#heart-rate-variability

#heart-rate-variability

Soon I was obsessing over my sleep and activity scores. The reports were generally positive except for one: heart rate variability, or HRV. That's a measure of how much the time between heartbeats changes. Every morning, in bright red, my ring's app singled out HRV and told me: Pay attention. That didn't sound good, although I had no idea why. Before wearable fitness watches, rings and bracelets became so common and started including HRV as a data point, I had never heard of it.

Next time that happens, try calming yourself down with a soothing round of " resonance breathing." This technique, popular on TikTok and beyond, is about breathing in and out at the same frequency. Instead of gasping for air, holding your breath, or breathing unpredictably, you inhale for five seconds, exhale for five seconds, and focus on maintaining a rhythm. Sometimes called "coherent" or "resonance frequency breathing," the method is just that: taking equally slow and more even breaths, says Chloë Bean, LMFT, a somatic trauma therapist in Los Angeles.