Recovery, sleep and HRV
Training only pays off if you recover. Sleep 7–9 hours, and use your HRV trend (not a single day) to adjust your load.
Sleep
Adults need 7 or more hours a night; athletes with a high load often benefit from more. Repeated short sleep lowers performance and increases perceived effort and the risk of illness.
Regular hours, a dark, cool bedroom and less screen time before bed help. Short naps make up for part of a bad night.
HRV (heart rate variability)
HRV measured in the morning or overnight reflects the state of the autonomic nervous system. What matters is the trend: the average of the last 7 days compared with your baseline.
A sustained fall in the 7-day average, especially with resting HR rising and worse sleep, suggests recovery isn't keeping up with the load. A single low day on its own tells you little.
How Zenvit uses this: If you allow it, the app uses your sleep, HRV and resting HR in the warnings in your daily summary (always compared with your own baseline).
Sources
- Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, et al. Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Sleep. 2015;38(6):843–844.
- Halson SL. Sleep in elite athletes and nutritional interventions to enhance sleep. Sports Medicine. 2014;44(Suppl 1):S13–S23.
- Plews DJ, Laursen PB, Stanley J, Kilding AE, Buchheit M. Training adaptation and heart rate variability in elite endurance athletes: opening the door to effective monitoring. Sports Medicine. 2013;43(9):773–781.
General information for amateur athletes; not a substitute for medical advice or a coach.
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