A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm). That range applies when you’re sitting quietly, not after exercise or a stressful moment. Your actual number within that window depends on your fitness level, age, medications, and even the time of day.
Normal Ranges by Age
Heart rate ranges shift dramatically from birth through adolescence. Newborns and infants have much faster hearts than adults because their smaller hearts pump less blood with each beat and need to compensate with speed. Here’s what’s considered normal while awake:
- Newborn to 3 months: 85 to 205 bpm
- 3 months to 2 years: 100 to 190 bpm
- 2 to 10 years: 60 to 140 bpm
- Over 10 years: 60 to 100 bpm
By the time a child reaches about 10, their resting heart rate settles into the same 60 to 100 bpm range used for adults. During sleep, these numbers drop noticeably at every age. A sleeping toddler might run 75 to 160 bpm, while a sleeping school-age child typically falls between 60 and 90 bpm.
What Counts as Too Fast or Too Slow
Doctors use two terms to describe heart rates outside the normal adult window. A resting rate above 100 bpm is called tachycardia, and a rate below 60 bpm is called bradycardia. Neither one automatically means something is wrong.
Bradycardia is common in people who exercise regularly. Very fit individuals often have resting rates between 40 and 50 bpm because their hearts are strong enough to pump more blood per beat, so they don’t need to beat as often. For someone who isn’t physically active, though, a rate that low could signal a problem with the heart’s electrical system. Tachycardia can be triggered by something as simple as caffeine, anxiety, or dehydration. It becomes a concern when it happens frequently at rest without an obvious cause, or when it comes with dizziness, chest pain, or shortness of breath.
What Affects Your Resting Heart Rate
Your resting rate isn’t a fixed number. It fluctuates throughout the day and can shift over weeks or months in response to lifestyle changes. Several factors push it higher or lower.
Fitness level is one of the biggest influences. As your cardiovascular system gets stronger through regular aerobic exercise, your heart becomes more efficient and your resting rate tends to drop. Stress, anxiety, and pain all raise it temporarily by triggering your body’s fight-or-flight response. Fever and infection speed up your heart rate too, because your body is working harder to fight off illness.
Certain medications directly alter heart rate. Blood pressure drugs like beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers are specifically designed to slow it down. Some antibiotics, psychiatric medications, and cancer treatments can speed it up or cause irregular rhythms as a side effect. Alcohol consumption and electrolyte imbalances (from dehydration, poor nutrition, or certain medical conditions) can also push your heart rate outside its normal range. Thyroid problems are another common culprit: an underactive thyroid tends to slow the heart, while an overactive one speeds it up.
Your Heart Rate During Sleep
Your heart rate naturally dips while you sleep, typically running about 20% to 30% lower than your daytime resting rate. For most healthy adults, that means a sleeping heart rate somewhere between 50 and 75 bpm. This drop happens because your body’s demand for oxygen decreases as your muscles relax and your metabolism slows down.
A sleeping heart rate anywhere from 40 to 100 bpm is generally considered within the normal window. If you use a wearable tracker and notice your overnight heart rate consistently falls outside that range, or if it suddenly changes from its usual pattern, that’s worth paying attention to. A resting heart rate that stays elevated even during sleep can sometimes reflect underlying stress, illness, or a cardiovascular issue.
How to Check Your Heart Rate
The simplest method is a manual pulse check at your wrist. Sit down and rest quietly for a few minutes first, so you’re measuring your true resting rate rather than a rate elevated by movement.
Turn one hand palm-up and find the spot between the wrist bone and the tendon on the thumb side. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers from your other hand on that spot and press lightly until you feel each beat. Don’t press too hard, because that can actually block blood flow and make the pulse harder to detect. Count the beats for a full 60 seconds. Some people count for 15 seconds and multiply by four, but a full minute gives a more accurate reading, especially if your rhythm is slightly irregular.
You can also check your pulse on the side of your neck, just below the jawline. Wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers measure heart rate continuously using light sensors on the skin. These are convenient for spotting trends over time, though they can occasionally misread during movement or if the device fits loosely.
Target Heart Rate During Exercise
Your resting rate tells you about your baseline health, but your heart rate during exercise indicates how hard your cardiovascular system is working. To gauge exercise intensity, you need a rough estimate of your maximum heart rate, the fastest your heart can safely beat.
The most widely used formula is simple: subtract your age from 220. A 40-year-old would have an estimated max of 180 bpm. A slightly more refined formula, developed from a large analysis of over 18,000 people, calculates it as 208 minus 0.7 times your age, which gives a 40-year-old an estimated max of 180 as well (the two formulas diverge more at younger and older ages). Both formulas are rough estimates. Studies have found that individual predictions can be off by 18 to 24 bpm in either direction, so treat these as starting points rather than precise targets.
For moderate exercise like brisk walking, you generally want to stay between 50% and 70% of your estimated maximum. For vigorous exercise like running, aim for 70% to 85%. If you’re new to exercise or managing a heart condition, starting at the lower end of those ranges and building up gradually makes more sense than chasing a specific number.