HRV analysis is a health assessment method that dates back to the 1960s, and is now used in fields like healthcare, space medicine, and professional sports.

For example, pro athletes like the Detroit Red Wings use heart rate variability to optimize training. It is also used by medical professionals & researchers to understand how stressed the body’s systems are, assess burnout and depression, forecast people’s risk of developing a cardiovascular disease, predict mortality, improve workouts, measure the impact of different food products on people’s health, and much more.

HRV analysis was originally invented by space scientists, who used the method to assess astronaut health. Scientists needed a way to figure out how people’s bodies respond to drastic changes in their surroundings, and HRV fit the bill perfectly.

Since then, advances in technology have made HRV measurements more accessible. They can now be taken with some wearables and even smartphone cameras.

As of today, around 20,000 studies on heart rate variability are available on PubMed.