Ideal Range
Highly individual - track your personal baseline. Generally, higher is better. Athletes often see 60-100ms; general population 40-60ms.
Related Metrics
What is HRV?
Heart Rate Variability measures the variation in time between heartbeats. Higher HRV generally indicates better cardiovascular fitness, stress resilience, and recovery status. It's a window into your autonomic nervous system.
Why HRV Matters
HRV reflects your parasympathetic nervous system activity - your body's 'rest and digest' mode. Higher HRV means better recovery, stress resilience, and overall health. Morning HRV is particularly telling of overnight recovery quality.
How to Improve HRV
Common Mistakes
- Comparing your HRV to others (it's highly individual)
- Overtraining and not allowing recovery
- Alcohol - even one drink crushes HRV
- Checking HRV mid-day instead of upon waking
- Stressing about low HRV (creating a feedback loop)
The Science
HRV is controlled by the interplay between your sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous systems. During sleep, parasympathetic activity should dominate, increasing HRV. The vagus nerve - your body's relaxation highway - directly influences HRV. Higher HRV correlates with lower all-cause mortality, better stress adaptation, and improved athletic performance.
Other Sleep Metrics
Deep Sleep
Deep sleep, also called slow-wave sleep (SWS) or N3 sleep, is the most restorati...
Ideal: 1.5-2 hours (15-25% of total sleep) for
REM Sleep
REM sleep is characterized by rapid eye movements, vivid dreams, and temporary m...
Ideal: 1.5-2 hours (20-25% of total sleep) for
Sleep Efficiency
Sleep efficiency is the percentage of time in bed that you actually spend sleepi...
Ideal: 85-95% for healthy adults. Above 95% mig
Sleep Latency
Sleep latency is the time it takes you to fall asleep after getting into bed and...
Ideal: 10-20 minutes is ideal. Falling asleep i