HRV Research 📝 "Effects of urination process on heart rate variability"

I discussed in my “morning protocol best practices” article how it is ideal to empty the bladder before taking your morning measurement, should you need to do so. This is important because just like in most other things we do, the nervous system is involved in emptying the bladder (e.g. in relaxing or contracting muscles, as well as sending signals to the brain that the bladder is full).

A recent study by Faruk Dişli and Sedat Yıldız, titled “Effects of urination process on heart rate variability“ confirms these changes and shows differences in heart rate and HRV before and after urination (participants were asked to hold it until they felt the urge to go, and rate the urge).

A nice addition of the study is that they measured while sitting - as we recommend since this is a more sensitive way to capture stress responses (sorry, wearables) - and measured on a chair, as well as on the toilet, shortly after. There were no differences between these two measurements, which is good news for the (many) HRV4Training users who reported measuring their HRV directly on the toilet after emptying the bladder.

See also:

• How Should You Measure Your Morning Heart Rate Variability? (HRV)

• Heart rate variability (HRV) measurement position: lying down, sitting or standing?

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Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching.

He has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.

He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.

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