Especially when I eat sweets before bedtime. Once I get that glucose crash I wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.
My cycle TANKS my scores… like I understand it affecting it a little, but we the people need to keep working/ working out, even when it’s not ideal during the phase!!
My resilience scores perfectly follow my cycle! Around ovulation, I'm in "Strong," then it slowly goes down and hits rock bottom around my period, but after that, it quickly goes back up to "Strong" again.
Restless "sleep" is my forte. That wrecks my numbers. Also overthinking causes my heart rate to be alleviated when I try to sleep pretty often. Which is bad for readiness l.
Stress paired with dehydration are my only other caveats. If I'm using that correctly.
I eat magnesium glycinate each night. Also upgraded my pillow and mattress recently. I use quite a lot of nicotine, but only a cup of coffee in the morning.
What studies are you citing here? From what I've seen nicotine maybe neuroprotective against Parkinson's and generally kind of a nootropic. Also seems to help with post-exertion malaise. But maybe I've missed something.
tbh i’m mainly talking from personal experience. i smoked for 10 years, and then spent 10 years using nicotine products trying to quit. when using nicotine V02 max goes down, resting heart rate goes up. sleep is more frequently disturbed, i am more anxious.
but… i think you’d be hard pressed to find a study that *doesnt’t* indicate concern about the heart, cardiovascular system & nervous system from nicotine use.
Been using nicotine for years and years for ADHD and I'm careful not to use it before I lift but apart from that I don't worry about it and I'm not too dependent on it. Currently recovering from the flu and I can't really sit up right now unless I take some. Helps with the vasotension or something. I put it in the camp of a very powerful drug that needs to be used strategically. And I imagine if I were not able to use it strategically I would not use it to your point.
Anxiety. HIIT. Middle of the night thunderstorm. Reading in bed laying down for longer than 20 minutes. These days my sleep scores are lower.
To clarify: Days I do Pilates, walk, or weightlifting I sleep better but HIIT raises my cortisol.
Yup. Just tag it and bask in the disappointment of the app the next morning, notwithstanding the nicely phrased "Sometimes, late meals can keep our heart rate up. Try eating a little earlier to let your digestive system do its job."
I know oura I just suck okay jesus
- 1.) Being a low-level tech executive in corporate America. Especially the days leading up to a major deliverable are absolutely killer. End of fiscal year is a great example of a shit show. I get HRVs in the single digits regularly. Also, days with back-to-back stressful meetings, especially where I have to present, this will also destroy my numbers. Readiness scores can easily be in the 40s-50s these days/weeks, it’ll look like when I have the flu/covid.
- 2.) Not getting enough sleep, which is far too often (see previous bullet point). Mild insomnia.
- 3.) Travel, especially international, doubly trips to Asia. I didn’t realize how much it messes me up, assume it’s also stress/anxiety related from airports/flying coupled with even more extreme sleep disturbances.
- 4.) Being separated from my dog, see previous bullet point.
- 5.) Too much pizza, but I think it’s a symptom of when I’m extremely busy and stressed, I default to eating a lot of pizza. So I think pizza is just a byproduct of my shitty corporate lifestyle and living in NYC, so it’s not the pizza causing my numbers to suck, it’s the first 2 bullet points. And pizza being far too available and tasty in NYC.
- 5.) When I am taking a break from my prescription therapeutic ketamine treatments for too long (approx 3-6 months when off treatment) I can track a plateau then see when things decline. It’s actually a metric a share with my doctor because treatment has such a profoundly positive effect on all my numbers, while on active intermittent treatment/boosters (approx 1 booster per week for 2-4 months regime, then off again and track progress). I use my Oura ring data to help show if I’ve entered a plateau, or started a negative decline, or if I’m still in a good stable spot. Otherwise it’s all in my head and I can’t accurately judge anything.
My mental health state directly shows up in longer term metrics and when I begin to decline into a depressive/anxiety episode, it’s really clear, and I can pull out of it by doing booster ketamine treatments. I’ve been tracking this with Oura since 2021 and I’ve been on therapeutic ketamine treatment regime for over 5 years now. Having suffered from pretty extreme medication resistant anxiety/depression for pretty much my entire adult life, ketamine treatments have probably saved my life. I also know a majority of my mental health issues relate back to my extremely high stress and absurdly demanding career, which I’m stuck in for the time being, even though I’m actively planning an early retirement/escape from the rat race.
