Respiratory Rate: What's Normal and Why It Matters

Your respiratory rate is one of your body's most stable vital signs and one of the most revealing. While metrics like heart rate variability and resting heart rate fluctuate day to day, your breathing rate tends to stay remarkably consistent. This article covers what respiratory rate is, what's considered normal, what factors influence it, and why monitoring it matters for your long-term health.

What is respiratory rate?

Your respiratory rate, often referred to as your breathing rate, is the number of breaths you take per minute. For most healthy adults, average breaths per minute typically range from 12 to 20 while in a state of rest. An increased respiratory rate may be a sign of illness.

Each breath has two phases: inhalation and exhalation. Oxygen is brought into your lungs during inhalation and transported throughout your body in the bloodstream. Carbon dioxide is then eliminated from your lungs during exhalation.

What is a normal respiratory rate?

WHOOP measures respiratory rate during sleep and reports it in units of "respirations per minute," or RPM. The number you see displayed in the app is your median number of RPM over the course of the night while you are sleeping.

A one-week sample of all WHOOP members' respiratory rates, with the norm ranging from roughly 13-18 breaths per minute.

The majority of WHOOP members have an average respiratory rate between 13 and 18 breaths per minute.

A chart depicting ranges for normal respiratory rate by age.

What affects your respiratory rate?

Your respiratory rate is dynamic and can change in response to many factors. Understanding these influences can help you interpret your data with more accuracy.

• Exercise: Physical activity increases your body's demand for oxygen, which naturally raises your respiratory rate.
• Illness or fever: When your body is fighting off an infection, your metabolic rate increases, which can lead to a higher respiratory rate.
• Stress: Psychological or emotional stress can activate your sympathetic nervous system—your fight-or-flight response—and cause your breathing to become faster and more shallow.
• Sleep quality: Poor sleep or disruptions like sleep apnea can cause fluctuations in your respiratory rate throughout the night.
• Environment: Higher altitudes with less oxygen can cause your respiratory rate to increase as your body works harder to get the oxygen it needs.

Why monitoring respiratory rate is important

WHOOP has tracked respiratory rate during sleep for a long time, as it is known that respiratory rate can predictably change during different sleep stages. Initially, WHOOP didn't display your average respiratory rate because it generally follows a similar trend as heart rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate (RHR).

WHOOP tracks your respiratory rate while you sleep, and uses it to help calculate your daily Recovery.

Respiratory rate is a remarkably stable metric. From night to night, you should not expect to see much change. But when it does change, that change tends to be meaningful.

When a change in respiratory rate is a concern

Because your respiratory rate is so stable from night to night, a significant change can be a meaningful signal. While metrics like HRV and RHR can change often, respiratory rate has a high signal-to-noise ratio. This makes it easier to interpret and trust.

An elevated respiratory rate can be an early indicator that your body is working harder than usual, possibly due to illness, significant stress, or poor air quality. For example, sleeping on a red-eye flight might cause a temporary spike. Consistently tracking your baseline allows you to spot these deviations and correlate them with your behaviors or how you feel.

In my own data, over a 30-day span my respiratory rate ranged from 14-15 breaths per minute every night except one when I was sleeping in a middle seat on a red-eye plane from Boston to Reykjavik. My respiratory rate was 17 that night, and I slept terribly.

How WHOOP measures respiratory rate

WHOOP calculates respiratory rate from your raw heart rate data by taking advantage of a phenomenon called Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia. When you breathe in, your heart rate increases, and when you breathe out, it decreases. This allows your body to preferentially pass blood by the lungs while they are full of oxygen.

Because the autonomic nervous system increases heart rate during inhalation and decreases it during exhalation, we can see respiratory rate in your continuous heart rate data by looking for this cyclical pattern. WHOOP is the first wrist-worn wearable device to have the accuracy of its respiratory rate measurement during sleep validated by a third party.

In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, WHOOP respiratory rate was shown to be within a single breath per minute of gold-standard truth.

Monitor your vitals with the WHOOP Health Monitor

The WHOOP Health Monitor feature tracks your respiratory rate and several other key vital signs (including live heart rate, HRV, resting heart rate, blood oxygen level, and skin temperature) and displays them all in one place. Every morning, the Health Monitor lets you know if each of these stats is within your typical range, color coding them in green, orange, or red.

The WHOOP Health Monitor displays your respiratory rate and other valuable physiological metrics.

Understand your body to unlock your potential

Monitoring your respiratory rate is one more way to gain a deeper understanding of your body and its response to your daily behaviors. By paying attention to your baseline and noticing meaningful changes, you can make more informed decisions about your training, sleep, and overall wellness.

Frequently asked questions about respiratory rate

What is a good respiration rate by age?

Normal respiratory rates vary by age. For infants, it can be as high as 30-60 breaths per minute. For children, it's typically 20-30, while healthy adults at rest fall between 12 and 20 breaths per minute.

Is 20 breaths per minute a normal respiratory rate?

For a healthy adult at rest, 20 breaths per minute is at the high end of the normal range (12-20). While it can be normal for some individuals, a rate consistently at or above 20 could be worth monitoring. Factors like stress, fever, or other illnesses can cause it to increase.

What is a normal respiratory rate while sleeping?

Your respiratory rate during sleep is typically very stable and should fall within the normal resting range of 12-20 breaths per minute for adults. WHOOP measures your median respiratory rate during sleep, which for most members falls between 13 and 18 breaths per minute.

How does respiratory rate relate to pulse rate?

Respiratory rate and pulse rate (heart rate) are both vital signs, but they measure different things. Respiratory rate is your number of breaths per minute, while pulse rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute. They are connected through a phenomenon called respiratory sinus arrhythmia, where your heart rate naturally increases as you inhale and decreases as you exhale.

The products and services of WHOOP are not medical devices, are not intended to diagnose COVID-19, the flu or any other disease or medical conditions, and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content available through the products and services of WHOOP is for general informational purposes only.