When you wake up, you usually rub your eyes, stretch, and check your Polar Nightly Recharge™ to see how you slept, because it tells you a lot about the day ahead. But what if you notice that your heart rate variability is very low?
Looking closely at your data is one important step, but knowing how to interpret and use it effectively is another. It’s crucial to account for individual heart rate variability, which means not comparing it to anything other than your own 28-day average. If you notice a sudden drop, what should you do?
In this blog, we’ll look at why your HRV may sometimes be low, when to be concerned, and how to improve your heart rate variability (and your overall health and well-being).
Why is my heart rate low?
Monitoring your HRV with a heart rate monitor helps you understand the balance of your autonomic nervous system . It gives insight into your state of relaxation and rest. But a very low HRV can be worrisome.
Having occasional days of low heart rate variability is nothing to worry about. As long as your HRV returns to normal levels, it can be a good sign that your body can handle different situations.
A short period of decreased HRV often indicates that your body is experiencing a temporary imbalance in your ANS (Autonomic Nervous System), which can be caused by several factors. Typically, this is because your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) fight-or-flight response has been activated due to stress. For example, if you are struggling to cope with pressure at work or in relationships, your heart rate variability will be affected.
Overtraining is a similar form of stress. High-intensity workouts put stress on the body that, without adequate recovery, can throw your ANS out of balance and affect your HRV. Similarly, when you’re not feeling well physically or suffering from mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, your heart rate variability can decrease.
What we eat and how we sleep are also critical factors for very low HRV. Alcohol consumption , especially a few hours before bed, will have a significant impact on sleep and heart rate variability. Similarly, going to bed dehydrated or after a large late meal can disrupt the ANS, as can exercising later in the evening.
Why improve your HRV?
While there may be no cause for concern for a few days, a consistently low HRV can be a cause for concern.
Difficulty managing stress can have a significant impact on physical health, with long-term effects increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke. So it’s helpful to pay attention to how stress affects you, for example by monitoring and improving heart rate variability.
A very low HRV can also be an early sign of an underlying health problem. Studies have shown that this symptom is associated with poor cardiovascular health, including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and chronic heart failure. If you notice a sudden and consistent reduction in this parameter, it is usually advisable to talk to your doctor.
However, if it’s not a medical issue, you can still find ways to increase your heart rate variability by paying attention to some of the following aspects of your lifestyle and habits.
How to Increase Heart Rate Variability
1. Manage stress
It is clear that understanding how the pressures of everyday life affect you is a crucial way to improve low HRV. It is important to understand the reasons and signs of your stress and monitor your body’s reactions using wearable technology. This can help to effectively manage stress and reduce its harmful effects.
Improving work-life balance is one way to keep the ANS in balance and increase heart rate variability. For example, a study published in Industrial Health showed that people who had long commutes of more than 90 minutes or worked more than 60 hours per month in overtime had lower HRV scores.
2. Exercise at the right intensity.
According to a study published in Frontiers in Physiology, overtraining can have a significant impact on your ANS, leading to a decrease in your HRV. This is because the strain generated by exercise is another form of stress on your body, which, as we’ve seen, is not very good for your heart rate variability.
At the same time, regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to improve your HRV. So how do you do enough without overdoing it? It’s essential to include recovery days in your training schedule and listen to your body. If your HRV is very low and you regularly feel exhausted and unmotivated to exercise, it’s likely that you need to work on finding the right balance between exercise and recovery.
Sleep regularly
Sleep is another essential part of recovery. Getting enough, regular, good-quality rest can make a huge difference if you’re stressed or exercising a lot. However, a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research shows that poor quality rest and lack of sleep are associated with low HRV.
One way to get better sleep is to try to maintain some regularity in your sleep. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day promotes circadian rhythms and increases your ability to experience enough different sleep stages throughout the night. So when life gets hectic or stressful, maintaining this sleep schedule is essential to promoting your recovery and keeping your ANS in balance .
Interestingly, another bedtime option is using a weighted blanket to help improve your HRV at night . A study of bedding used by people recovering from wisdom tooth extractions found that those who used weighted blankets had higher HRV scores than those who didn’t. So it’s safe to assume that these blankets would work in less painful circumstances as well.
Drink more water and less alcohol
Staying hydrated is important, especially if you’re active. Not drinking enough water can significantly affect your heart rate variability. A study published in Scientific Reports found that even mild dehydration can lead to a decrease in HRV.
As mentioned above, alcohol consumption can have a significant impact on your HRV. Anyone who tracks this measurement at night will likely notice very low results after consuming alcohol in the evening. This is because alcohol causes an imbalance in your ANS while you sleep, meaning your sympathetic nervous system remains active while you process the alcohol instead of allowing your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) to help you “rest and digest.”
Eat a balanced diet
In the age of the gut microbiome, it’s no surprise that what we consume impacts our state of mind. Maintaining regular eating habits is another way to support your circadian rhythms, especially around bedtime. Eating in the hours before sleep is similar to drinking alcohol, as your body is too busy processing what you’ve consumed to allow for regular, restful sleep.
Fun fact: Eating leafy greens, like spinach and kale, can improve your HRV. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who ate these specific greens had healthier HRV scores.
Breathe deeply
Taking time to breathe deeply during the day can improve your heart rate variability at night. According to the Psychophysiology Journal, even six minutes of slow, diaphragmatic breathing a day can boost your PSNS. It’s a great tool for managing stress and increasing your HRV.
There are many ways to practice deep breathing (like yoga and meditation), but an easy way to get started is to incorporate Polar Serene™ into your daily life. This breathing exercise monitors your HRV as you breathe slowly for 5-10 minutes to see how well these two measurements are in sync and to note how relaxed you are that day.
Conclusion: Very low heart rate variation
So what are the big themes related to heart rate variability? Stress is a key theme. If you need to improve your ability to recognize signs of stress in your daily life, HRV can be a great way to assess it. It’s also essential to know how exercise puts stress on your body.
Consistency is another. Regular sleep and eating habits, as well as good hydration, can help boost circadian rhythms and recovery. At the same time, a consistently low HRV can be a cause for concern and a sign that you need to get a health check.
Finally, there’s relaxation. Breathe deeply. Learn to manage life’s pressures. Plan rest days. Take it easy. Don’t worry about low HRV days; they happen from time to time, and don’t compare your score to others. Your heart rate variability is unique to you. Smartwatches can measure heart rate and alert users if their heart rate is slow or abnormal.