2 ms·

The measure they’re talking about, HRV, is measuring variance of the peak to peak and trough to trough between successive heartbeats. Individual heartbeats are

The measure they’re talking about, HRV, is measuring variance of the peak to peak and trough to trough between successive heartbeats. Individual heartbeats are on the order of one or two a second, but are remarkably consistent, so this measurement of variance is usually on the order of milliseconds. Healthy ranges are, vaguely speaking, above 80ms, with unhealthy ranges being much lower, the idea being that when you’re sick or stressed, your heart rate control falls back to the nervous system since your brain has other things to deal with, making your heartbeat more consistent, which means lower variability. This is generally not great because you want to be able to switch up the spacing between beats on the fly for better efficiency, kind of like switching gears on a car. All of this is to say that the measurement they’re talking about is pretty tiny and you’re unlikely to be able to measure it accurately manually.

t-writescode 6y ago
> Healthy ranges are, vaguely speaking, above 80ms I'm not sure what's being said here is safe or appropriate. If you're doing nothing, your heart rate variance won't likely change. There's also very little that matters about it, just normals, for you. Every Google Search I've ever done on HRV has turned up that fact: HRV is incredibly personal and personal trends matter the most. From my own experience, my HRV is low when I'm not doing anything - and why wouldn't it be? I'm not _doing_ anything. I have no need for sudden changes when I'm typing on a keyboard. Further, you can be as healthy as a marathon runner and have very low HRVs.
- andor 6y ago
  "From my own experience, my HRV is low when I'm not doing anything - and why wouldn't it be? I'm not _doing_ anything. I have no need for sudden changes when I'm typing on a keyboard." It's not about whether you "have a need for sudden changes" or not, but whether the sympathetic or the parasympathetic nervous system has the upper hand. There are many reasons for why it could be one or the other, but they are usually roughly summarized as "physical or mental stress". For instance, when you sit at your keyboard and respond to someone who is wrong on the Internet, that is likely to cause negative emotions and mental stress. This would increase sympathetic nervous system activity and as a result lower your HRV. "Further, you can be as healthy as a marathon runner and have very low HRVs." Marathon runners are not always equally healthy. They also get sick or stressed sometimes, and quite often they are under physical stress due to training a lot. That's why some of them observe HRV to get an indication of their readiness for high intensity training or competitions (e.g. Whoop, Garmin Recovery Advisor). That means, just sitting at their keyboard their HRV could be high or low, depending e.g. on how well they recovered from a hard training run.

t-writescode 6y ago

> Healthy ranges are, vaguely speaking, above 80ms I'm not sure what's being said here is safe or appropriate. If you're doing nothing, your heart rate variance won't likely change. There's also very little that matters about it, just normals, for you. Every Google Search I've ever done on HRV has turned up that fact: HRV is incredibly personal and personal trends matter the most. From my own experience, my HRV is low when I'm not doing anything - and why wouldn't it be? I'm not _doing_ anything. I have no need for sudden changes when I'm typing on a keyboard. Further, you can be as healthy as a marathon runner and have very low HRVs.

andor 6y ago
"From my own experience, my HRV is low when I'm not doing anything - and why wouldn't it be? I'm not _doing_ anything. I have no need for sudden changes when I'm typing on a keyboard." It's not about whether you "have a need for sudden changes" or not, but whether the sympathetic or the parasympathetic nervous system has the upper hand. There are many reasons for why it could be one or the other, but they are usually roughly summarized as "physical or mental stress". For instance, when you sit at your keyboard and respond to someone who is wrong on the Internet, that is likely to cause negative emotions and mental stress. This would increase sympathetic nervous system activity and as a result lower your HRV. "Further, you can be as healthy as a marathon runner and have very low HRVs." Marathon runners are not always equally healthy. They also get sick or stressed sometimes, and quite often they are under physical stress due to training a lot. That's why some of them observe HRV to get an indication of their readiness for high intensity training or competitions (e.g. Whoop, Garmin Recovery Advisor). That means, just sitting at their keyboard their HRV could be high or low, depending e.g. on how well they recovered from a hard training run.