Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Sleep Hacks | Optimizing Heart Rate Variability_ The Secret to Better Sleep and Health

20 Jul 2024 · 1 min

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0:32

Aaron Hartman, MD explains heart rate variability during sleep and why it matters. Most people's HRV sits in the 20s-30s, but ideally it should be over 50, optimally 60-80. Low HRV signals your nervous system isn't relaxing enough, and coherence—syncing your heartbeat to your breath—is key to fixing it.

Questions this video answers

Over 50.

Between 60 and 80.

In the 20s and 30s (or even less).

Chapters

Your heart rate variability actually goes up as you sleep throughout the night. Ideally, it'd be over 50. An ideal one in the perfect world would be between 60 and 80. But the issue is a lot of people's heart rate variability is in the 20s and 30s or even less. What this means is your parasympathetic nervous system is not getting relaxed enough for your heart to then relax. There's this thing called coherence, which is where your heart changes, your heart rate changes with your breaths. You want to be like a young child, listen to the heart and changes a whole bunch. As you're listening to the heart, they have high degree of coherence. Their heart is in sync with the breath.