Why is my breathing rate up on my ring or watch?
Compare it with your own normal, not with a chart. Your night breathing rate is usually one of the steadiest numbers your ring or watch shows, so a jump of a breath or two a minute stands out. Getting sick, a fever, sleeping at altitude, a hot room and the second half of a menstrual cycle can all push it up.
People see a number like 17 or 19 and look it up against a table, then worry because it’s near the top. The tables are for adults awake and sitting still, and every brand measures a little differently. What a ring or watch is good at is noticing when your own number changes.
What we’d do
Learn your usual night rate over a couple of weeks. When it jumps, look at the obvious things first, like how you feel, a fever, travel, the room or your cycle. If it stays up for several nights with no reason, or comes with feeling unwell or short of breath, see a doctor.
How steady it usually is
| Source | Typical night rate | How much it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Oura | 12 to 20 breaths a minute for healthy adults | Usually within 1 to 2 breaths a minute from night to night |
| WHOOP | Most members average 13 to 18 | “Remarkably stable” |
| Fitbit | 12 to 20 | Usually doesn’t vary much from night to night |
| WHOOP study, 2020 | About half a breath a minute, night to night, for a typical person |
Your breathing rate is like the idle speed of a car engine. It sits at the same number every night unless something is asking the engine for more, so a change usually means something is going on.
What pushes it up
- Getting sick. In a 2020 study, 271 WHOOP members, 81 of whom tested positive for COVID-19, had their night breathing rate tracked. A model built on it flagged 20 percent of the infections in the two days before symptoms, and 80 percent by the third day of symptoms. WHOOP says fighting an infection raises your metabolic rate, which can raise your breathing rate.
- A fever. In feverish children, breathing rate rose about 2.2 breaths a minute for every 1.8°F (1°C) rise in temperature. That was children, but it shows how much a fever alone can do.
- Altitude. Oura and WHOOP both say your rate rises at higher altitudes, where there’s less oxygen in each breath.
- A hot or cold room. Oura says sleeping too hot or too cold can raise it slightly.
- Your cycle. Oura says breathing is slower in the first half of the cycle and speeds up toward the end. In a 2026 WHOOP study of 2,596 women, breathing rate was highest just before the next period started.
- Alcohol and medicines. Google’s help page for Fitbit lists drug use, including alcohol, and some medicines among the things that affect breathing rate.
When to call a doctor
The Cleveland Clinic says a resting rate under 12 or over 25 breaths a minute may be a sign of a health problem. A night rate that stays well above your normal for days, especially with a fever, a cough or feeling short of breath, is a reason to call your doctor. A sudden struggle to breathe is an emergency, so call 911.
Count your rate awake with the breath counter. How HRV behaves when you’re getting sick is on hrv.guide’s does HRV go down when you’re sick.
8 sources
- Oura, Respiratory rate, support article, checked 2026-11-14support.ouraring.com
- WHOOP, What is a normal respiratory rate, The Locker, 2026whoop.com
- Fitbit Help, Breathing rate, checked 2026-11-14support.google.com
- Google Health Help, Breathing rate, checked 2026-11-14support.google.com
- Miller DJ et al., Analyzing changes in respiratory rate to predict the risk of COVID-19 infection, PLOS ONE, 2020journals.plos.org
- Nijman RG et al., Derivation and validation of age and temperature specific reference values and centile charts to predict lower respiratory tract infection in children with fever, BMJ, 2012bmj.com
- Gonzalez A et al., The menstrual cycle through the lens of a wearable device, npj Digital Medicine, 2026nature.com
- Cleveland Clinic, Vital signsmy.clevelandclinic.org