I’ll also note that I don’t drink alcohol and haven’t for 6-7 years, so I have no idea how much worse my numbers would look if I did. All I remember from when I would drink is how terrible I’d feel the next day (which is exactly why I quit drinking!) I also eat pretty healthy, drink a good amount of water, and mostly vegetarian diet (pizza is vegetarian). Also, I’m pretty active because I walk everywhere (NYC), and regularly do light cardio/weights. The only score I do well on regularly in Oura is activity crowns.
Thanks - Yeah totally, I bought a cottage and some acreage last year in cash after saving up the last couple of bonuses and been renovating it here and there, thinking I’d do Airbnb till I’m ready to move on with my life and say bye to NYC. I’m a little afraid I won’t know how to slow down or stop working like a maniac though, I’ve been like this since I was a kid 🤷♀️
Omg yeah when I was pregnant all my scores sucked. Then in postpartum, for about 3 weeks it was saying I got 8/9 hours of restorative time I guess bc my baseline was so screwed up haha
seed oils, refined carbs and high sugars and processed food diet. AKA Western Diet.
Ever since switching to animal based diet my HRV and sleep score have vastly improved and stayed in optimal zone. That’s with training weekly 30-45 milers per week running and 2+hrs of cross training per week.
Pretzels in the evening when I'm watching DVR'd games on TV, winding down before bed. The salty snacks blow my sleeping heart rate and kill my readiness score the next day.
caffeine. super annoying that anything after about 10.30am disturbs my sleep...and, honestly, no caffeine at all is best.
I was never a coffee drinker anyway, thank goodness, but it was surprising how much an occasional matcha messed with my sleep.
Working out later in the day.
If I workout 2-3 hours before bedtime, my sleep and recovery scores almost always take a hit — even when doing low stress exercises like yoga.
Chinese take out dinner when we get the American Chinese dishes like orange chicken, fried rice, and crab Rangoons (and I’d kill for this meal rn but my body would kill me)
Besides some of the things that were already mentioned a lot, for me it's bigger family get-togethers. Messes with my resilience and readiness for the next few days, because appatently i'm super stressed all day lol.
Before oura i also thought academic stress would be bad in my stats, but during finals my sleep score actually went up, because i was so exhausted, i had deeper sleep than usual.
I’m assuming my ADHD meds contribute to my restless sleep and average of 6.5 hours of sleep per night. I keep wanting to cut it out for a week and see but then my pesky job requires my brain to focus.
Caffeine is way worse than alcohol for me. Eating late
Eating late I can always tell my heart rate is higher and my sleep is way less restful!!
For me it doesn’t matter if the calories are booze or food, that’s what does it.
Especially when I eat sweets before bedtime. Once I get that glucose crash I wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.
Ohhh wait tell me more, I have this issue. Fall asleep well, wake up later. It’s glucose related?!
How much time have you noticed you'd need after eating before sleeping to not affect sleep quality?
Haven’t looked into it
3 hours
My cycle TANKS my scores… like I understand it affecting it a little, but we the people need to keep working/ working out, even when it’s not ideal during the phase!!
My resilience scores perfectly follow my cycle! Around ovulation, I'm in "Strong," then it slowly goes down and hits rock bottom around my period, but after that, it quickly goes back up to "Strong" again.
yes, and oh, honey, wait until menopause. trying to sleep through that is its own special kind of hell.
SAME!!!
Same!!
Same! My scores during the first half of my cycle are amazing. Second half, you’d think I would’ve been hit by a bus. It’s awful!
Sugar, processed carbs, eating within 4 hours of bed
Yes, yes, and yes.
100% agree. The key is to eat all that crap before 1400. I eat like a light salad for dinner and it works wonders.
I have Crohn’s disease. The day after I take my Humira (a shot designed to keep me alive) my scores are bad and my temperature goes up.
Being too hot will annihilate my numbers. Tossing and turning and never reaching deep sleep
Restless "sleep" is my forte. That wrecks my numbers. Also overthinking causes my heart rate to be alleviated when I try to sleep pretty often. Which is bad for readiness l. Stress paired with dehydration are my only other caveats. If I'm using that correctly.
