Has anyone measured their HRV (Heart Rate Variability)

Hi Garzie,

I don’t think that is correct - for someone in their 50s the average is usually 20-30 if they are healthy so if you are averaging around 11 that’s not far off and maybe something to work towards?

I wear an Oura ring that tracks my HRV. When I first got it I was averaging around 20 which is very low for someone in their late 20s. People usually have average HRV around 50-60 in their 20s but that’s if they are healthy.

I’ve been working on improving my HRV for the last year and have now got it to average around 40. When I’m more sick and more stressed it goes back down to around 25 / 30 and times I’m doing better I can get it up to around 50.

Please let me know if you decide to try and improve yours and if you find anything that helps. Because I am still working on improving more!

I don't do this. I'm constantly tachy, my bpm is always high 90's-just over 100. dr's don't care. I stopped focusing on my heart rate after I noticed it wasn't getting better. However I am a part of a few long covid fb groups and all of them are monitoring HRV. Seems pretty common. Sorry I was of no help to you.

We used a chest strap to monitor it first, then switched to Oura ring for measurement. Mine wasn’t that good in the beginning, but as my health improved I got quite good numbers. I haven't measured in about 3 years so I don’t remember the ranges. Poor sleep and even just one beer had a negative effect.
My girlfriend who is sicker than me had worse scores in general.

As I focus a lot on lifestyle improvements, I do all of these except for avoiding alcohol.
https://www.medicinenet.com/how_can_i_improve_my_hrv/article.htm

thank you everyone for your thoughts and experiences

i have been doing a bit more digging and reading around this

the original average HRV i quoted for healthy males in their 50's of somewhere in the 50 to 60ms range was from a google on my phone - but i have since searched several other sources and they mostly seem to agree with this number

eg here in graphical form
VIEW IMAGE

https://elitehrv.com/normal-heart-rate-variability-age-gender

on that graph it also shows the extremes - and mine is actually below the extreme low end for my age group of the 8,000 people in that data set - so it does look like mine is well below where it would be expected to be in an otherwise healthy person.

ref alcohol - the only alcohol i consume is from tinctures - but i go to some lengths to ensure the vast majority of it is evaporated off before i take them - so it should be minimal - less than 1 drink a day

next i looked into accuracy - and because the watch style fitbit and other similar makes of tracker - are not using electrical nerve signals as their trigger - like a proper EKG does - they will never b as accurate as electrode devices - like medical EKG or even sports chest strap type devices

several members on this Fitbit forum have however compared EKG type devices with their fitbits - and although there is some day to day variability - it seems the numbers and trends match up pretty well

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/other-charge-trackers/does-the-charge-4-calculate-hrv-accurately/td-p/4498519/page/5

one thing to note - is with the fitbits - they only measure the HRV during the night when you are asleep - and the app then presents an average value in the morning - whereas other HRV measuring devices using electrical nerve signals - like chest straps - measure it in real time while you are awake.

sleeping and waking HRV are different - with sleeping HRV typically being higher - which is anything makes my values worse!

Blazer - i think this may be one of the reasons for you seeing a difference between the two - the Fitbit is an average of the night while you were asleep - and the chest strap is after you wake up