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Heart rate variability is exactly that: how much the gaps between beats change. More of it generally goes with a system that can speed up when needed and settle afterwards. Less of it goes with being stuck in one gear, whether that gear is wired or flat. It is also a number you can watch change with practice, which is part of why people stick with it.
'It is He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest, and made the day like a resurrection' (Quran 25:47). You were built to move between states rather than to hold one.
الفرقان
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلَّيۡلَ لِبَاسࣰ ا وَٱلنَّوۡمَ سُبَاتࣰ ا وَجَعَلَ ٱلنَّهَارَ نُشُورࣰ ا
It is He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest, and made the day like a resurrection
Qur’an 25:47read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A meta-analysis combining this measure with brain imaging found it tracks activity in the networks that handle emotion and threat, which is what makes it a reasonable index of how well someone is regulating. A methodological review agrees it indexes the parasympathetic contribution to heart control and links to self-regulation, while stressing how easily the measure is thrown off by breathing, posture and the way a recording is taken. Useful, and not a score for your soul.
Thayer JF, Ahs F, Fredrikson M, Sollers JJ, Wager TD. (2012). A meta-analysis of heart rate variability and neuroimaging studies: implications for heart rate variability as a marker of stress and health.. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews doi
Laborde S, Mosley E, Thayer JF. (2017). Heart Rate Variability and Cardiac Vagal Tone in Psychophysiological Research - Recommendations for Experiment Planning, Data Analysis, and Data Reporting.. Frontiers in psychology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A body that can shift between states copes better than one running at a single setting.
If nobody helped you learn to settle when you were small, you can still learn it now. Slower and more deliberately, but genuinely.
Hum a note you like for a few breaths, and try covering your ears with your palms so the sound fills your head.
Real rest, closeness and unhurried prayer all ask for the same thing: being still while feeling safe. That is harder than it sounds if stillness has ever been dangerous.