SPO2 value and Heart rate at Trail Camp on Mt. Whitney Trail
SPO2 value at 12,000 feet
Elevation of Trail Camp on Mt. Whitney Trail is about 12,000 feet (3,600m) where many people have some symptom of high altitude sickness.
I majored SPO2 value with a pulse oximeter before, however it was very hard to determine which value would be a real value since the majored value kept changed in a wide range.
For this hiking, I carried a one which is used for monitoring SPO2 during sleeping to understand a situation of sleep apnea. It can measure SPO2 continuously what it looks like when I am in the tent.
Almost all time, SPO2 value was below 90% and the range of the measured range is huge. It depends on how I breath and what I am doing such as walking and lay down. This is expected based on the previous measurement with real time measurement. The range is roughly 70 ~90%.
Overall, the average SPO2 value when I awake is somewhere around 85%. However it is getting lower when I slept, the value was somewhere 75%. This is probably due to lower breathing rate when I slept. As long as I am awake, I might be able to control how I breath intentionally. However once I fell into sleep, then it is very hard to control. Also, the range of the measured value during sleeping is probably much smaller than when I am awake.
For heart rate, it is also wide range comparing data in lower elevation and it might be related to SPO 2 value I guess.
Without acclimatization
Based on this data, SPO2 value might be getting lower when people sleep. I guess it is probably possible to get worse when people sleep in higher elevation without acclimatization. The reason I woke up often during the night would be one of symptoms of high altitude sickness.
Unfortunately, this is only data I have now and I do not have any other data to compare, it is very difficult to conclude what happens. I need to collect more data such as multiple nights with longer stay. Then I can find out more.
One think I can tell is probably SPO2 range when people is not acclimatized. It is probably hard to determine what would be the value in this situation. We might need to find some average during some period.
Data during sleeping at home last night
As a reference, I show a data when I was sleeping at home last night. SPO2 value and the heart late are much more stable than a data at 12,000 feet. The heart rate is below 60 bpm and SPO2 value is around 95% overall during night.
I think it is very clear, the data shows impact to human body who is in higher elevation. I do not see any sign for acclimatization. I guess it is getting much more stable when people get acclimatized.
It is clearly the range of the change for heart rate is much smaller and it might be a better index for hiking in my opinion.
(To be continue)
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