Thread by @altini_marco

I measure my resting physiology in two ways, which I consider equivalent (with some nuances):

• Morning measurement: 1 minute using the phone camera and HRV4Training
• Night data: average of the full night using the Oura ring (which I also pull in HRV4Training)

A 🧵👇

/1

I use both for obvious reasons (see bio), and have discussed previously in more detail night data: medium.com/@altini_marco/… - covering also the main differences with morning measurements

I always like to back up the theory with real-life data, so here are 6 months of data

/2

The data I am showing is the same I had shown a few days ago

I want to highlight how the data is extremely similar when there are no disruptions in heart rhythm, and how depending on your preference or constraints, you can pick whichever tool

https://twitter.com/altini_marco/status/1442419577271504896

/3

I will first address the only difference: if you have a frequent arrhythmia, night data cannot be trusted unfortunately

I had a few weeks of issues some months ago, and in the morning, with a little patience, I could measure. However..

/4

https://twitter.com/altini_marco/status/1416435173013561346

..most tools are not designed to handle frequent arrhythmia, and my recommendation, in this case, is to rely on resting heart rate as a more blunt measure of physiological stress that is not impacted by these issues typically. This applies only to very frequent episodes

/5

Now on to the rest. I annotated relevant stressors, you can see negative responses (headaches, allergies, travel) and positive responses (training, reduced life stress)

Stress is captured in the same way, provided that you know what you are doing. What does it mean?

/6

You can measure physiology in different ways, but if you do it according to simple best practices (use the entire night of data, not a magic segment, or measure as soon as you wake up), you can easily see how you can capture the same data

See also: medium.com/@altini_marco/…

/7

Some nuances: the timing of stressors can at times influence the data differently. A late stressor can impact your night data more than your morning data, while some additional anxiety in the morning might impact your morning score more

This is fine, focus on the big picture

/8

At the theoretical level, I wonder at times if measuring in the morning makes more sense, as what you want to measure is your state after sleep did its job to "fix you" (cc @Alan_Couzens, @andrew_flatt)

However, the trends are so similar that this does not seem a concern

/9

The way I ended up mostly using this data is as follows: I trust my morning data, to assess my state before starting the day (actionability)

I trust my night data as a marker of health first and take very seriously any drop there

/10

Needless to say, we are talking about physiology here: heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate, the actual response of your body

Made-up scores (readiness, recovery, whatever), are something for another conversation (see this, if interested: medium.com/@altini_marco/…)

/11

I hope this helps to better understand how you can benefit from the data, capture individual stress responses, and take action towards improved health and performance, by managing stress

It's about how you do things, more than what tool you use

p.s. take it easy

/the end

okay I forgot one :)

HRV4Training (both with camera and strap) and the Oura ring are two of a few tools that have been validated and independently validated (showing the best results: hrv4training.com/blog/independe…)

That's why this works

/done