Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Sleep Hacks | Unlock Better Sleep with Heart Rate Tracking

18 Jul 2024 · 1 min

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0:33

Aaron Hartman, MD (speaker) explains how tracking overnight heart rate can help improve sleep quality. He states that heart rate typically declines during sleep and gives target/typical ranges: a desirable sleeping heart rate is around 50–55 bpm (some aim <50), the average overnight for most people is 50–60 bpm, and people with poor sleep/stress may average heart rates in the 60s–70s or higher. The excerpt links higher sleeping heart rates to poor parasympathetic activation and worse sleep quality.

Questions this video answers

About 50–55 beats per minute (the speaker personally prefers slightly under 50).

Between 50 and 60 beats per minute.

Averaging in the 60s and 70s, and some people even higher.

Chapters

So being able to track your heart rate availability is huge. The next is the actual heart rate. As you sleep at night, your heart rate actually just slowly go down over time. Typically you want your heart rate about that 50 to 55 range. Personally, I want mine slightly less than 50 to hit that number. The average overnight heart rate usually for most people is going to be between 50 and 60. But a lot of individuals who are having poor sleep quality, who are stressed, who aren't getting the deep quality sleep, their heart will not calm down, their parasympathetic nervous system will not ramp up, and they might have a sleeping heart rate averaging 60s and 70s, some people even higher.