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Recovery

The long view, pacing, trends, milestones and turning months of data into decisions that bend your recovery the right way.

HRV: The Complete Guide to Reading Your Nervous System
Austin Spaeth July 9, 2026 HRV

HRV: The Complete Guide to Reading Your Nervous System

HRV is the beat-to-beat variation in the time between heartbeats, and more of it usually means a better-regulated nervous system. The number worth watching daily is RMSSD (your parasympathetic 'recovery' signal); SDNN is a broader capacity measure. HRV is deeply personal, so ignore population 'normal' charts and track your own baseline. Measure the same way every morning, watch a 7–14 day trend, never react to one day, and use it as one input among heart rate and the stand test, not a grade on your worth.

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Recovery from Post-Viral Dysautonomia: Turning Data Into Decisions Recovery

Jul 7, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Recovery from Post-Viral Dysautonomia: Turning Data Into Decisions

Recovery from POTS and post-viral dysautonomia is slow, noisy and non-linear, which is exactly why it's so easy to lose hope in the day-to-day. Here's how to pace, read your trends, and turn months of scattered data into decisions that actually bend the curve.

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Kevin Wang / Unsplash Food

Jul 6, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Gentle Low-Histamine Meal Ideas for Bad POTS Days

A crash-day toolkit of low-effort, lower-histamine meals that also respect POTS: salt-forward, easy to digest, and cookable with minimal standing. Idea lists, not fussy recipes, with one habit that changes everything: cook fresh, freeze fast.

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Andrej Lišakov / Unsplash The app

Jul 5, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Getting Started with Autonomic: Your First Week of Tracking

A friendly, low-effort plan for your first seven days. Set a baseline, build a simple morning habit, and learn what to ignore while your data is still finding its feet.

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Jul 3, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Autonomic: Measure, Analyze, Monitor, Act

Everything about autonomic recovery comes down to one loop: measure what's happening, analyze the trend, monitor for warnings, and act. Autonomic is the app built to close that loop: private, offline, and scored against medical thresholds.

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Ronaldo de Oliveira / Unsplash Recovery

Jul 1, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

What Recovery Actually Looks Like: The Non-Linear Curve

Recovery from post-viral dysautonomia and POTS is real but slow, and it almost never moves in a straight line. Here is what the honest timeline looks like, why plateaus mislead you, and what to watch instead of the daily noise.

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Sage Friedman / Unsplash HRV

Jun 25, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Resonant Breathing & HRV Biofeedback: The 6-Breaths-a-Minute Protocol

Slowing your breath to about six breaths a minute is one of the few things that reliably raises HRV in real time. Here is the mechanism, a concrete protocol, and honest caveats for sensitive nervous systems.

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Jp Valery / Unsplash Recovery

Jun 20, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Sleep and Autonomic Recovery: Your Biggest Daily Lever

Most of your parasympathetic restoration happens overnight, which makes sleep the single biggest lever you have on autonomic recovery. Here is how dysautonomia disrupts it, and gentle, realistic ways to sleep better.

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Sasha Freemind / Unsplash HRV

Jun 18, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

How to Improve Your HRV: What Actually Works (and What Doesn't)

The honest, evidence-based guide to raising heart rate variability, ranked by real-world impact. Sleep and pacing beat any gadget, and in post-viral illness HRV mostly rises as the underlying dysregulation heals.

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Rajasekhar R / Unsplash POTS

Jun 11, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

POTS Treatment: Salt, Fluids, Compression & Medication Explained

POTS treatment usually starts with volume, compression and a careful exercise ramp, and adds medication when those aren't enough. Here's how each piece works and why it's almost always a combination.

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Jordan Bauer / Unsplash Recovery

Jun 6, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Pacing 101: How to Find and Expand Your Energy Envelope

Pacing is the single most important recovery skill for POTS, long COVID and ME/CFS. Here is how to find the edge of your energy envelope, stop the boom-and-bust cycle, and expand your capacity without triggering a crash.

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Ahya Agawis / Unsplash HRV

Jun 4, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Why Your HRV Dropped Overnight: Reading the Daily Number

You checked your morning HRV and it cratered. Before you spiral, here is what actually moves a single reading, why one day is mostly noise, and how to read the rolling trend that really matters.

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Alehandra / Unsplash Recovery

May 26, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

How to Find Your Triggers With a Symptom Journal

Scattered logs rarely reveal what sets off a crash. Here is how to keep a symptom journal that turns daily notes into cause-and-effect, including the delayed reactions that make triggers so hard to spot.

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Briana Tozour / Unsplash POTS

May 23, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Exercise for POTS: The Levine Protocol & How to Start Safely

Upright exercise often backfires early in POTS. The recumbent-first approach (the Levine and CHOP protocols) trains your heart lying down first, then works toward standing over months. Here is how to start without crashing.

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Kinga Howard / Unsplash Long COVID

May 19, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Post-Exertional Malaise: What Long COVID Recovery Depends On

Post-exertional malaise is the delayed, disproportionate crash after exertion that defines ME/CFS and shadows long COVID. Here is why the delay makes it dangerous, why pushing through backfires, and how to see it coming.

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Turn Months of Data Into a Five-Minute Doctor Conversation Recovery

May 14, 2026 · Austin Spaeth

Turn Months of Data Into a Five-Minute Doctor Conversation

Appointments are short and symptoms are hard to describe from memory. Here is how to use your own tracked data to walk in with a clear, specific summary your clinician can act on.

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A private, offline journal that scores your daily HRV, BP and orthostatic readings against medical thresholds. Free to download, with $7.99/mo Pro when you want the deep-analysis tools.

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