Understanding Heart Rate Variability and Stress Management Techniques

Heart rate variability reflects stress levels and can be improved through deep breathing exercises.

### Understanding Heart Rate Variability and Its Relationship with Stress
* ❤ Heart rate variability (HRV) is the variation in time intervals between heartbeats, influenced by the **autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve**.
* 📊 HRV is a useful indicator of stress levels, with stress reducing HRV and **disrupting the typical sine wave-like pattern**.
* 🧘 Deep breathing exercises can help **increase HRV and reduce stress**, as demonstrated in the video by showing **concentric circle patterns of heart rate changes**.
* 🔍 Monitoring HRV can provide biofeedback on **stress reduction techniques**, such as **deep breathing exercises**.
* 👩 The exercise demonstrated involves **sitting up straight**, **breathing deeply into the lower lobes of the lungs**, and maintaining **equal length in inhales and exhales**.
* 📈 By practicing slow, deep breathing with extended exhales, individuals can improve their HRV and **potentially reduce stress levels**.
* 🧠 The autonomic nervous system, which controls HRV, is closely linked to the emotional system, highlighting the **mind-body connection** in managing stress.
* 💡 Understanding and improving HRV through techniques like deep breathing can be beneficial for **overall well-being and stress management**.

in this clip, we're gonna briefly talk about heart rate variability. So, heart rate is the speed at which the heart beats, or more precisely, the number of heartbeats per unit of time, usually permanent. Now, you can easily count the beats for a minute by simply feeling the pulse on your wrist, or if you want to do it in a more precise way, then you can measure the time between two heartbeats. So, in order to do this, we treasure our ECG first and then the time between two heart peaks. Now, why do we need this precise info? Well, because our heart rate changes every time we breathe in and out. Let me show you an example. So, as you can see, every time we're breathing, our heart rate increases, and every time we breathe out, it decreases. This is controlled by the body's autonomic nervous system, and in particular, by the vagus nerve, which has a strong impact on our heart rate. In turn, the autonomic nervous system

is closely linked to our emotional system, having a direct effect on our stress and anxiety levels. It has been shown that stress reduces heart rate variability, so stressed people will not show the sine wave-like pattern. However, as I have already stated, you can use breathing, and more specifically deep breathing, to de-stress, and a good indicator for this is the heart rate variability, which is plotted here. So I'm going to show you an exercise now which will help you reduce your stress levels. If you have an HRV monitor like the Attys, then you can directly see if your HRV increases. This is a form of biofeedback. In order to make it look more relaxing, we have plotted the heart rate changes here as these concentric circles. So let's begin with our exercise. Please sit up straight with your spine erect but not stiff. Let your shoulders drop and try to release any tension from your arm and back muscles that you might be aware of. Keep your head above your spine with your neck loose.

and your chin leaning slightly towards your chest. So now we're gonna do a few minutes of slow deep breathing, pulling here from below and drawing that way our breath deep into the lower lobes of our lungs, thereby causing the abdominal wall to expand. So once you're ready, take an in-breath and let it fill your lungs on the count of four. Once you've inhaled all the air, if you're comfortable with it, start exhaling again on the count of four. So let me show you first inhale and exhale, and again inhale and exhale, and keep repeating this process until your in-breath and out-breath have a smooth flow and the length of each is equal. Now once you're comfortable with this, you could also add two extra counts on the out-breath, so it would be inhale on four and exhale on six. Let's do this again together, so inhale and exhale.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

BPM biosignals

Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time and can be measured by counting pulses or using an ECG.

The heart rate changes with breathing, increasing on inhalation and decreasing on exhalation, due to the influence of the autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve.

This variability in heart rate is important for understanding the body's response to different physiological demands.

The Connection Between Breathing and Heart Rate Variability

Breathing is closely linked to our emotional system and can directly impact stress and anxiety levels.

Stress reduces heart rate variability, leading to a lack of the sine wave-like pattern.

Deep breathing can help de-stress, and an HRV monitor can provide biofeedback to track improvements in heart rate variability.

The exercise involves slow, deep breathing to expand the abdominal wall and fill the lower lobes of the lungs.

Inhale for a count of four, then exhale for the same count, aiming for a smooth flow.

Once comfortable, add two extra counts to the exhale, making it four for inhaling and six for exhaling.