Lowest Heart Rate
Lowest Heart Rate is the minimum heart rate recorded during a sleep period, representing the single lowest sustained measurement when cardiovascular demand reached its daily minimum. Unlike Resting Heart Rate (which may be an average of low periods) or Average Heart Rate (which summarizes the entire period), Lowest Heart Rate captures the floor—the deepest point of cardiac rest achieved during sleep.
Typical Adult Ranges
bpmBased on population studies. Individual needs vary by age and health status.
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Key Takeaways
Represents the minimum heart rate achieved during sleep.
Reflects the deepest point of cardiovascular rest.
Typically occurs during consolidated deep sleep.
Elevation above baseline indicates limited deep rest.
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How It's Measured
Oura measures heart rate continuously using photoplethysmography (PPG) during sleep.
Common Influences
Deep sleep quality: Consolidated deep sleep enables lowest heart rate; fragmented deep sleep limits it.
Deep Dive
Lowest Heart Rate represents the minimum cardiovascular demand achieved during sleep. It reflects the point when parasympathetic tone was highest and metabolic requirements were lowest, typically during consolidated deep sleep.
A useful framing is that lowest heart rate indicates the body's deepest resting state. The ability to achieve low heart rate during sleep reflects the cardiovascular system reaching genuine rest. Factors that maintain elevated heart rate throughout the night—stress, illness, alcohol, incomplete recovery—raise this floor and limit how deep cardiac rest becomes.
Heart rate reaches its nadir during deep (N3) sleep when parasympathetic activity peaks and sympathetic activity is minimized. The vagus nerve exerts maximal slowing influence, and metabolic demands are at their lowest.
Achieving very low heart rate requires favorable conditions: consolidated deep sleep, absence of disturbances, good parasympathetic function, and no factors maintaining elevated cardiac output. The lowest heart rate serves as a marker of the quality of this deep resting state.
Individual baseline lowest heart rate reflects cardiovascular fitness, age, and inherent autonomic characteristics. Well-trained endurance athletes may reach the 30s or 40s; less fit individuals may have lowest values in the 50s or 60s.