Topic Guide
Stress & mental load: complete guide
Wearables now show a daily stress number. The number is real (it is derived from HRV) but the label hides as much as it reveals. Stress that comes from a hard workout looks the same on the screen as stress from a difficult meeting, yet the response your body needs is opposite. This page collects the articles on reading the signal correctly.
Start here: foundational reading
Core concepts
Glossary
Stress Score
How wearables convert HRV into the daily 0–100 stress number you actually see.
Glossary
Heart Rate Variability
The single most useful biomarker on your wearable, and the input every stress score is built on.
Glossary
Autonomic Nervous System
The system stress actually acts on, sympathetic up, parasympathetic down.
Glossary
Body Battery
Garmin's energy gauge, sympathetic load drains it faster than physical work alone.
Calculators & tools
Tool
Stress Check
Quick assessment of where today's HRV-based stress sits relative to your baseline.
Tool
HRV Decoder
Read your HRV number against age-matched references, the foundation under every stress score.
Tool
Recovery Score
Stress consumes recovery capacity, see how today's score actually breaks down.
Related topics
Topic Guide
Heart Rate Variability
Stress is downstream of HRV. Start there for the full underlying science.
Topic Guide
Recovery & Training
Recovery is the antidote to chronic stress, the metrics that close the loop.
Topic Guide
Sleep
Bad sleep both causes and reflects stress, the bidirectional loop you can break.
MyBodyAI separates physiological stress from training load and surfaces both, so you do not confuse a hard run with a panic attack.
Start your 7-day trial