Abstract
Abstract Introduction Resting heart rate (RHR) associates with cardiovascular fitness, acute and chronic health status, and mental stress. Nightly sleep provides an excellent measurement time because ambient conditions are constant and confounding factors are controlled. Relatively low RHR is seen as a mark of better health, performance, and recovery levels. Over the past few years, development of wearable devices has made it possible to follow the course of individual RHR as long-term time series, which enables observation of how behavioural, societal and seasonal factors affect RHR at population scale. Methods In this study, mean individual nightly RHR of each calendar day was studied from all Oura ring users starting from July 2016 (n=1415) and ending at March 2019 (n=57.278). The subjects were 36 percent female and 64 percent male, mostly in working age: 20-30-year (15%), 30-50 years (60%), and 50-60-years (16%). Majority of the ring users live in the Northern Hemisphere, and minority (n = 1.500) in the Southern Hemisphere. Results With users from Northern Hemisphere, the yearly RHR peaks in December and lowers between April and August. The magnitude of seasonal variation was observed to be roughly 2 bpm: In 2018, March averages 1.6 bpm higher than August, and December averages 2.1 bpm higher than August. Looking at subjects from New Zealand and Australia, exactly opposite phase was observed, so that both hemispheres followed the length of the day. Apparently, RHR yearly fluctuations are based on biological factors like Sun light and ambient temperature. Both hemispheres also demonstrated weekly peaks at weekends (+1.6 bpm), and a most district peak at each New Year night. Conclusion The long-term RHR was shown to be affected by biological, societal, and lifestyle factors. We find that long-term wearable data from the Ring can reveal health related physiological effects across large populations, including seasonality. Support This work was supported by Oura Health Ltd.
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