Connection between shardblades and heartbeats?

[Fanghur Rahl]

So the first time I listened this Way of Kings, I had been under the impression that when they spoke of it taking ten heartbeats to summon a dead Shardblade, they were basically just using that as a poetic way of saying ten seconds (or whatever the Rosharan equivalent is, since on a battlefield ten seconds may as well be ten years a lot of the time). But now that I'm listening to it a second time, I realize that it explicitly says that it literally means ten beats of the heart; the faster its beating, the less time it takes. But what relevance can how fast a person's heart is beating have to do with how long it takes to temporarily resurrect a dead Spren? Is it something to do with the spirit web?

[Spoolofwhool]

Quote

“So they’re all spren,” he said. “Shardblades.”

Syl grew solemn.

“Dead spren,” Kaladin added.

“Dead,” Syl agreed. “Then they live again a little when someone summons them, syncing a heartbeat to their essence.”

“How can something be ‘a little’ alive?”

“We’re spren,” Syl said. “We’re forces. You can’t kill us completely. Just . . . sort of.”

- Words of Radiance, Chapter 87

Based on what Syl said, it sounds like it's something to do with connecting the together, though I don't know what the exact details are.

[FeltWillSaveUs]

There are 10 spren types that can create knights radiant. So maybe the heart beats are cycling through the spren types in order to align with the correct type?

[Ruin's Scariest Koloss]

48 minutes ago, FeltWillSaveUs said:

There are 10 spren types that can create knights radiant. So maybe the heart beats are cycling through the spren types in order to align with the correct type?

I feel like if that were the case, it would sometimes take less than ten heartbeats. Otherwise it would have to start on the wrong spren type every time and save the right one for last. My theory is just that the dead spren needs to be intentionally connected to something living in order to be summoned. The summoner's heart is beating all the time, but they only summon the blade when they focus on it. The fact that it takes ten is just a Roshar thing.

[Calderis]

I think it's just a mechanism of the false bond. The Spren are supposed to be physical as deadeyes. Dismissing them is not their natural state, and they lack the mind to manifest of their own volition. So they sync up with their bearer and are brought back to life slightly enough to enact the transition. 

It's still relying on the bond to a person in the physical, so a part of their physical aspect is utilized. 

Frankly, it's an arbitrary rule created to have further distinction between live and dead blades. 

[Trons]

I could be wrong, but after reading OB, I actually thought that i was the amount of time required to "wake" the dead spren, kind of like waking somebody up.  I got the impression because:

Spoiler

Adolin's only takes 7 heart beats.  So I got the impression it wants to be woken up, and therefore doesn't take as long.  Same reason the radiants don't take the same time because they are alreayd awake.

Waking them up may not be the correct wording, i mean it more as an analogy.

[Szmit]

Human perception and emotions shape cognitive realm. They create something that Spren use for a sustenance - i belive that thing is Identity.

A heartbeat is a symbol of live, therefore human heartbeat generates Identity of 'being alive'. Rosharian subconciously would belive that ten portions of 'beeing alive' is an adequate amount to grant something a status of a living object. Mass subconciousness shapes cognitive realm, and sets this rule as a law of nature, unless an object already posesses certain level of 'beeing alive'.