I have some questions regarding the update or best time to get wellness data
Currently I have my Apple Watch tracking my sleep and all the data (with enabled high sampling in the night) and besides that I use Athlytic since for at least 2 years or so to have all this data analysed. It’s also writing its own RHR which can be used by Tempo.
One thing I noticed is that if the watch is used as data source, the main metrics take some time to populate in the morning, so it’s rather unrealistic to get fast and accurate data after wake-up to do a daily check-in with AI (Claude is pulling tempo data and calendars to add training sessions according to my schedule and overall feel).
Usually that’s not a big deal because I have to do some morning tasks (kids, dog, work) most of the time.
However what’s interesting here is that for example the RHR is changing in Apple Health throughout the day (yesterday morning was above 50 but today i see an average of 46 for yesterday) but this is not reflected in the calendar entries.
So is there any suggestion on when to pull wellness data? And is it intentional that changes from the day before are not updates?
I am thinking of switching the RHR source to Athlytic because it is calculating this at one point after wake-up based on the night and it seems more stable overall.
Yeah, health data does take a few minutes to travel from the Apple Watch to Apple Health to Tempo. I observed that opening the Apple Health app helps speed up the process. In the Wellness view in the iOS app, there’s a button you can click to force the update if you want to speed things up.
That’s correct — Apple updates RHR throughout the day, but Tempo sets it once in the morning and ignores later changes to keep your morning baseline stable. If you’d rather rely solely on Apple Health, and the numbers mismatch bothers you, I can add a daily look-back that checks for changes and updates Tempo so the numbers match.
My suggestion is to pull once in the morning and then ignore the metrics the rest of the day, since both RHR and HRV fluctuate for all sorts of reasons once you’re up. For what it’s worth, I have an Apple Watch but don’t rely on it for RHR or HRV — I don’t find wrist optical sensors accurate enough, especially for HRV. I use the Morning Check feature in the Wellness view in the iOS app for a one-time RHR and HRV reading with my Polar chest strap every morning. It’s far more accurate and reliable for making daily readiness calls.
Thanks for elaborating. The morning check with the cheststrap is something i wanted to look into also. But honestly it does not feel the “routine”, as i have to put the strap on first. The watch is on my wrist all the time, so its kind of an “extra step”. I think i will also try Athlytic as source for some longer time. I thinkg this chould at least sort out the changes of RHR throughout the day and should be more stable. But i also will definetly try out the morning check.
Yeah, I get it — the chest strap adds a bit of friction to the morning, but from my and other Tempo users’ experience it’s worth it. Either way, trying both for a while and seeing how they compare is the right approach. Let me know how it goes!
One more thought: with accurate RHR and HRV measured consistently each day, Tempo builds you a personal baseline for Normalized HRV — it learns your normal RHR<->HRV relationship over the last 60 days and tells you, at a glance, whether today’s HRV is in line with what your resting HR predicts, or drifting out of it.
I find it super useful because raw HRV can mislead. A low pulse mechanically inflates HRV, so a big number isn’t always a good day — and the reverse bites too. The other morning my RHR was a low 52 after a solid night’s sleep, which screamed “fully recovered” — but my HRV had quietly lagged behind where that low a pulse should put it. Normalized HRV flagged it as slightly fatigued while the raw numbers looked fine. That’s the value: it catches the two drifting apart before either one alone would tip you off.
Let’s say you open Tempo few minutes after midnight before going to sleep and it sets the HRV score … this score will not update after the actual sleep in the morning, right?
I mean, the sleep was short and the night before a bit stressful, and also Athlytic is reporting a bad HRV after sleep. I just want to clarify
Good catch — yes, that’s what happens today. Opening Tempo shortly after midnight triggers a sync; since there’s no sleep data for the night yet, the app computes HRV from samples in a fallback window (6 PM the previous evening onward) and saves it for the new day. To protect the morning reading from being overwritten by afternoon values, the server keeps the first HRV value of the day, so the automated re-sync after your actual sleep won’t replace it. To get the post-sleep value, run a Morning Check (it deliberately overrides the automated value) or edit the day’s HRV manually. I’ll looking into not writing an HRV value before any sleep has been recorded.
Quick update on this one. I submitted a new app for review that include changes that will make overnight HRV more reliable. Readings will wait for real post-sleep data, avoiding inaccurate values from late-night app opens.
