The habits most likely to raise your HRV are regular exercise, less alcohol, steady sleep and ways to calm stress, but none of them guarantees a higher number. Age and genes set much of your HRV, so the realistic goal is to remove what drags it down and to judge progress against your own baseline Baseline Your own usual HRV level and range, built from weeks of readings taken the same way. Comparing a reading with your baseline says more than comparing it with other people. More about Baseline over weeks.
Set a realistic goal first
Altini and Plews studied 28,175 people who took a one-minute reading with a phone app each morning. Age, sex, body mass index and activity level together explained only 15% of the differences in HRV between people. The authors pointed to genes and age as major drivers and concluded that aiming to raise HRV may not be realistic for many people. What HRV did well was show day-to-day strain within each person.
That gives you two kinds of action. Some habits stop the short dips that pull your average down. Others, mainly fitness, may lift your baseline slowly. The what affects HRV guide explains the causes. This page is about what to do.
Habits worth trying
Exercise regularly
Exercise has the best evidence for a lasting change. A 2021 systematic review looked at 26 studies in healthy adults (average ages up to 44) who trained for at least four weeks. Endurance, strength, high-intensity, coordination and mixed programmes all improved HRV. Higher intensity and more frequent sessions were more likely to help. The authors also found weaknesses in how many studies were run and reported, so treat the size of the effect with care.
Expect a short dip first. In the same morning-reading data, HRV was on average 4.8% lower the day after hard training. That is normal and usually passes. The training page explains how to read it.
Drink less alcohol
Alcohol has some of the clearest effects. Pietilä and colleagues studied 4,098 Finnish employees who wore heart monitors in daily life. In the first three hours of sleep, alcohol was linked to less of the “ rest and digest Parasympathetic nervous system The "rest and digest" branch of the autonomic nervous system. It slows the heart, mainly through the vagus nerve, and drives most of the beat-to-beat variation in HRV. More about Parasympathetic nervous system ” activity that raises HRV, and the effect grew with the dose. It showed up even at low intakes. In the morning-reading study, HRV was 12% lower after high alcohol intake. See alcohol and HRV and why your HRV is low after drinking.
Protect your sleep
Most devices measure HRV during sleep or right after it, so short or broken nights tend to show up in the number. Regular bed and wake times also make your readings more comparable. The sleep page covers the evidence.
Practise slow breathing
A 2022 review of 223 studies found that slow breathing raised HRV during practice, right after a session and after programmes lasting weeks. The rise during practice is large. The long-term change is less certain. See can breathing exercises raise your HRV?
How long it takes and how to track it
Give any change at least a month. In a training study described in Buchheit’s review, recreational athletes on an endurance programme saw their heart rate during exercise improve within the first week, but their resting HRV changed only after the fourth week.
To see whether a habit is working:
- Measure the same way every time: same device, same time, same position.
- Build a baseline first. The baseline lesson shows how.
- Change one thing at a time where you can.
- Compare seven-day averages, not single days.
When to talk to a doctor
Talk to a doctor before you start hard exercise if you have a heart condition or other health concerns. If your HRV stays well below your usual range for weeks with no clear reason, or you also have symptoms such as chest pain, breathlessness, fainting or unusual tiredness, get checked rather than trying to fix the number yourself. What a low HRV means explains when a low reading is worth a doctor’s visit.