I got an Oura ring a few months back and happily told you about it to highlight some of the things I learned. You can read my Oura ring review from a very stressed person first if you wish, but I think that the main issue I have is in the title! My body is over stressed and this translates into an extremely low HRV.

Disclaimer 1: this post contains Amazon affiliated links. If you decide to make a purchase, I might get a commission at no extra cost to you.

Disclaimer 2: this post is solely about my own journey. it is not medical advice.

Now that we got this out of the way, let’s continue, shall we?!

Oura does insist that Heart Rate Variability is a highly personal metric, that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others, etc. Yet, it’s hard to not worry about it when you are often in the 0 to 10 range. Yep! That’s me!

But I am slowly making progress and this is what I am focusing on.

There are a couple articles on the Oura blog you can read if you want to learn more about HRV.

Still a work in progress

As you can see from the above chart, I have made very slow progress over the course of 9 months. Nevertheless, it is progress and I celebrate it. My average HRV has gone up from 13 to 17. Yes this is still very low. The beginning of this year was tough and erased some of my progress. Now, I’m getting back on track.

Below are 2 screen shots of my HRV. The first one shows an HRV average of 10 and this was a recurrent average a couple months back. The 2nd one shows an HRV average of 25 last night and this is becoming more and more frequent.

It seems my HRV is always between 0 and 10 during deep sleep. I haven’t figured out why yet.

In any case, I think it is clear I needed and still need to improve my life style. Here are for now that things I have done or tested and how they impacted my HRV.

Changing my diet

Changing my diet has had a huge impact on my HRV / stress.

I struggled to understand this for a long time but after a while, I finally noticed that my stress peak were very often linked to the consumption of refined carbs. So I cut down on bread and sweets and whoa! The difference on my daytime stress peaks has been mind blowing.

One regular chocolate cookie is fine but 3 or 4 leads to a huge stress response.

Who manages to only eat one chocolate cookie?! Not me! So I had to remove the temptation and I replaced them with oat cookies with low sugar content and my body’s response has been great.

This also really helped with my HRV but it took more time to become apparent.

No more wine for me!

The effect of alcohol on my HRV / stress has been mind blowing! I’m not talking about being drank, I’m talking about one glass of wine or maybe 2. There is no doubt: Alcohol wreaks havoc my HRV.

Not drinking at home has been easy. The hard part is when traveling and eating out.

So a few months back, I started drinking cider (with 2% alcohol content) when dining out or when I’m with my dad and that helped although it still has an impact.

Nowadays, I’m choosing alcohol free drinks but it’s hard to find them with low sugar content.

Meditation

Meditation has a weird effect for me. Based on my Oura metrics, it seems that I’m often stressed when meditating! But I’m not the only one as confirmed in the article linked above.

However, it also seems that I sleep better the days I have meditated and it seems to help in the long run. I’m not an expert at meditating, so here I also include breath works, guided meditations, etc.

Camomile tea

Sometimes the simplest solutions are also the best. A month ago, I started drinking camomile tea after dinner and it has really helped calm me down.

Note there are 2 sorts of camomile tea and they work slightly differently: The Matricaria chamomile and the Roman chamomile. Overall they both seem to reduce anxiety, stress and insomnia so don’t sweat it! And it seems that they both are anti inflammatory which is a bonus point in my personal fight to increase my HRV.

Red light therapy

Cutting blue lights in the evening is a requirement for a good night sleep. I’m still working on that actually and I’ll admit that not all evenings are perfect although I am getting better.

What seems to help even further is red light. When I use my red light therapy mask before going to bed, I generally sleep better afterward. I’m now even considering buying a simple red lightbulb or even something a little fancier like this lamp… we shall see.

Omega 3 supplement

I have a feeling that things are getting better since I take Omega 3 supplements. These are good for the brain and good for the heart so even if they don’t directly impact my HRV, I will continue.

Astragalus

Astragalus really helped me when I was grieving. I could feel a subtle peace taking over. I didn’t have my Oura ring at the time so I have no measures to back this up but I still know it helped so I’m sticking with this when times get rough.

The things I tried with inconclusive results

Ashwagandha

I had heard so many good things about Ashwagandha but I had mixed feelings when trying it. Maybe because it is a nightshade. I will try again in the future.

Rhodiola Rosea

Same as above, I had great hopes and yet can’t seem to see the effects.

Considering Rhodiola Rosea has so many health benefits including potentially being anti cancer, I definitively try again in the future!

Coffee alternative

Coffee alternatives are all rage nowadays so of course I tried. Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Chaga, Turkey Tail, King Trumpet, Shiitake… You name it!

The thing is that you are only supposed to drink one cup a day so to me, it really can’t replace coffee.

It is one of these things that may provide health benefits but which effects are maybe more subtle and long term. Not sure.

Conclusion?!

As you can tell, I still have quite a long way to go to improve my HRV / reduce my stress levels.

However, even if my progress are slow, I do feel better and have more energy and that is a big win to me!

One thing I still haven’t figured out is the impact of my workouts on such a metrics. The results are inconsistent. When I do figure it out, I’ll let you know!

Lastly, I would still recommend you to read my previous post on my Oura Ring and especially the part titled: Stress is not always what it seems. It surely was a big realisation to me.

Anyway, hope this helps you on your own journey. Hope you find the little things you can change in your lifestyle that have the biggest impact. Sometimes the solutions are very simple.