Heart Rate Variability for Nurses: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It in Practice

Brigitte Sager
Jul 19
3 min read

Recently, I hosted a webinar in the Nutrition for Nurses course focused on the vagus nerve and its role in digestion—and it sparked some powerful reflections. Specifically, it reminded me just how underutilized heart rate variability (HRV) is in nursing practice.

If you’ve never explored HRV before, you’re not alone. Most of us were never taught about it in nursing school. But I believe that HRV is one of the most valuable, accessible metrics we can use to better understand and support our patients—and ourselves.

So, What Is Heart Rate Variability?

HRV is the variation in time between heartbeats. While your heart may beat 70 times per minute on average, the spacing between each beat is not (and should not be) perfectly consistent. Greater variability between beats—when the heart is able to speed up and slow down smoothly in response to internal and external cues—is actually a sign of resilience and nervous system balance.

Lower HRV, on the other hand, is often associated with stress, poor recovery, inflammation, and chronic disease. Think of HRV as a window into the autonomic nervous system, particularly the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) tone of the vagus nerve.

In functional and holistic nursing, it’s a game changer.

Why Should Nurses Pay Attention to HRV?

Nurses are already experts in monitoring vitals—but HRV gives us a deeper layer of insight. It helps us see how a patient is adapting to their environment, how well they’re recovering, and how regulated their nervous system is.

Here’s why it matters:

HRV is a proxy for vagal tone. If you care about digestion, sleep, inflammation, trauma recovery, or chronic illness—you care about the vagus nerve.
It responds to lifestyle interventions. Nutrition, stress reduction, breathwork, movement—all the tools functional nurses love—can improve HRV.
It’s measurable. Devices like Oura Ring, WHOOP, and even some Fitbits and Apple Watches can track HRV trends over time.
It connects mind and body. HRV is one of the clearest examples of how emotional, physical, and behavioral health intersect.

How Can Nurses Use HRV in Practice?

Whether you’re in clinical care, coaching, or running a wellness-focused business, HRV can become part of your toolkit. Here’s how:

Education: Teach patients that low HRV may indicate chronic stress or poor recovery—and that improving HRV often improves overall health.
Monitoring: Encourage clients with wearable tech to track HRV trends, especially during high-stress periods, illness recovery, or health resets.
Intervention Tracking: When someone starts breathwork, cold therapy, meditation, or an anti-inflammatory diet—HRV can help assess response.
Self-Care for Nurses: Your own HRV can help you identify early signs of burnout or misalignment before they escalate. Alignment shows up in the data.

How to Improve HRV (and Parasympathetic Tone)

Fortunately, we can train the vagus nerve. HRV is dynamic, and there’s so much within our scope to support it.

Here are a few nursing-aligned strategies:

Slow, diaphragmatic breathing (especially with long exhales)
Cold exposure (even a quick cold rinse)
Gentle movement like walking or yoga
Nourishing anti-inflammatory meals
Restorative sleep routines
Connection and safety (especially trauma-informed care)
Laughter, singing, and humming—all stimulate the vagus nerve!

And while we don’t need to “treat” HRV, we can absolutely use it as a marker of how a patient’s (or our own) nervous system is responding to interventions.

Final Thoughts

HRV reminds us of something important: health is not about rigidity—it’s about adaptability.

As nurses, we have a front-row seat to the consequences of dysregulation. But we also have the tools to help patients build resilience—and that starts by recognizing signals like HRV for what they truly are: a reflection of whole-person wellness.

Let’s bring this into our conversations, our care plans, and our own self-care. Because functional nursing is about more than fixing symptoms. It’s about guiding people (and ourselves) back to balance.

And the vagus nerve? It’s been trying to tell us that all along.