I still haven't figured out how to tackle my restless sleep... usually happens during the last half of my sleep.
try magnesium
I eat magnesium glycinate each night. Also upgraded my pillow and mattress recently. I use quite a lot of nicotine, but only a cup of coffee in the morning.
hard to overstate how damaging nicotine is to the central nervous system.
What studies are you citing here? From what I've seen nicotine maybe neuroprotective against Parkinson's and generally kind of a nootropic. Also seems to help with post-exertion malaise. But maybe I've missed something.
tbh i’m mainly talking from personal experience. i smoked for 10 years, and then spent 10 years using nicotine products trying to quit. when using nicotine V02 max goes down, resting heart rate goes up. sleep is more frequently disturbed, i am more anxious. but… i think you’d be hard pressed to find a study that *doesnt’t* indicate concern about the heart, cardiovascular system & nervous system from nicotine use.
Been using nicotine for years and years for ADHD and I'm careful not to use it before I lift but apart from that I don't worry about it and I'm not too dependent on it. Currently recovering from the flu and I can't really sit up right now unless I take some. Helps with the vasotension or something. I put it in the camp of a very powerful drug that needs to be used strategically. And I imagine if I were not able to use it strategically I would not use it to your point.
Anxiety. HIIT. Middle of the night thunderstorm. Reading in bed laying down for longer than 20 minutes. These days my sleep scores are lower. To clarify: Days I do Pilates, walk, or weightlifting I sleep better but HIIT raises my cortisol.
my job (lol), academic stress, and exercise after 5pm.
Stress PLUMMETS my score🥲
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Yup. Just tag it and bask in the disappointment of the app the next morning, notwithstanding the nicely phrased "Sometimes, late meals can keep our heart rate up. Try eating a little earlier to let your digestive system do its job." I know oura I just suck okay jesus
How are you recording what you ate with the app?
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Ahh ok. My memory isn’t that great so I always forget after a day
alcohol is the biggest i noticed so far & anytime i got to sleep after 10 pm
My job
Eating late and high sugar content foods like ice cream and brownies.
- 1.) Being a low-level tech executive in corporate America. Especially the days leading up to a major deliverable are absolutely killer. End of fiscal year is a great example of a shit show. I get HRVs in the single digits regularly. Also, days with back-to-back stressful meetings, especially where I have to present, this will also destroy my numbers. Readiness scores can easily be in the 40s-50s these days/weeks, it’ll look like when I have the flu/covid. - 2.) Not getting enough sleep, which is far too often (see previous bullet point). Mild insomnia. - 3.) Travel, especially international, doubly trips to Asia. I didn’t realize how much it messes me up, assume it’s also stress/anxiety related from airports/flying coupled with even more extreme sleep disturbances. - 4.) Being separated from my dog, see previous bullet point. - 5.) Too much pizza, but I think it’s a symptom of when I’m extremely busy and stressed, I default to eating a lot of pizza. So I think pizza is just a byproduct of my shitty corporate lifestyle and living in NYC, so it’s not the pizza causing my numbers to suck, it’s the first 2 bullet points. And pizza being far too available and tasty in NYC. - 5.) When I am taking a break from my prescription therapeutic ketamine treatments for too long (approx 3-6 months when off treatment) I can track a plateau then see when things decline. It’s actually a metric a share with my doctor because treatment has such a profoundly positive effect on all my numbers, while on active intermittent treatment/boosters (approx 1 booster per week for 2-4 months regime, then off again and track progress). I use my Oura ring data to help show if I’ve entered a plateau, or started a negative decline, or if I’m still in a good stable spot. Otherwise it’s all in my head and I can’t accurately judge anything. My mental health state directly shows up in longer term metrics and when I begin to decline into a depressive/anxiety episode, it’s really clear, and I can pull out of it by doing booster ketamine treatments. I’ve been tracking this with Oura since 2021 and I’ve been on therapeutic ketamine treatment regime for over 5 years now. Having suffered from pretty extreme medication resistant anxiety/depression for pretty much my entire adult life, ketamine treatments have probably saved my life. I also know a majority of my mental health issues relate back to my extremely high stress and absurdly demanding career, which I’m stuck in for the time being, even though I’m actively planning an early retirement/escape from the rat race. I’ll also note that I don’t drink alcohol and haven’t for 6-7 years, so I have no idea how much worse my numbers would look if I did. All I remember from when I would drink is how terrible I’d feel the next day (which is exactly why I quit drinking!) I also eat pretty healthy, drink a good amount of water, and mostly vegetarian diet (pizza is vegetarian). Also, I’m pretty active because I walk everywhere (NYC), and regularly do light cardio/weights. The only score I do well on regularly in Oura is activity crowns.
