My average seems to be about 35. Sometimes I'll get a good set of blue for the sleep coverage but mostly its mix of blue and low stress. Don't feel any more 'stressed' on mixed readings as opposed to the solid blue readings. The day will be a mix - with a "You had almost no restful moments on this day." at the end of it. I'm office base and pretty much sit on my arse most of the day!
I found it interesting, after an evening ride - Rather than 'sleeping well after that' I find the stress levels are elevated during the night.
The other one I found interesting was after a night out with some beers. The stress level would be spiked pretty much all night and most of the following day!
I hear you, my stress was in the mid-high 20's, and I went for a TE level 4 bike ride, and it hasn't come below about 31 since. Even at night. I have no idea how Garmin measures the perceived stress, but I have to wonder. Even sitting on my butt watching TV and/or reading in the evenings indicate a stress level in the mid-30's. Go figure.
I found it interesting, after an evening ride - Rather than 'sleeping well after that' I find the stress levels are elevated during the night.
The other one I found interesting was after a night out with some beers. The stress level would be spiked pretty much all night and most of the following day!
Both very common, absolutely normal results. Sounds like everything is working as it should
Physical activity activates your body, and can keep your levels elevated for quite a while after the end of your session. This is something our Firstbeat Sports team often sees with professional athletes, where late evening games delay the onset of recovery - even well after they've gone to bed.
And alcohol can absolutely wreck your recovery levels, that's for sure - and there's a dose relationship, meaning that the more alcohol you consume, the less able your body is able to restore itself during sleep. Individual responses vary, but typically 2 drinks is enough to see an impact in your stress and recovery data.
I have no idea how Garmin measures the perceived stress, but I have to wonder.[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/LEFT] To be fair, they aren't looking at perceived stress, but rather physiological stress - which is reflected in changes in your autonomic nervous system which can be observed through how your heart is beating from one moment to the next.
Agree with that HermanB- I have found those results interesting rather than thinking something was wrong.
Its usually a common thing to hear that 'you'll sleep well' after doing some sort of physically strenuous event but the data says not quite as well as you think! The reading after a heavy night out in Vegas was off the chart - pretty much 100 all night and the following day - that seemed to directly collate to how I actually felt the next day. :-)
The day to day stuff without those two inputs is where I get curious. Some nights I do get a nice solid blue reading, others like last night in fact - there is little blue. Something weighing on my mind perhaps..
Interesting reads, however, I did not think that a wrist based, optical HRM could ascertain HRV or R-R data. So is this an interpretation of the actual pulse determined at the wrist, or has the OHR advanced to the point where it's able to read the R-R data? I know when I was using Suunto devices, their Movescount charts would show "R-R" data, (HRV), but looking closely, it's simply a reciprical of the Heart Rate numbers. Is this what Garmin is doing to determine the HRV, or something else? Not to argue, just curious, I'm certainly not as "on top of" this technology as someone who is in the development of it. On another note, I also noticed that when I was using "Firstbeat Athlete", they would directly import Movescount data, but an exported .FIT file from Garmin would cause the program to fail.
In a nutshell, optical heart rate sensing technology has improved considerably - and the Garmin Elevate sensors are, from everything I've heard, exceptionally good.
It is possible to detect changes in HRV with optical senor tech, at least well enough to provide this kind of feedback under the right conditions. If you'll notice, for example, your device stops providing stress data once you are sufficiently physically active. Ultimately, not a huge loss - as physical activity is definitively stressing your body. That's one example, but there may be other times when the analytics engine recognizes that the quality of the HRV data isn't good enough to say anything reliably meaningful.
It'd be hard to match the pinpoint accuracy of an ECG signal, but there's certainly enough there to offer some insight that can be interesting and accurate enough to be useful.
The relationship between HR and HRV is, as you said, generally inverse - the faster your heart is beating the less room there is for variance. That said, there are still beat-to-beat differences, even when you are really running hard, from which you can extract respiration rates (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and cool stuff like that.
In a nutshell, optical heart rate sensing technology has improved considerably - and the Garmin Elevate sensors are, from everything I've heard, exceptionally good.
It is possible to detect changes in HRV with optical senor tech, at least well enough to provide this kind of feedback under the right conditions. If you'll notice, for example, your device stops providing stress data once you are sufficiently physically active. Ultimately, not a huge loss - as physical activity is definitively stressing your body. That's one example, but there may be other times when the analytics engine recognizes that the quality of the HRV data isn't good enough to say anything reliably meaningful.
It'd be hard to match the pinpoint accuracy of an ECG signal, but there's certainly enough there to offer some insight that can be interesting and accurate enough to be useful.
The relationship between HR and HRV is, as you said, generally inverse - the faster your heart is beating the less room there is for variance. That said, there are still beat-to-beat differences, even when you are really running hard, from which you can extract respiration rates (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and cool stuff like that.
Hope that helps.
Yes, it does, I suppose that's why the Garmin HRV Stress test requires the chest strap. I generally use either a Scosche Rhythm+, or Wahoo Ticker x, or FIT for my activities, leaving the OHR on the Fenix 5x for the day to day stuff, and this has served me quite well. Thanks for the insight, I'm beginning to realize I don't understand all I know about this stuff.. :-)
One thing I noticed with the widget is I don't think I had my watch on tight enough. The readings were mixed with several failures to get a reading. I tighten the strap one more notch and it has been giving consistent readings. Perhaps that is where the mystery of the indifferent daily readings has come from. Now if my hand doesn't lose it supply of blood and fall off, I should be able to see if today fares differently.
I do have a strap - usually don't wear it that often, if I want to mount the watch on the bike for example. I usually just care about accurate distance, speed and good gps data. I might wear it more often though to see how it shapes the other data. Now if I could just persuade the wife that I really, really need some power cranks..
