Your Readiness Score uses data from nine contributors to indicate how ready you are for the upcoming day.
Readiness contributors are based on your personal averages. It can take up to two weeks for the Oura App to learn your average values for each contributor listed below. Once average ranges are established, your daily readings are evaluated against them.
Keep in mind that "long-term" refers to personal data collected over the past two months.
Resting Heart Rate
HRV Balance
Body Temperature
Recovery Index
Sleep
Sleep Balance
Sleep Regularity
Previous Day Activity
Activity Balance
Readiness Score and Contributor Ratings
More Information
Resting Heart Rate
The Resting heart rate (RHR) contributor evaluates the lowest heart rate from the previous night against the long-term average heart rate to determine fluctuations that may indicate physiological stress or strain, illness, or other health factors.
Average resting heart rates between 40-100 beats per minute (BPM) are considered normal. Your RHR contributor score may decline if you have an RHR that's 3-5 BPM higher or 10-15 BPM lower than your usual average.
If you notice higher than usual or exceptionally low nighttime heart rates, this could be a sign of stress or illness. Late night meals, caffeine, alcohol, or exercise before bedtime can also contribute to a high resting heart rate.
HRV Balance
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) balance compares your average HRV from the past 14 days against your long-term average, with data from the past few days being weighted more.
HRV balance is a measure of your stress and recovery, and can highlight the negative effects of prolonged stressors (such as overtraining or illness) and the positive effects of recovery-based activities and rest.
HRV balance insights will sometimes appear on your Home tab to inform you of ideal days to engage in challenging, light, or limited activity. Following these suggestions can help you boost or take advantage of your current HRV balance score.
This contributor is not the same as the HRV rating (pay attention, fair, good, or optimal) shown in Trends, which reflects your average HRV over the past seven days as compared to your long-term average.
Body Temperature
This contributor compares the change in your previous night's body temperature to your average, long-term nighttime body temperature.
For long-term averages, temperatures between 95.9 - 99.3°F (35.5 - 37.4°C) are considered normal. Daily fluctuations in body temperature are typical, but when they extend beyond your personal average, you’ll see a decrease in your Readiness Score. Significant changes in body temperature may indicate illness or other physiological strain, the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, or a change in pregnancy status. These changes will affect the Readiness Score if they extend beyond personal baseline temperatures.
To learn more, check out our article on Body Temperature.
Recovery Index
Recovery Index measures the time spent sleeping after the heart rate lowers to its lowest point during the night. Optimal Recovery Index requires a minimum of six hours of sleep after this point.
Having six hours of sleep, or more, after your heart rate reaches its lowest point will lead to a boost in your Readiness Score, so it is beneficial for your RHR to reach its lowest point within the first half of the night.
If you notice your heart rate consistently reaching its lowest point in the second half of the night, try avoiding late night meals, caffeine, alcohol, or exercise before bedtime.
Sleep
The Sleep contributor compares your total sleep from the past 24 hours (confirmed naps included) against your baseline. This is a measure of your short-term sleep, whereas the Sleep balance contributor is a measure of your long-term sleep. You can find tips on how to increase your Sleep Score in this article.
Sleep Balance
The Sleep Balance contributor assesses the amount of sleep and possible sleep debt over the past two weeks compared to your baseline and general recommendations for people of your age.
You'll see a decrease in your Sleep Balance score if you’re sleeping less than you normally do or less than the recommended average for someone your age.The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that the average adult sleep between 7-9 hours per night.
Sleep Regularity
The Sleep regularity contributor measures how consistent your bedtime and wake-up times have been during the previous two weeks. Sleep regularity is not impacted by any naps.
If your score drops to "Fair" or "Pay attention," try to find a wake-up time you can stick with on most days, and adjust your bedtime accordingly. If that’s not possible, just make sure that you get enough sleep for your needs on most days.
Below the sleep regularity trend chart is a graph of your sleep timing, which shows your time in bed, time asleep, and any awake time interruptions during the night.
The sleep timing chart represents the consistency of your sleep as vertical bars. The time you went to bed is at the top of the graph, with wake time at the bottom. Time in bed is visualized with a faint, dark blue bar. Time asleep is visualized with a solid, bright blue bar. Any interruptions to your sleep during the night appear as gaps in the bar.
Scroll left and right to see more data. The y-axis of the chart is fixed to your median sleep time plus two hours. Any data outside that time, such as a very early bed time or very late wake up time, cuts off at the upper or lower edges of the graph.
Weekly, monthly, and yearly views of your sleep regularity trends display averages of your sleep timing for those time periods.
Previous Day Activity
Previous Day Activity measures all of your activities and sedentary (inactive) time from the day before, and compares them with your long-term averages and recommended daily amounts of physical movement.
Your Readiness Score will decrease if you were inactive during the previous day. Having 5-8 hours or less of inactivity each day will have a positive effect on your Activity and Readiness Scores. This contributor will also decrease if heavy activity places too much strain on your body. This will be an indicator to use the next day as recovery time.
Activity Balance
Activity Balance compares your average activity levels over the past 14 days (with the past few days holding more weight) to your long-term activity levels over the past two months.
Lower Activity Balance scores indicate either a training overload or underload. The goal should be to balance your low, medium, and high intensity activities.
Readiness Score and Contributor Ratings
Readiness, Activity, and Sleep Scores — and their contributors — are rated on a scale of 0-100.
- 85-100: Optimal
- 70-84: Good
- 60-69: Fair
- 0-59: Pay Attention
An 85 or higher may be a sign that you are ready to take on new challenges. Scores below 70 indicate that you may benefit from prioritizing rest and recovery in the indicated areas.
Learn more about your Readiness Score and contributors on our blog.
