Learn more about the Resting Heart Rate (RHR) measurements taken by the Oura Ring.
What Is Resting Heart Rate?
How Oura Measures Resting Heart Rate
When Does Oura Measure Resting Heart Rate?
Interpret Your Resting Heart Rate
What Is Resting Heart Rate?
Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is the number of times your heart beats per minute while you're at rest. It provides a snapshot of your sleep quality, recovery, stress response, activity level, and overall health.
Normal RHR in adults can range anywhere from 40-100 beats per minute (BPM). Oura develops an individualized baseline for your RHR so you can quickly notice when something is off.
Variation beyond 3-5 BPM above or below your personal average may be a sign of low recovery or excessive stress on your body, such as illness, poor diet choices, late-night eating, or lack of sleep.
The Importance of Resting Heart Rate
Resting heart rate is an indicator of both long and short-term health.
- In the long term, a low RHR is generally a sign of better cardiovascular health, physical fitness, and recovery
- In the short term, a high RHR can indicate behaviors you can control, such as internal stress, eating patterns, or exercise habits. These can be positive or negative, depending on the context. For example, completing a difficult workout is a positive precursor to an elevated RHR. Meanwhile, undergoing mental distress from work is generally viewed as a negative source of rises in RHR
A Lower RHR is a Good Sign
With each heartbeat, your body uses the oxygen-rich blood collected from your lungs to support functions throughout your systems. When your resting heart rate lowers over time, each heartbeat becomes more effective. This allows your body to accomplish the same amount of work necessary to keep itself running with less effort.
As your heart becomes more efficient, you're able to do more without increasing your heart rate, allowing your body to take on less strain.
With less strain, your body moves closer to a parasympathetic ("rest-and-digest") state. The more that your parasympathetic nervous system dominates, the more room there is for your sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) to come into action when needed. This might be necessary when you decide to exercise, give a presentation, interview for a new job, try something for the first time, or have to meet a deadline at work.
How Oura Measures Resting Heart Rate
Oura monitors your RHR by detecting changes in your blood pulse volume through infrared photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors found inside your ring.
Each time that your heart beats, blood is pumped out to the arteries located in your hands and fingers. The PPG sensors are able to detect these changes in blood flow and volume using light reflection. Each pulse causes the arteries in your finger to alternate between swelling and contracting. By shining a light on your skin, changes in light reflected back from the wavering volume of red blood cells in your arteries are accounted for. From here, PPG can represent these blood flow changes through a visual waveform that represents the activity of your heart.
Oura provides you with the following RHR metrics:
- Average RHR: Your average RHR captured during the night
- Lowest RHR: Your lowest RHR value captured during the night
Your RHR values are captured every 10 minutes throughout the night. You can find your RHR in your Readiness and Sleep detail views and in Trends.
When Does Oura Measure Resting Heart Rate?
The Oura Ring Gen2 doesn't track heart rate during exercise or other activities during the day. The only exception is during unguided sessions, which allow you to meditate or check in with your body. Certain unguided sessions, upon completion, show you a snapshot of your RHR during the day.
Also, read more information about our 24-hour heart rate graph.
Interpret Your Resting Heart Rate
Low vs. High, Compared to Your Average
If your lowest RHR of the night is roughly 0-10 BPM below your personal long-term average (collected over the past ~ 2 months), this is evidence that your body has recovered well and is in an optimal state to perform that day.
However, an exceptionally low resting heart rate may indicate that you are in a state of low nervous system arousal or lethargy after a very strenuous physical peak performance.
You'll observe decreased Readiness Scores if you receive an RHR that is 10-15 BPM lower than usual, as well as if you receive an RHR that is 3-5 BPM higher than usual.
An elevated RHR is a sign that something is challenging your system to a degree that’s leading to poor recovery. Both of these scenarios are signs to pay attention and give your body the care and time that it needs to recover properly.
Patterns in Your RHR
If your RHR reaches its lowest point during the first half of your night, it can be a sign you've recovered well from the previous day.
This ideal pattern is known as "The Hammock," which you'll see demonstrated below. For information about other RHR patterns that can occur at night, see Sleeping Heart Rate: Look for These 4 Patterns.
This ties into the concept of heart rate stabilization, which divides sleep into two phases: repair and recharge.
During repair, your body recovers from the previous day. During recharge, your body prepares for the coming day. Once your heart rate reaches its lowest point during the night (known as stabilization), your body transitions from repair to recharge. The sooner your heart rate can reach its true nighttime low, the more time your body has to refuel and get ready for the day ahead.
