnormal heart rhythm, which may be caused by:
- Heart disease
- Abnormal heart valve, such as mitral valve prolapse
- Abnormal blood level of potassium
- Certain medicines, including those used to treat asthma, high blood pressure, or heart problems
- Overactive thyroid
- Low level of oxygen in your blood
Things you can do to limit palpitations include:
- Lower your intake of caffeine and nicotine. This will often reduce heart palpitations.
- Learn to reduce stress and anxiety. This can help prevent palpitations and help you better manage them when they occur.
- Try deep relaxation or breathing exercises.
- Practice yoga, meditation, or tai chi.
- Get regular exercise.
- Do not smoke.
Once a serious cause has been ruled out by your provider, try not to pay close attention to heart palpitations. This may cause stress. However, contact your provider if you notice a sudden increase or a change in them.
If you have never had heart palpitations before, see your provider.
Call 911 or the local emergency number if you have:
- Loss of alertness (consciousness)
- Chest pain
- Unusual sweating
- Dizziness or lightheadedness
Call your provider right away if:
- You often feel extra heartbeats (more than 6 per minute or coming in groups of 3 or more).
- You have risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure.
- You have new or different heart palpitations.
- Your pulse is more than 100 beats per minute (without exercise, anxiety, or fever).
- You have related symptoms, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, feeling faint, or loss of consciousness.
Your provider will examine you and ask questions about your medical history and symptoms.
You may be asked:
- Do you feel skipped or stopped beats?
- Does your heart rate feel slow or fast when you have the palpitations?
- Do you feel a racing, pounding, or fluttering?
- Is there a regular or irregular pattern to the unusual heartbeat sensations?
- Did the palpitations begin or end suddenly?
- When do the palpitations occur? In response to reminders of a traumatic event? When you are lying down and resting? When you change your body position? When you feel emotional?
- Do you have any other symptoms?
An electrocardiogram may be done.
If you go to an emergency room, you will be connected to a heart monitor. However, most people with palpitations do not need to go to an emergency room for treatment.
If your provider finds you have an abnormal heart rhythm, other tests may be done. This may include:
- Holter monitor for 24 hours, or another heart monitor for 2 weeks or longer
- Electrophysiology study (EPS)
Heartbeat sensations; Irregular heartbeat; Palpitations; Heart pounding or racing
Fang JC, O'Gara PT. History and physical examination: an evidence-based approach. In: Zipes DP, Libby P, Bonow RO, Mann DL, Tomaselli GF, Braunwald E, eds. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. 11th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2019:chap 10.
Miller JM, Tomaselli GF, Zipes DP. Diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias. In: Zipes DP, Libby P, Bonow RO, Mann DL, Tomaselli, GF, Braunwald E, eds. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. 11th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2019:chap 35.
Olgin JE. Approach to the patient with suspected arrhythmia. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 26th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 56.
Updated by: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
How to check your heart rate
You can check your heart rate any time using the Heart Rate app. Open the app, then wait for Apple Watch to measure your heart rate. You can also view your resting, walking, breathe, workout, and recovery rates throughout the day. To easily open the app, add the Heart Rate complication to your watch face or add the Heart Rate app to the Dock.
You can also turn on heart rate notifications, so you know if your heart rate remains above or below a chosen beats per minute (BPM), or to occasionally check for an irregular heart rhythm.
Heart rate notifications and resting and walking rates are available only on Apple Watch Series 1 or later. Irregular rhythm notifications are available only with watchOS 5.1.2 or later. To enable irregular rhythm notifications, the notifications must be available in your country or region and you must be in the country or region where you purchased your device. Learn where irregular rhythm notifications are available.
Pulse Rate Chart
When Apple Watch measures your heart rate
When you use the Workout app, Apple Watch measures your heart rate continuously during the workout and for 3 minutes after the workout ends to determine a workout recovery rate. If you don't see your heart rate, check your settings.
This information, as well as other data it collects, helps Apple Watch estimate how many calories you’ve burned. In addition, Apple Watch measures your heart rate throughout the day when you’re still, and periodically when you’re walking (Apple Watch Series 1 or later). Since Apple Watch takes these background readings based on your activity, the time between these measurements will vary. Apple Watch also calculates a daily resting rate and walking average by correlating background heart rate readings with accelerometer data when sufficient background readings are available. You can control which third-party apps have access to your health data from the Health app in Sources.
Some anomalies may appear in the displayed data, resulting in occasional heart rate measurements that are abnormally high or low.
How Apple Watch measures your heart rate
The optical heart sensor in Apple Watch uses what is known as photoplethysmography. This technology, while difficult to pronounce, is based on a very simple fact: Blood is red because it reflects red light and absorbs green light. Apple Watch uses green LED lights paired with light‑sensitive photodiodes to detect the amount of blood flowing through your wrist at any given moment. When your heart beats, the blood flow in your wrist — and the green light absorption — is greater. Between beats, it’s less. By flashing its LED lights hundreds of times per second, Apple Watch can calculate the number of times the heart beats each minute — your heart rate. The optical heart sensor supports a range of 30–210 beats per minute. In addition, the optical heart sensor is designed to compensate for low signal levels by increasing both LED brightness and sampling rate.
The optical heart sensor can also use infrared light. This mode is what Apple Watch uses when it measures your heart rate in the background, and for heart rate notifications. Apple Watch uses green LED lights to measure your heart rate during workouts and Breathe sessions, and to calculate walking average and Heart Rate Variability (HRV).
Apple Watch Series 4, Series 5, or Series 6* also have built-in electrodes in the Digital Crown and the back of Apple Watch, which can measure the electrical signals across your heart when used with the Heart Rate app or the ECG app. When you place your finger on the Digital Crown, it creates a closed circuit between your heart and both arms, capturing the electrical impulses across your chest.
To use the electrical heart sensor to measure your heart rate, open the Heart Rate app and place your finger on the Digital Crown. You will get a faster reading with higher fidelity — getting a measurement every second instead of every 5 seconds. You’ll see 'ECG' in Heart Rate Context when looking at recorded data for Heart Rate in the Health app. You can also use the electrical heart sensor to take an ECG with the ECG app.
*ECG isn't supported on Apple Watch SE. The ECG app is currently available only in certain countries and regions. Learn where the ECG app is available.
For best results
Heart Beat Per Minute By Age
Start with a good fit. Even under ideal conditions, Apple Watch may not be able to get a reliable heart rate reading every time for everybody. And for a small percentage of users, various factors may make it impossible to get any heart rate reading at all. But there are things you can do to help Apple Watch get the most consistent and best heart rate readings possible. Learn what else affects your reading.