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Is Low HRV Causing Your Sleep Problems?

Sleep Doctor

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You might be familiar with HRV — heart rate variability — as a popular training tool for workouts, and a biomarker for measuring exercise recovery. Beyond exercise tracking, heart rate variability has a lot to tell us about the underlying health of our nervous system and our risk for disease. And there’s an important two-way relationship between HRV and sleep that’s often overlooked.

HRV is a measurement of variation in time between heartbeats. It is different from heart rate, or pulse, which is a measurement of the number of times the heart beats in a minute. But our hearts don’t beat at a fixed tempo. The intervals of time between heartbeats aren’t precisely the same every time—and HRV is a measurement of the changes in these intervals between heartbeats. So in this video, I'll walk through everything you need to know about HRV, how to track it, and how to improve that number for better sleep.

0:00 What is HRV?
3:30 How does HRV impact sleep?
6:20 How to track your HRV
7:00 How can I make my HRV better?

😴 Michael Breus, Ph.D., is a double board-certified clinical psychologist and sleep expert. He's been in practice since 1999 and helped thousands of patients improve their sleep. Dr. Breus has written five books on sleep and conducted over 1,000 interviews to the press and public.

20 Comments

@geraldinepettig6009 10 months ago

80? Wow, I wish. Mine's 26 & unbalanced.

@DK-pr9ny 5 months ago

My HRV is between 22-30ms when sleeping, and I sleep like a baby.

@rob19204 1 year ago

Watched several videos and reels explaining HRV to better understand it and this was easily the most helpful one. Thank you.

@MilaDiamond 2 years ago (edited)

I tried to take a quiz but it appears that the website it spammy. Too many pop-ups and the result was just a list of (expensive) products to buy - mattress, breathing pumps, etc. Not what I expected from a doctor and it’s disappointing. The HRV info in the video is good but, being an insomniac my entire life, I already knew it from my research on sleep for years.

@DingusCirc 2 years ago

When I do a 36 hour fast my HRV spikes from 41 to 100 every time.

@EezeeGroover 6 months ago

Interesting. My watch is telling my HRV was poor and my sleep was poor last night, but I feel better than I did yesterday and my watch told me I had better sleep the night before.

@meganfrazier 6 months ago

I exercise daily, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and walk everyday day, have low blood pressure and have a HRT of 22. I had no idea HRV was an important factor in heart disease and insomnia! I’m in my early 50s so I’m hoping I can turn this around. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

@insightsbymila 1 year ago

Great informative video. I've been monitoring my HRV for a few years now, and I haven't found much literature about it. I appreciate you sharing ways to improve HRV.

@JeffRiardon-t5e 3 months ago

Could you do a video comparing best vagus nerve stims for HRV?

@nawalsada9359 2 years ago

Thank You

@laurapseveri 1 year ago

I have horrible chronic insomnia.
My HRV is between 22ms and 30ms on average.... i have a lot of work to do! 😆

@adamcurrie1157 1 year ago

Hi, thanks for the great video. Recently i had s COVID infection shortly after i recovered my HRV has taken a nosedive to an average of 45 (Red on my Garmin) from my baseline of 51 (Green). Is there any advice you can give me to turn around 9 consecutive days trending low with no sign of recovery?

@phunkymind23 2 years ago

I meditate for 30 minutes a day on an acupressure mat with a device called Nurosym. This device delivers pulses through the ear to activate the vagus nerve. I can't be sure how much it's affected my HRV, but I average around 70.

@AmericaTheBeautiful-e3e 1 year ago

5:25 Imbalance in the AMS - I think this is what has been happening since doc lowered my zolp dose. Less quality sleep and more "nervy" feeling at night. Sucks. I was getting GREAT sleep.

@Nagasaki068 1 year ago (edited)

Hi,I was recently prescribed amtriptyline and my HRV vent down from 65 to 57 and my garmin watch shws that Im totaly unbalanced,but i feel better because I sleep full 8 hours and feel refreshed more than before I slept 5-7 hours of interrupted sleep most of the time and feeling tired and weak. Should I be concerned with what my garmin says and do not train at all or should I keep training even with low HRV?

@carmentello4936 1 year ago

Hi... my hrv is 19...im 52yrs old and, i read the hrv should be 20 to 30% of the resting pulse, my resting pulse is 60 to 70 ....is my hrv ok?

@PhilZwick 1 month ago

My HRV reported after sleep with my pixel watch is 10 to 12 while the number using my Garmin watch during the day is 40 to 50. Why is there such a huge disparity and which is better to pay attention to?

@sarahbartlett9870 2 years ago

I exercise daily, don’t eat junk , drink alcohol , not stressed , yet my HRV is on average around 30. I also have insomnia

@martinjalovec6566 7 months ago

How do I measure hrv?

@pattyloader8013 10 months ago

73 yr old female recovering from a heart attack 2 1/2 months ago. thought I was quite healthy. worked out 4-6 times a week . ate all the good stuff. but slept poorly and my B.P. Was always a little high. My HRV was always pretty low. about 21. Now, I am recovering from by-pass surgery. b.p. is much lower , Am changing up my exercise routine to include more cardio....Now, my HRV is going up! anywhere from 40 - 77...But the most bizarre thing is, I went to my Dr today and showed her how my HRV is going up....and she clearly didnt now what it was !!!!!...she thought I was talking about my heart rate!!! How can that be??