Yeah, this story is not coherent.
The underlying idea, that a people might be limited to a certain number of cycles of a physical process (such as expansions and contractions of the heart), and that choices would be reshaped accordingly, was and is worth exploring.
But responses that naturally accelerated the frequency of cycles would be counter-productive, and eliminated by natural selection.
Further, mandatory monitors would relay information in “real time”, rather than delivering the information during queued examinations.