"Don't be angry. Everyone gets one here."
August 5, 2021 4:25 PM Subscribe
How normal or abnormal is it to be able to see or otherwise sense one's own body moving as a result of one's heart beating, while at rest? Surely there is a term for this?
When, for example, I sit still in a chair and cross my legs such that the overleg's calf muscle is resting against the underleg's knee, I can sometimes (often) see my overleg twitching slightly, no more than a centimeter or so at the toe-tip, in time with my heart beat.
Sometimes at night when I'm in bed, on my side, I have to adjust the way my head lays on the pillow, lest my ear pick up a sort of muffled crushed thump as my bloodpump jostles the pillow fabric beneath my ear.
I'm reasonably fit (at least the fittest I've ever been in my life). I run, work out as much as I can. When I donate blood the attendants always marvel at my apparently low resting heart rate (I think it was like 55 last time) and say things like "That's a runner for ya" so I do not think my circulatory system is unhealthy.
I don't really recall hearing anyone else ever talking about such a phenomenon so I wonder if this is just another weird unique thing about me or what. Not a medical concern, I'm just curious.
When, for example, I sit still in a chair and cross my legs such that the overleg's calf muscle is resting against the underleg's knee, I can sometimes (often) see my overleg twitching slightly, no more than a centimeter or so at the toe-tip, in time with my heart beat.
Sometimes at night when I'm in bed, on my side, I have to adjust the way my head lays on the pillow, lest my ear pick up a sort of muffled crushed thump as my bloodpump jostles the pillow fabric beneath my ear.
I'm reasonably fit (at least the fittest I've ever been in my life). I run, work out as much as I can. When I donate blood the attendants always marvel at my apparently low resting heart rate (I think it was like 55 last time) and say things like "That's a runner for ya" so I do not think my circulatory system is unhealthy.
I don't really recall hearing anyone else ever talking about such a phenomenon so I wonder if this is just another weird unique thing about me or what. Not a medical concern, I'm just curious.
That sound in your ear is pulsatile tinnitus, in case that's a useful search term! Not sure about the leg thing.
posted by limeonaire at 4:33 PM on August 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 4:33 PM on August 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
Leg - totally normal. Just tested with my own leg to make sure I hadn't imagined it and it's doing it as I type. I think it only happens when there's actually a blood vessel resting on a bony or firm bit of my other knee, not if it's on something cushioned.
For the ear thing... do you mean the sound of your heart beat, that you can hear in your ear (again, totally normal, surely, at least when you're leaning on something/wearing earplugs etc?), or do you mean the pillow's literally moving under you?
posted by penguin pie at 4:48 PM on August 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
For the ear thing... do you mean the sound of your heart beat, that you can hear in your ear (again, totally normal, surely, at least when you're leaning on something/wearing earplugs etc?), or do you mean the pillow's literally moving under you?
posted by penguin pie at 4:48 PM on August 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
I have noticed this almost all my life, from laying on my back with legs propped up on a chair (comfortable reading position when I was a youngster) causing the chair to lightly creak in time to my heartbeat, to looking through a gun scope and getting 808 bass-style visual distortions, to (a few days ago) laying facedown on a paddle board on a glassy lake, watching a really cool pulse of concentric ripples leave the board at around 52 bpm. Pretty common for me, so I’ve always supposed common for others. I don’t know if a specific word for the phenomenon.
posted by klausman at 5:19 PM on August 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by klausman at 5:19 PM on August 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Definitely a thing occasionally. I remember being a little kid in bed and not knowing what the noise was, and picturing it as a child bundled up in winter clothes walking slowly through the snow, crunch, crunch, crunch. It was years later that I figured out it was my heartbeat.
