Understanding Your Stress Score

Your HLTH Band tracks your stress levels throughout the day, giving you a clearer picture of how your body responds to physical and mental demands, even when you can't feel it.

How Your Band Measures Stress

Your band estimates stress by looking at your heart rate patterns and heart rate variability (HRV) during rest and daily activity. When your body is under stress, whether from a busy day, a hard workout or a poor night's sleep, your HRV tends to drop and your heart rate patterns change. Your band picks up these changes and turns them into a stress score.

No stress data? Stress is only recorded when stress detection is switched on in the QWatch Pro app. Once it's on, readings are taken at regular intervals.

Where to Find Your Stress Data

Open the QWatch Pro app and go to the Stress section to see your stress score and how it's changed through the day.

Apple Health: Stress readings stay in the QWatch Pro app. They don't currently sync to Apple Health.

Stress Score Ranges

• Relax (0–29): your body is calm and well recovered
• Normal (30–59): a typical daily stress response
• Medium (60–79): higher stress, and a sign to build in some recovery
• High (80–100): high strain and limited recovery

What These Scores Mean

Relax (0–29): Your body is calm and recovered. You'll most often see this while resting or asleep.

Normal (30–59): A manageable balance between activity and recovery.

Medium (60–79): Your body is under extra strain. This could be from a busy day, exercise, poor sleep the night before, or a mix of things. It's not a cause for alarm, but it's a good reminder to build in some rest.

High (80–100): Your body is under a lot of strain. If you often see scores this high, especially while resting, it's worth paying attention to.

What Can Raise Your Stress Score?

Your stress score reflects how your body is responding, not just how you feel. Your band can't tell the difference between a hard workout and a stressful meeting, as both affect your body in similar ways. Things that can raise your score include:

• Intense exercise
• Poor or short sleep
• Stress and anxiety
• Illness
• Alcohol
• Dehydration
• Caffeine

This is why your score can sometimes be higher even when you feel relaxed.

Short Spikes Are Normal

A higher score during or after exercise is completely normal. It's your body responding to the effort. What matters more is a stress score that stays high while you're resting or asleep, as this can be a sign you're not recovering well.

How to Use Your Stress Data

Look for patterns rather than single readings:

• Does your score rise at similar times each day, such as during meetings or your commute?
• Is it still high while you sleep? This can happen after alcohol, a late meal, illness or hard training.
• Does it look different on days you exercise compared with days you don't?
• Does it look different the day after drinking alcohol?

Your stress score is most useful alongside your HRV and sleep data. Falling HRV, a rising stress score and broken sleep together are a clear sign your body needs more recovery.

Ways to Lower Your Stress Score Over Time

• Regular, good-quality sleep is one of the most important things you can do
• Regular moderate exercise, balanced with rest
• Slow breathing exercises and meditation, even for a few minutes a day
• Cutting back on alcohol, especially in the evening

Important

Stress tracking is designed for general wellness awareness only. It isn't a medical or psychological assessment and can't diagnose or treat any condition. If you're worried about stress, anxiety or your mental health, please speak to a qualified healthcare professional.

Still have questions? Email us at info@hlthtrack.com.