Getting less sleep and skipping meals — or eating at odd hours — can prove fatal, even for someone young and apparently fit. For businessman Sahil (he chose not to share his surname), it began like any other day: deals to be closed, travel to be done.
He was feeling slightly under the weather, and when his Apple Watch started alerting him that something was amiss, he decided to see a doctor. That decision, and the Watch, saved his life.
The 26-year-old from Nainpur, Madhya Pradesh, keeps a packed schedule. His business had kept him travelling for several days. “When I woke up, I was feeling a little off. It was one of those mornings when you just don’t want to get out of bed. I thought it was the weather — it had been raining for the past five or six days, so I blamed it on that,” Sahil told t2.
He has been using the Apple Watch Series 9 for two years to monitor his health and fitness. “I had a meeting in Jabalpur, so I boarded the train. The meeting went well and was fruitful enough for me to celebrate by watching a film. As the movie was about to end — it was around 6.05pm — I got a notification on the Apple Watch saying I had been inactive for 10-15 minutes but my heart rate was above 120,” he recalled.
He grew concerned. Sitting in an air-conditioned theatre, doing nothing strenuous, his heart rate shouldn’t have been that high. “My train back home was at 7.30pm. Instead of boarding it, I decided to visit a doctor for a check-up. I assumed he’d prescribe paracetamol and I could still catch the 9.30pm train.
“Meanwhile, I ran an ECG on my Apple Watch. Not being a doctor, I couldn’t make sense of it. The doctor later ran some tests and said the tachycardia reading was slightly high, though everything else looked normal. Then he measured my blood pressure — it was 180/120, extremely high. I’d never had heart-related problems. I was admitted immediately, and more tests followed,” said Sahil, who uses an iPhone 15 Pro Max and an iPhone 12 mini.
According to him, “The doctor told me that if I had boarded the train instead of visiting the clinic, I would have collapsed on the journey — a brain haemorrhage caused by the dangerously high blood pressure and pulse. The reports indicated it was due to stress and exhaustion, but the Apple Watch stopped me from getting on that train.”
Lessons learned? Since the ordeal, Sahil has been maintaining a consistent sleep routine and a strict home-cooked diet. He also takes brisk 20-25 minute walks every day.
Research shows that long-term sleep deprivation increases the average workload on the heart, leading to changes in the heart and blood vessels. Lack of sleep can also amplify the effects of other risk factors for hypertension.
Doctors generally recommend 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily and seven to nine hours of sleep each night — both are associated with lower blood pressure. Maintaining a healthy body weight can further reduce cardiovascular risk.