Devices for Pacing by Heart Rate *Variability* (not by heart rate)

[TJ_Fitz]

I haven't had much success with pacing by heart rate. I've found that it just doesn't accurately reflect the stress level of my body. For example, reaching up over my head to deal with some items on a shelf immediately spikes my heart rate but doesn't cause PEM, but sitting still and reading, watching TV, or playing games on my phone for too long can indeed zap me. Add to that, as a CIRS patient, I get flares from breathing in bad air, which has nothing to do with exertion. So pacing by HR just isn't useful.

What might be useful, however, is something that can warn me of changes in stress level (via changes in HRV) and that can tell me how recovered I am so that I can plan around recovery level regardless of how I feel. This is important because I also have bipolar 2 disorder, and I feel quite good on those hypomanic days regardless of how well I've rested and recovered.

My Garmin is supposed to do both of these things, but it doesn't do them very well. Can any of you recommend wearable devices that are good at tracking your state of rest/recovery AND good at warning you of acute stress events?

 

[Frangipani]

Oura ring? Cort Johnson from Health Rising mentioned using one to track stress.

 

[TJ_Fitz]

I looked at those, but ultimately decided to upgrade from the old Garmin vivosmart 4 fitness band to a vivoactive 5 smartwatch. I really like the "body battery" feature, and the vivoactive has improved stress and sleep tracking, and also attempts to monitor recovery state. So far I haven't been able to get stress alerts working, but at least I can see stress levels on the watch face.