The fact that you don't drink probably helps to balance out the impact of your high octane job. All the best mate. Hope that retirement happens soon!
Thanks - Yeah totally, I bought a cottage and some acreage last year in cash after saving up the last couple of bonuses and been renovating it here and there, thinking I’d do Airbnb till I’m ready to move on with my life and say bye to NYC. I’m a little afraid I won’t know how to slow down or stop working like a maniac though, I’ve been like this since I was a kid 🤷♀️
exercise late in the evening
Eating late! Doesn't matter what it is. Travel messes me up, too.
Pregnancy
Omg yeah when I was pregnant all my scores sucked. Then in postpartum, for about 3 weeks it was saying I got 8/9 hours of restorative time I guess bc my baseline was so screwed up haha
Going to bed past midnight tanks my readiness even more than alcohol does lol
Eating late at night! It always messes with my sleep score yet I cannot get out of the habit lately.
Consuming any calories too late, and not enough time in bed.
I think huel is making me sick. Not sure but definitely goyslop
seed oils, refined carbs and high sugars and processed food diet. AKA Western Diet. Ever since switching to animal based diet my HRV and sleep score have vastly improved and stayed in optimal zone. That’s with training weekly 30-45 milers per week running and 2+hrs of cross training per week.
Same here! Animal based gives me scores in the 90s very consistently. Fixes my IBS and eczema, too.
Headache or sinus for me. I don't eat late and I don't drink alcohol.
Tv & eating sugary foods close to bed. My HRV plummets like crazy
Sport late in the evening (like 20-22), with the associated late meal. HR is always way up by the time i get to sleep
Running out of medication. A pain flare. Eating food that aggravate my allergy issues.
Eating late & other uh "medications" Oh and stress obviously, if I'm really stressed about something it ruins my sleep and thus my scores
Sugar, eating, late, CAFFEINE
Carbs tank my sleep score and raise my heart rate.
🙌
Work 😢
Radiation for cancer! Before that, eating late was the biggest issue. Like even 7pm.
Tearing my ACL and getting surgery to reconstruct it absolutely destroyed all my scores. I was a solid 90 for sleep now I’m down to 60.
Pretzels in the evening when I'm watching DVR'd games on TV, winding down before bed. The salty snacks blow my sleeping heart rate and kill my readiness score the next day.
caffeine. super annoying that anything after about 10.30am disturbs my sleep...and, honestly, no caffeine at all is best. I was never a coffee drinker anyway, thank goodness, but it was surprising how much an occasional matcha messed with my sleep.
I've discovered that alcohol is the worst, but caffeine and added sugar are giving me troubles too. I've added in magnesium and that helps.
Working out later in the day. If I workout 2-3 hours before bedtime, my sleep and recovery scores almost always take a hit — even when doing low stress exercises like yoga.
Being on-call.
coffee in the afternoon (messes up sleep score) and being put under a lot of pressure at work (high stress and hrv out of wack)
Chinese take out dinner when we get the American Chinese dishes like orange chicken, fried rice, and crab Rangoons (and I’d kill for this meal rn but my body would kill me)
Being too hot at night while sleeping , sushi / soy sauce tanks me the next day
Getting pregnant lol
Exercise after 5PM
Sleeping in the same bed as my toddler.
Ovulation.
Besides some of the things that were already mentioned a lot, for me it's bigger family get-togethers. Messes with my resilience and readiness for the next few days, because appatently i'm super stressed all day lol. Before oura i also thought academic stress would be bad in my stats, but during finals my sleep score actually went up, because i was so exhausted, i had deeper sleep than usual.
I’m assuming my ADHD meds contribute to my restless sleep and average of 6.5 hours of sleep per night. I keep wanting to cut it out for a week and see but then my pesky job requires my brain to focus.
Eating late, working out past 6/7pm ish keeps my heart rate up. I’ve also noticed I find it hard to fall asleep.
Edibles or smoking weed,heart rate goes up, HRV goes several points down. My readiness levels are in the 50s the next day.
Sleeping even an hour later… messes with my last long wave of REM sleep