Average Heart Rate
Average Heart Rate is the mean number of heartbeats per minute across a defined time period, typically calculated over the full night's sleep or a 24-hour day. Unlike Resting Heart Rate (which captures the baseline at minimal demand) or Lowest Heart Rate (a single minimum value), Average Heart Rate incorporates all measured heart rate data within the period, including fluctuations from movement, sleep stage changes, and brief arousals.
Typical Adult Ranges
bpm (during sleep)Based on population studies. Individual needs vary by age and health status.
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Key Takeaways
Represents mean heart rate across the measurement period.
Captures overall cardiovascular workload, not baseline or minimum.
Higher values indicate greater integrated cardiac demand.
Influenced by sleep quality, disturbances, and physiological state.
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How It's Measured
Oura measures heart rate continuously using photoplethysmography (PPG) during sleep periods.
Common Influences
Sleep architecture: Nights with proportionally more REM sleep or more awakenings have higher average heart rate.
Deep Dive
Average Heart Rate represents the overall cardiac workload during the measurement period. It captures the cumulative cardiovascular demand across varying states—rest, light activity, sleep stages, and any arousals or disturbances.
A useful framing is that average heart rate reflects integrated cardiovascular demand. While resting heart rate indicates the floor of cardiac activity, average heart rate indicates the typical operating level across the measured period. Higher average values indicate more total cardiac work was performed; lower values indicate overall conditions required less cardiovascular output.
Heart rate continuously varies in response to changing metabolic demands. During sleep, heart rate fluctuates with sleep stages: it is typically lowest during deep sleep, higher during REM sleep (when autonomic activity increases), and highest during brief awakenings or movement.
The average across a night's sleep integrates these variations into a single summary value. A night with many awakenings, more REM sleep, or restless sleep will have a higher average than a night with consolidated deep sleep and few disturbances.
The same principles apply to daytime measurements: periods of activity elevate heart rate, while rest lowers it. The daily average reflects the balance of active and resting states.