The Medical Anxiety
The Apple Watch features an integrated heart rate sensor that constantly monitors your pulse in the background. By default, the operating system is configured to send you aggressive push notifications if it detects that your heart rate has spiked above a certain threshold (like 120 BPM) while you appear to be inactive, or if it drops below a certain threshold (like 40 BPM) for ten minutes. While intended as a health safety feature, for users prone to health anxiety, suddenly receiving a buzzing alert telling you your heart is acting abnormally can induce a panic attack. You must permanently sever these automated alerts.
How to Turn Off Heart Rate Notifications
You can permanently paralyze the biometric alert daemon via the Heart settings.
- Open the Settings app directly on your Apple Watch (the grey gear icon).
- Scroll down the main list and tap on Heart.
- Tap on High Heart Rate Notifications.
- Scroll to the very top of the list and select Off.
- Tap the back arrow, then tap on Low Heart Rate Notifications.
- Scroll to the very top of the list and select Off.
Silent Monitoring
The change is instantaneous. The Apple Watch will completely terminate the background notification daemon responsible for analyzing your pulse against the threshold limits. The watch will continue to record your heart rate normally in the background (unless you disable the sensor entirely), and you can still view your data in the Health app. However, the watch is now strictly forbidden from sending you active alerts, guaranteeing that you will never again be unexpectedly interrupted by a stressful medical notification.