How Can I Use HRV to Test New Things?

When you track your daily HRV and build a solid baseline, giving context to your readings by using tags and entering metadata information like sleep and exercise can give you great insight into how these factors affect your overall HRV. But what if you want to test a specific, acute factor using HRV? 

This is where Open Readings and Snapshots come in handy. Using Snapshots, you can take before-and-after HRV readings to assess how your HRV is affected by something. For example, you want to visit the chiropractor and see what affect an adjustment has on your HRV. You can take a quick snapshot before the appointment, have the adjustment, and take another snapshot directly following the adjustment. It also wouldn't hurt to take another snapshot 30-60 minutes later in case there was any discomfort during the session.

Open readings are great when you want to see how your HRV changed during and throughout something like a meditation. There is not a time limit on Open Readings, so you can start the HRV reading and leave it running for the duration. 

Check out this blog post on using HRV to track something specific, like a food you suspect is affecting you negatively: Using HRV to Optimize Your Diet and Nutrition