I often watch my shirt go up and down with my heartbeat, which is different, but I definitely remember lying on a couch with my arm danging and watching it swing slightly with my pulse.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:48 PM on August 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
I often watch my shirt go up and down with my heartbeat, which is different, but I definitely remember lying on a couch with my arm danging and watching it swing slightly with my pulse.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:48 PM on August 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
I am not your doctor; this is not medical advice. But if you have a BP cuff you can calculate the difference between the top number (systolic) and the bottom number (diastolic). This is called the pulse pressure and it's an indicator of how much your heart is squeezing then relaxing. Normal is about 30-40. A widened pulse pressure can cause the sort of bobbing movement you describe. Lots of potential causes of widened pulse pressure which should be discussed with your doctor.
posted by basalganglia at 5:56 PM on August 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 5:56 PM on August 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
If you're donating blood, you probably know this isn't an issue, but when I have severe anemia (as in needing blood transfusions), pulsatile tinnitus is one of the symptoms I get.
posted by FencingGal at 6:07 PM on August 5, 2021
posted by FencingGal at 6:07 PM on August 5, 2021
The pillow thing is the spiders that live inside the pillow (boo!), pretty much the same thing as hearing the ocean when you put a conch shell up to your ear, you're just hearing your blood flowing. You can also see it in your eyes if you look just right.
I do the heartbeat (and breathing) rocking thing all the time. I mostly sit cross-legged on an old office chair sorta balanced. After a bit of just being still there's a little rocking that's from the heart beat, and a larger rock that's from the breathing. Just those tiny little changes in the position from the pulse and breath will get you rocking.
It's very meditative, just being still and calm and slowing the rocking down as much as possible. How still can you get.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:48 PM on August 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I do the heartbeat (and breathing) rocking thing all the time. I mostly sit cross-legged on an old office chair sorta balanced. After a bit of just being still there's a little rocking that's from the heart beat, and a larger rock that's from the breathing. Just those tiny little changes in the position from the pulse and breath will get you rocking.
It's very meditative, just being still and calm and slowing the rocking down as much as possible. How still can you get.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:48 PM on August 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I think it is when you don't notice it or hear it that you should be worried.
posted by AugustWest at 7:11 PM on August 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by AugustWest at 7:11 PM on August 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
"when you put a conch shell up to your ear, you're just hearing your blood flowing"
wait WHAT?!?!?!? How am I this old and never figured that out?! I'm shook.
posted by mccxxiii at 8:19 PM on August 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
wait WHAT?!?!?!? How am I this old and never figured that out?! I'm shook.
posted by mccxxiii at 8:19 PM on August 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
How am I this old and never figured that out?!
I never figured it out either, and I don't think it's right; it's one of those "everybody knows this" explanations with the distinct low-tide ocean tang of Just So story.
Seems to me that when I put a shell, or a toilet paper roll core, or my cupped hand, or a coffee cup or anything else with a cavity in it next to my ear, what I hear is whatever ambient noise exists around me, filtered and shaped by that cavity's resonances. The reason it sounds quite loud is that those resonances render it suddenly different from the ambient noise that my brain was routinely filtering out and ignoring before I applied the resonator to my ear.
Similarly, putting one's body in positions where assorted hydraulic effects translate heartbeat into noticeable movements feels unusual mainly because most positions do that only to a very tiny extent, generating perceptual background noise which the brain filters out.
As zengargoyle mentioned, playing with these things can be intensely meditative. I like to lie in a warm bath, take a deep breath, and then sing an aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah note pitched at one of the bathroom's resonances, as quietly as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can; after several passes of this it becomes possible to keep the note going for well over a minute, at which point I can definitely hear my heartbeat modulating it and it all gets quite lovely in here.
posted by flabdablet at 11:13 PM on August 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I never figured it out either, and I don't think it's right; it's one of those "everybody knows this" explanations with the distinct low-tide ocean tang of Just So story.
Seems to me that when I put a shell, or a toilet paper roll core, or my cupped hand, or a coffee cup or anything else with a cavity in it next to my ear, what I hear is whatever ambient noise exists around me, filtered and shaped by that cavity's resonances. The reason it sounds quite loud is that those resonances render it suddenly different from the ambient noise that my brain was routinely filtering out and ignoring before I applied the resonator to my ear.
Similarly, putting one's body in positions where assorted hydraulic effects translate heartbeat into noticeable movements feels unusual mainly because most positions do that only to a very tiny extent, generating perceptual background noise which the brain filters out.
