Recovery

Recovery answers one question each morning: how well did your body restore overnight, and how ready are you to take on load today? A high score means push; a low score means ease off.

It is scored against your own rolling baseline, not against other people. "Good" is whatever is good for you.

We recompute it ourselves from the raw signals your Apple Watch records while you sleep, rather than using any device’s own score:

• Heart-rate variability (RMSSD) measured during your actual sleep, the dominant signal.
• Your sleeping heart rate, which rises when you are not fully recovered.
• Breathing rate and, on supported watches, wrist temperature.
• Last night’s sleep, as a full component.

Each signal is compared to your personal baseline and combined into a 0-100 score. A logged night out (alcohol) is reflected too, without ever double-counting what your physiology already shows.

Recovery needs last night’s sleep on record. Without it, your morning heart-rate readings are daytime values that read misleadingly, so we show no score rather than a wrong one.

Right after you wake, your watch may still be syncing the night. You will briefly see "syncing" instead of a number that would otherwise land and then change.