as you probably know already, I’m a big fan of morning measurements to assess our resting physiology (e.g. heart rate variability, or HRV)

by measuring intentionally, we can control most confounding factors, and gain insights that we would otherwise miss with automated data collection or data collection during sleep (this is due to the better timing of morning measurements, and also to differences in body position, see some examples here: marcoaltini.substack.co…)

a new study, confirms the effectiveness of this approach, showing how short-term measurements of HRV exhibit high reliability

on top of the reliability, the morning routine offers a great opportunity to stop, reflect, and improve our self-awareness, e.g. by filling in a subjective questionnaire before looking at our data, as in the HRV4Training app

often the opposite happens when looking at wearables data right after waking up, letting the data (and possible inaccuracies or confounding factors) decide how our day will be

when it comes to assessing our body’s response to stress and using the data effectively, less is more

wishing you a good weekend