As zengargoyle mentioned, playing with these things can be intensely meditative. I like to lie in a warm bath, take a deep breath, and then sing an aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah note pitched at one of the bathroom's resonances, as quietly as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can; after several passes of this it becomes possible to keep the note going for well over a minute, at which point I can definitely hear my heartbeat modulating it and it all gets quite lovely in here.
posted by flabdablet at 11:13 PM on August 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
Belly moving, a pulsing vein in my ankle, and rocking forward and backward - plus hearing it, sometimes. I have normal blood pressure so I trust this is nothing too weird.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:52 AM on August 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:52 AM on August 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Totally OK. My cardio (and other) health is excellent by any standard medical measure and I can often feel different parts of my body moving slightly in time with my heartbeat.
I'm autistic, so I tend to sense this type of thing very readily. Perhaps another avenue to explore?
posted by Sheydem-tants at 3:28 AM on August 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'm autistic, so I tend to sense this type of thing very readily. Perhaps another avenue to explore?
posted by Sheydem-tants at 3:28 AM on August 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
What is your heart rate? When a heart beats slower, each beat is stronger. Probably this affects the pulse pressure, as described above. For years, I had a slow heart rate (<50) and could detect my heart beat easily, especially in my ears. Now, I have a pacemaker that keeps my heart rate above 60, and I dont hear my pulse, and find it hard to detect it at all.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:26 AM on August 6, 2021
posted by SemiSalt at 5:26 AM on August 6, 2021
I can see my pulse in a patch of skin on my ankle – something I've noticed in other people when I climb with them as we sit about with bare feet a lot. I can feel it gently rocking me if I'm relaxing (a subtle movement in my arm, head, abdomen). There's a nice radiolab segment about a person who had an audibly loud pulse after surgery (other people could hear it) – link.
posted by Joeruckus at 7:31 AM on August 6, 2021
posted by Joeruckus at 7:31 AM on August 6, 2021
I've had stuff like this for as long as I can remember. Not as much with the ear, but the awareness of movement due to my heartbeat is totally a thing. If it matters, I am absolutely not a healthy or fit person.
posted by bile and syntax at 7:37 AM on August 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by bile and syntax at 7:37 AM on August 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
I have a visible pulse in one of my wrists - like you can see my skin bump up and down with my heartbeat. I've always been sort of vaguely curious how common that is (I figure it must not be universal since, you know, people feel for a pulse instead of looking for one) so I totally get where this question is coming from! I have very narrow wrists so I've always just assumed that was why, in my case.
posted by potrzebie at 1:05 PM on August 6, 2021
posted by potrzebie at 1:05 PM on August 6, 2021
I'm also very fit. If I'm sitting in my truck or my bed, I can feel it moving because of my heart beat.
It's a well-known thing among photographers and shooters that you have to pull the trigger or trip the shutter between heartbeats because the gun/camera moves with you.
posted by klanawa at 1:26 PM on August 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's a well-known thing among photographers and shooters that you have to pull the trigger or trip the shutter between heartbeats because the gun/camera moves with you.
posted by klanawa at 1:26 PM on August 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
I never figured it out either, and I don't think it's right; it's one of those "everybody knows this" explanations with the distinct low-tide ocean tang of Just So story.
Maybe... or we just hear different things. But the spiders in the pillow is just so. Up until my late 30's I had a grand case of Sinus arrhythmia - Wikipedia:
As long as it's not bad, it's a nice thing to have (IMHO). Makes it real easy to calm down or meditate or just chill like a zengargoyle. Also a pretty fun party trick. I sorta miss it.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:59 PM on August 6, 2021
Maybe... or we just hear different things. But the spiders in the pillow is just so. Up until my late 30's I had a grand case of Sinus arrhythmia - Wikipedia:
During inspiration the heart rate goes up (being maximal at the peak of inspiration), while during expiration, the heart rate goes down, being slowest at end-inspiration.I could easily make my heart rate go +/- 30 bpm just by changing the duty cycles of in,hold,out,hold time. I used to spook myself as a kid listening to the scritch-scritch of the spiders in the pillow getting slower and slower and slower and knowing it was my heart beat and OMG I'm dying aaaaaarrrrrrggghhh. Learned not to sleep with my ears to the pillow.
As long as it's not bad, it's a nice thing to have (IMHO). Makes it real easy to calm down or meditate or just chill like a zengargoyle. Also a pretty fun party trick. I sorta miss it.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:59 PM on August 6, 2021
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posted by jonathanhughes at 4:29 PM on August 5, 2021 [13 favorites]