--- title: One Easy Way to Tell if You're Susceptible to Stress description: Heart rates correlate with levels of psychological distress canonical: https://time.com/3531312/susceptible-to-stress/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-11T12:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:11.597Z og:title: One Easy Way to Tell if You're Susceptible to Stress og:description: Heart rates correlate with levels of psychological distress og:url: https://time.com/3531312/susceptible-to-stress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37a51ee73e63d79d/698762338e0601cad4457dac/hand-squeeze-heart-toy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3543 og:image:height: 1993 og:image:alt: Woman's hand holding red plastic heart og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: One Easy Way to Tell if You're Susceptible to Stress twitter:description: Heart rates correlate with levels of psychological distress twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37a51ee73e63d79d/698762338e0601cad4457dac/hand-squeeze-heart-toy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # One Easy Way to Tell if You're Susceptible to Stress > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Refinery29](https://time.com/author/refinery29/) ## Refinery29 Nov 11, 2014 12:00 PM UTC  Woman's hand holding red plastic heart Woman's hand holding red plastic heart Getty Images by [Refinery29](https://time.com/author/refinery29/) ## Refinery29 Nov 11, 2014 12:00 PM UTC _This_ [_article_](http://www.refinery29.com/2014/09/75421/stress-heart-rate-tips?utm%5Fsource=time&utm%5Fmedium=syndication&utm%5Fcampaign=main) _originally appeared on_ [_Refinery29.com_](http://www.refinery29.com)_._ Stress affects us all in different ways. But, some of us are just a little more vulnerable to the nasty [ways stress can mess with us](http://www.refinery29.com/2014/09/74000/worst-stress-consequences). And, now, researchers at Concordia University have found that variations in heart rate may be a predictor of stress susceptibility. In the [study](http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10253890.2014.949666), published in this month’s issue of the journal _Stress_, 76 undergraduate students first completed an online questionnaire to assess their levels of stress, anxiety, and depression during a low-stress period of the academic year. Then, in the lab, they had their baseline heart rate measured for seven minutes. Next, while their heart rate was still being monitored, participants were asked to worry about something in the future that could potentially have a negative influence on their life for five minutes. After this “free worry period,” the participants were interviewed about their personal worries, and were asked to rate how likely and how awful each future consequence would be. Then, about three months later, right before finals week, the participants were given another mood questionnaire. (MORE: [The 9 Worst Ways Stress Messes With You](http://www.refinery29.com/2014/09/74000/worst-stress-consequences?utm%5Fsource=time&utm%5Fmedium=syndication&utm%5Fcampaign=related)) It turned out that the variation of participants’ heart rates was correlated with their levels of psychological distress. Specifically, a lower resting rate during the low-stress time frame, combined with a higher level of reactivity in [respiratory sinus arrhythmia](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14769752) (the way our heart rate naturally varies with our breathing patterns) in response to the worry conditions, was linked to more drastic changes in psychological distress during the high-stress time period. This means that those participants with lower variable heart rates (but also higher levels of change) had higher increases in anxiety ratings. (MORE: [Target Heart Rate: You’re Doing It Wrong](http://www.refinery29.com/target-heart-rate?utm%5Fsource=time&utm%5Fmedium=syndication&utm%5Fcampaign=related)) So, this suggests that health professionals might be able to use our heart rate variability (based on the [interbeat interval](http://www.biocomtech.com/hrv-science/heart-rate-variability-analysis), which is pretty [easy to measure](http://www.researchgate.net/post/How%5Fto%5Fmeasure%5Fthe%5Finterbeat%5Finterval%5Fin%5Fhuman%5Fpatients)) to screen for people who are particularly susceptible to the negative effects of stress. It also suggests that heart rate might be a good target for those of us trying to relieve anxiety — which indicates that breathing techniques and focusing on the present rather than the future could be especially [useful stress-relief tips](http://www.refinery29.com/how-to-be-centered#slide). And, there’s already [technology on the way](http://www.refinery29.com/2014/09/74119/stress-monitoring-technology-gadgets) to help us out. But, even [without the gadgets](http://www.refinery29.com/nature-walking-stress-depression), finding your zen should be a definite priority. (MORE: [This Is The Best Way To Beat Stress](http://www.refinery29.com/nature-walking-stress-depression?utm%5Fsource=time&utm%5Fmedium=syndication&utm%5Fcampaign=related)) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3531312/susceptible-to-stress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3531312/susceptible-to-stress/"},"headline":"One Easy Way to Tell if You're Susceptible to Stress","datePublished":"2014-11-11T12:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:11.597Z","description":"Heart rates correlate with levels of psychological distress","url":"https://time.com/3531312/susceptible-to-stress/","keywords":["Living","Stress","health","advice","heart health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37a51ee73e63d79d/698762338e0601cad4457dac/hand-squeeze-heart-toy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Refinery29","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/refinery29/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37a51ee73e63d79d/698762338e0601cad4457dac/hand-squeeze-heart-toy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Woman's hand holding red plastic heart","caption":"Woman's hand holding red plastic heart","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3531312/susceptible-to-stress/","name":"One Easy Way to Tell if You're Susceptible to Stress"}}]}] ```