HRV and Fitbit Sleep Score Tracking
I will be updating this post on a weekly basis with my HRV Readiness Score and Fitbit Sleep Score. I wan trying to better understand if what the correlation is. And how I can improve both. My initial thought is that the higher my sleep score the better my H.R.V. Readiness Score.
Learn more about:
- What H.R.V. is
- Why it matters
- How I measure
- What a Fitbit Sleep Score is
- Why it matters
- How I measure it
H.R.V. Heart Rate Variability
What is H.R.V.
The most basic definition is that H.R.V. it the variation of timing between your heart beats. From Harvard:
This variation is controlled by a primitive part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). It works regardless of our desire and regulates, among other things, our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion.
Why does H.R.V. matter
H.R.V. matters because it's a good indicator of how prepared your nervous system is to handle stress. Life stress, work stress, workout stress, etc. Many elite athletes incorporate a daily H.R.V. reading and use the score to determine how hard or easy their workout for the day will be.
How do you measure H.R.V.
There are different devices out on the market: Oura Ring, Whoop Band, and chest straps. Currently I use:
These two combined allow me to get a my H.R.V. readings. I try to always do a Morning Readiness Reading and when I remember I do a post-exercise cool down reading.
Fitbit Sleep Score
What is the Fitbit Sleep Score
It's a proprietary score calculated by Fitbit to score your nightly sleep cycles. It scores your light, deep, REM and awake time to calculate it. From Fitbit's Help Article
Your overall nightly sleep score is based on your heart rate, the time you spend awake or restless, and your sleep stages.
Why does my Fitbit Sleep Score matter
I am still trying to determine what it really means to me. I have had several nights where my score was the same, yet the following morning I felt more tired. There have also been days where my sleep score is below my average (81) and I felt amazing waking up. So this one reason why I decided to start logging it and comparing it to my readiness score.
How do you measure your Fitbit Sleep Score
Most of Fitbit's newest trackers, provide you with sleep data. I currenly own the Fitbit Versa (version 1). It works great and find no real reason to get the newer version. Also I do not pay for the premium subscription. When I sleep, it logs my sleep data.
January 2020 Graph
Conclusion
Coming 2020-02-01