How I use my biometric data to self regulate
What Is HRV and How Can It Help Manage Stress?
Many people have asked us, “What is HRV, and how can it help manage stress?” In this article, I’ll explain:
What are acute stress and chronic stress, and how do they relate to stress management?
What is HRV and why measure it?
How I use HRV to self-regulate stress.
There’s a lot of information here packed into this blog post and I apologise for this. So please take your time and come back if you need to.
Too long / dont read: for those of you with poor interoception or more analytical minds, monitoring your HRV regularly can assist you in developing a lifestyle that increases your tolerance for stress and reduces the likelihood of autistic burnout.
Let’s dive in!
What is Acute Stress and Chronic Stress?
Stress is a normal part of life, but there are different types of stress.
• Acute stress is short-term stress. It happens when we are in a situation that feels threatening or challenging. For example, being late for an important appointment or having to speak in public. Once the situation passes, the stress usually goes away.
• Chronic stress is long-term stress. This happens when we feel stress almost every day, for a long time. Chronic stress can come from work pressures, health problems, or other difficult life situations. This kind of stress doesn’t go away easily and is responsible for pretty much every stress related disorder - anxiety, depression, heart disease, sleep disorders etc (Chrousos 2009).
Managing stress is about finding ways to keep chronic stress in check, so it doesn’t affect your health or well-being.
What is HRV and why measure it?
HRV stands for Heart Rate Variability. It measures the time difference between each heartbeat. When you are calm and relaxed, the time between your heartbeats changes more. When you are stressed, your heartbeats become more regular and the HRV goes down.
HRV is important because it tells us how well our body is handling stress. A higher HRV means your body is relaxed and managing stress well. A lower HRV generally means your body is struggling with stress. For those who are interested to find out more, check out this blog post at sleepdoctor.com.
Research shows that low HRV is associated with high chronic stress, anxiety and emotional dysregulation in autistic individuals. In other words, if your HRV is low with respect to your best ever value - it's likely you are in a high state of anxiety.
This ADHD blog post explains it wonderfully.
For the nerdy - see references 2-4 at the end of thispost.
Nocturnal HRV is measured during sleep. Why does PhiliaHealth do this?
Firstly, measuring HRV every day at the same time will give you a clear starting point and help you notice if your HRV is getting better or worse over time
Secondly, measuring during sleep can be combined with tracking sleep length and other parameters. These parameters will change when adjusting melatonin or magnesium dosage (we'll cover their relevance to sleep and mental health in another post).
Thirdly, the combination of sleep and HRV can be useful in understanding what actions to take e.g.
Should I sleep longer?
Should I adjust my melatonin dosage? (Please speak to your GP about this)
What routine works for me in getting a restful sleep? (Everyone on the spectrum is different after all!)
What exercises can I do to go from a stressed to a more restful state?
Even discussing the effect of my coaching or therapy with my health provider.
The meat: How to interpret HRV
This is a screenshot of my own data from Friday night of October 11. It was one of my best ever HRV values. Here's why:
rMSSD Value: The average HRV value is 48 ms (milliseconds) for that night.
Baseline value and comparison: My "usual" value from the last 30 days is 38ms. With respect to this, my HRV was 10ms more.
Hourly HR Variability Graph:
Each dot represents individual HRV readings at different times.
Blue dots represent HRV during sleeping hours, while white dots represent HRV during daytime. The graph indicates higher HRV during the later stages of sleep.
The green line represents the overall recovery rate, which suggests an upward trend in HRV during the sleeping hours (around 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.).
Let's look at another night for comparison.
• Daily Average HRV: 37 ms.
You can see the following changes
The average HRV value is 37 ms on Oct 22. Recall that Oct 15th was 48ms.
The Baseline went up from 38ms (Oct 15th) to 39ms (Oct 22).
The gradient line is now red and downward - this actually means that my HRV went down. Why did this happen? I'll probably have to go into detail in another post, but for now: let's just say that I did not recover as well as I did on Oct 15th.
Let's zoom out and see a yearly view:
Going by the logic "higher is better", you can see that
In April to May, my HRV went up. This is because I started doing way more yoga than I usually do, and its impact was clear.
July and August were very difficult months for me. This was due to travel and challenges at work. My increased yoga was not enough, and I started journalling to understand why I was so anxious. It did work somewhat, and from Aug onwards, my HRV has remained largely stable at 35-40ms.
How Does Chronic Stress Affect HRV?
When we experience chronic stress, it lowers our HRV. This happens because the body is constantly in “fight or flight” mode, which reduces our ability to rest and recover. Low HRV can make it harder for us to deal with everyday challenges and can even affect our sleep, mood, and overall health.
By monitoring HRV, we can see if our body is under too much stress and take steps to manage it.
Conclusion
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for managing stress—you already know that! Everyone has to find what works best for them. But here’s the powerful thing about biometrics: when we are stressed or anxious for a long time, it’s easy to miss the signs that we’re heading towards burnout.
By checking our HRV, we can catch the early signs of stress and take action before it harms our health. It’s like having a warning system that helps us stay on track and manage stress before it gets too much.
Our goal is to help people self-regulate so that they can reduce the amount of meltdowns that happen. I also know the damage meltdowns can do to one's work and personal life. We believe that biometrics act as a good feedback tool to self-regulate.
But remember this: Please don't get fixated on numbers. Use them as a guide to adjust your life, but don't be stressed if they are low. Act!
Want to learn more? Visit our webpage at solutions.philialabs.com.au for more information on how biometrics can help you manage stress better.
References
Chrousos, G. P. (2009). "Stress and disorders of the stress system." Nat Rev Endocrinol 5(7): pages 374-381.
Karjalainen, S., et al. (2023). "Coactivation of Autonomic and Central Nervous Systems During Processing of Socially Relevant Information in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review." Neuropsychology Review 34(1): 214-231.
Parma, V., et al. (2021). "Profiles of Autonomic Activity in Autism Spectrum Disorder with and without Anxiety." Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 51(12): 4459-4470.
Song, R., et al. (2016). "Autonomic dysfunction and autism: subtypes and clinical perspective." N A J Med Sci. 9(4): 172-180.
