A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm). This is your pulse when you’re awake, calm, and sitting still. Where you land within that range depends on your fitness level, age, medications, and several other factors.
Normal Resting Heart Rate for Adults
The 60 to 100 bpm range is the standard used by the American Heart Association, Mayo Clinic, and most medical guidelines worldwide. Your resting heart rate reflects how efficiently your heart pumps blood when your body isn’t under any physical demand. A heart that pumps more blood per beat doesn’t need to beat as often, which is why fitter people tend to sit at the lower end of the range.
Very fit or athletic individuals often have a resting heart rate between 40 and 50 bpm. This isn’t a sign of a problem. Their hearts have adapted to push out more blood with each contraction, so fewer beats get the job done. If you’re not particularly active and your resting pulse consistently sits near 100, that’s still technically normal, but it may be worth improving your cardiovascular fitness over time.
Heart Rate Ranges for Children
Children’s hearts beat significantly faster than adults’, and the younger the child, the higher the normal range. These ranges reflect awake heart rates:
- 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 (same as adults)
During sleep, children’s heart rates drop considerably. A sleeping newborn may run 80 to 160 bpm, while a sleeping child between 2 and 10 typically falls to 60 to 90 bpm. By around age 10, a child’s heart rate range converges with the adult range.
What Happens During Sleep
Your heart rate drops roughly 20% to 30% below your daytime resting rate while you sleep. For most healthy adults, that puts the sleeping heart rate somewhere between 50 and 75 bpm. Your nervous system shifts into a more restful mode overnight, reducing the workload on your heart.
A sleeping heart rate anywhere from 40 to 100 bpm is generally considered within the acceptable window. Rates consistently outside that range during sleep could signal an underlying rhythm issue worth investigating.
When a Heart Rate Is Too High or Too Low
A resting heart rate above 100 bpm is called tachycardia. It can be caused by fever, dehydration, anxiety, excessive caffeine, or more serious heart rhythm disorders. A temporarily elevated pulse after coffee or during a stressful moment is normal. A resting pulse that stays above 100 when you’re calm and hydrated is not.
A resting heart rate below 60 bpm is called bradycardia. In athletes and fit individuals, this is expected and harmless. In someone who isn’t physically active, a consistently low heart rate paired with dizziness, fatigue, or fainting could indicate an electrical problem with the heart.
Factors That Shift Your Heart Rate
Your resting heart rate isn’t a fixed number. It fluctuates throughout the day based on what your body is experiencing. Several common factors push it up or pull it down:
- Temperature: Heat increases your heart rate. Both high outdoor temperatures and a rising body temperature (like during a fever) make your heart work harder.
- Emotions: Stress, anxiety, excitement, and even sadness can raise your pulse.
- Pain: Any type of pain triggers a faster heart rate as part of your body’s stress response.
- Body size: People with obesity tend to have a higher resting heart rate than people without obesity.
- Body position: Your heart rate stays roughly the same whether you’re sitting or standing, though it may briefly spike when you first stand up before settling back down.
- Medications: Some drugs lower your heart rate on purpose. Beta-blockers, for instance, work by blocking stress hormones from speeding up your heart. Other medications, including certain stimulants and decongestants, can raise it.
Caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine also influence your pulse. If you’re checking your resting heart rate to get a baseline reading, do it first thing in the morning before coffee.
How to Measure Your Resting Heart Rate
The most accurate time to check your resting heart rate is when you’ve been sitting or lying down calmly for at least five minutes. Place your index and middle fingers on the inside of your wrist, just below the base of your thumb, or on the side of your neck just below your jawline. Count the beats for 30 seconds and multiply by two, or count for a full 60 seconds for a more precise reading.
Smartwatches and fitness trackers give continuous heart rate data, which can be useful for spotting trends. But a single reading that looks high or low isn’t meaningful on its own. What matters is the pattern over days and weeks. If your resting heart rate gradually climbs without an obvious explanation (like illness, stress, or a medication change), that trend is more informative than any individual number.
Target Heart Rate During Exercise
Your maximum heart rate is roughly 220 minus your age. During moderate exercise (a brisk walk, easy cycling), you should aim for about 50% to 70% of that maximum. During vigorous exercise (running, intense cycling), the target is 70% to 85%.
For a 40-year-old, that means a maximum of about 180 bpm, a moderate exercise target of 90 to 126 bpm, and a vigorous target of 126 to 153 bpm. These are averages and vary from person to person, so treat them as rough guides rather than strict boundaries. If you feel lightheaded, nauseous, or chest pain at any heart rate during exercise, stop.