But, what I’m saying is, forget the recovery score… if the HRV in the morning is from the last 5:00 of the SWS cycle… the start time shouldn’t affect that. So why does HRV go from 85 to 57?
That’s what I asked them in the follow-up question.
1 Like
Yea that’s a great question for them. I’m curious too. I know their algorithm is wizard math and their money maker so not like it’s being publicly audited so was just spit balling ideas.
That is a great question and I am glad you followed up with us about this. To further explain, WHOOP typically measures HRV and RHR during the final 5 minutes of the last slow-wave sleep (SWS) cycle. There are exceptions because sleep stages aren’t purely discrete categories, but continuous distributions where there is deeper light sleep, lighter deep sleep, and extremely deep sleep, etc.
For clarity and consistency, WHOOP uses the standardized definition of these stages and applies a threshold to break down the continuum. Behind the scenes, we have a continuous distribution of these stages where every second of your sleep is assigned a “degree of slow-wave sleep.” So when a sleep is edited, and the app completely recomputes the entire sleep and all the sleep stages, there may be periods of the sleep that have been designated SWS that weren’t designated that way in the auto-detection. This is why you are seeing this difference in the HRV measurement.
In other words, the Whoop is probably just using an algorithm, it’s probably not actually measuring when you’re in SWS, or the last five minutes would still be the last five minutes.
2 Likes
Yea. Maybe it calculates it “in the last 5 minutes” but it’s based off some other base information.
This is interesting…as I think I have been experiencing the same. Did a hard run yesterday, and did it well. Legit 15.6 strain. Woke up this morning with a 93% recovery and a 104 HRV. I am typically around 70 HRV so this is significantly higher. And now I am intrigued by tomorrow recovery score. But of course today was not a great day at work and kids are killing me. So there is that.
Is this where the Refuge breaks Whoop for non-super-serious athletes? 
2 Likes
If you haven’t read that Reddit post about HRV. But yea HRV, itself, I don’t think makes sense to a lot of even training people.
How can some athletes have a baseline at 100. Some at 200. Some at 50.
Very impressed with Whoops responsiveness to the inquiries today if nothing else.
2 Likes
Yes, me too. And with good responses, not just boilerplate stuff.
2 Likes
I’m 42 now but i was once a pretty competitive runner, my heart is strong
1 Like
I’m happy when it’s above 80 for me, but then again the article said it’s more about the range than the highest number.
So I dunno.
And by calling a Reddit post an article I have probably given it more weight than it deserves?
Probably, but I read that post as well and really it’s just a “do this to recover better” tutorial. Not sure why anyone would want to game the algorithm rather than just use it to learn about themselves (discounting its warts)
1 Like
Today’s recovery was 53%. This was despite me taking yesterday very easy and doing all I could to eat and drink and sleep well.
Now, after the workout I did Wednesday that’s what I’d expect today to be. Just weird that the day after something that hard is always so high.
Chipping away.
My recovery today is 19%. I got a massage on my shoulders yesterday, but otherwise had a pretty typical, light stress day.
I almost never really see patterns, except maybe the one you’re talking about. I even drank a single hard cider three nights in a row… and had good recoveries afterward. But I’d built a good amount of strain on those days, too.
Party animal! 
I don’t normally drink more than about four to six (tops) times per year. Just not something that interests me. And almost never beer (only occasionally Guinness).
I’m with you despite my joking. I really like the taste of beer in the way a lot of people like to taste wine. It makes me feel like garbage though so I limit it a lot.
1 Like
Typically my highest recovery scores come after a day of moderate cardio only. They are always higher than days I take completely off.
And now nothing makes sense…woke up to an even higher recovery score of 96% with 105 HRV. Guess it just means I gotta put more out in my run today. Weird.
No matter what I can’t get green. Been about 2 months of tinkering (but also have a 2 yr old and a newborn)
Sleep performance is ok/good, but I guess the constant diaper changes and burping of a newborn keep me from getting that high quality sleep and limits my recovery?