If you chose only one health tracking device, this should be it
A pandemic project into monitoring my health has grown into an obsession
Dabbling in technology has always been a hobby of mine and the whole “quantified self” movement meant biometric tracking was also on the cards. While I’ve always monitored some health markers (I work in a hospital and getting your blood pressure checked is super easy there!), I didn’t really bother too obsessively until the pandemic.
Early on, there was some data suggesting that the Oura ring could detect early Covid-19 infections before symptoms. I bought the ring as a precaution since I work at many different hospitals and didn’t want to unknowingly infect my co-workers at a time where masks and protective equipment were in short supply.
As the months went on, I noticed I was progressively more tired with each wave of the virus and the 2 years of continuous work. One day, a friend commented on the Oura ring and I showed them the temperature tracking (the main way it was meant to detect early infection) but also noticed that some of the other graphs mapped perfectly to how I felt. It wasn’t what I bought it for, but it made me dive into the app, get the updated v3 ring and I’ve never looked back!
If you’ve considering an Oura ring, use the link below. I get to share it to 3 people and they get $50 off and 6 months of premium app use for free. Thus far 1 has been claimed so far.
Oura ring v3 referral link
Rest/fatigue tracking
This is the main device that convinced me to track my biometric markers closely. Heart rate variability (HRV) has some limited evidence that it’s linked to fatigue levels with lower HRV rates correlating with less rest. This was the main marker that correlated super accurately for me personally on how I was feeling.
Each wave caused a marked drop with small breaks causing some rejuvenation. Now if I was working hard and feeling tired, why did I need HRV to tell me what I already knew? The thing with fatigue/tiredness is that like sleep deprivation, when we’re fatigued, we don’t actually feel it as much as we are. This let me check my state against my baseline.
An interesting experiment I ran recently was doing only 1 specific activity on a given day during my most recent vacation. Sitting at home watching Netflix had zero impact on HRV. Neither did a walk around my neighbourhood. A 2 hr hike in nature? Massive spike. Now I know what helps me rest much more effectively!
Other devices that may record HRV:
- Apple Watch
- Fitbit Sense
- Samsung Watch4 (needs seperate app)
In addition to HRV, resting heart rate and breathing rate are tracked by the ring and combined with other parameters to give a “readiness score” giving you an overall idea of how rested you are.
Personally, I’ve found HRV specifically correlated well to how I feel. I’ve been tagging how I feel in the app so the correlation is very clear! Having the other metrics is useful in case your body shows fatigue in a different way
Sleep tracking
Arguably, the Oura was initially designed to be a sleep tracker. Unlike other devices, a ring is relatively unobtrusive to wear while sleeping. Combining movement, heart rate and breathing, the device can roughly guesstimate how well you slept.
Overall, sleep hasn’t been a health issue for me generally. However, the app did show something that led to a change in my habits. I began to notice that if I had caffeine late in the afternoon, I wouldn’t get as much deep/REM sleep. Now, there’s plenty of literature on the effects of caffeine on sleep already, but as someone who drank >8 cups of coffee a day, I have in the past had coffees after dinner and not failed to get to what I thought was a “sound sleep”.
The graphs from the Oura showed me how this was not the case at all. I never even noticed the correlation because when you’re having that much coffee in a day, you just put it down to needing a stronger shot the next morning.
Since the Oura ring, I’ve cut down to 2–3 coffees in a day and none after 3pm. I’m slowly going to change this so that I don’t drink one after lunch. Right now, I’m still needing one to keep me out of the after lunch slump.
Activity tracking
Tracking movement is done well by the Oura, but unlikely a dedicated fitness watch or tracker, I feel like this is one of the less reliable aspects of the watch. It’ll detect walking/running etc and gives you a way of making sure you’re not sitting down without too much activity in a given day. It’s nice to have the little reminders throughout the day to move around, but most fitness trackers will do this too so not something unique to the Oura. I do find that their notifications seem less intrusive than other devices.
Miscellaneous
There are a whole bunch of other graphs and features that the Oura brings to the table. One mentioned at the beginning of the article is body temperature variation. It’s one of the early markers of illness it seems and seems to pre-date actually feeling sick by about 12 hrs in my experience.
I haven’t actually been sick recently, but for the times I got vaccinated, you can see a rise each time about half a day to 24 hrs before I felt a bit ordinary.
The “Explore” tab also has some white noise to work to as well as some guided mediations. While I have switched to using Calm for my meditations, I have to say that having all the functions in one app is certainly a very nice feature.
Conclusion
I actually began this article hoping to write about my favourite biometric trackers/apps/devices and ended up writing about the Oura. It is genuinely my favourite one of the last few years.
It’s not perfect but it has been the one that actually made me change some of my habits. It’s pricey but effective in what it does and even as someone who doesn’t wear jewellery, I found it easier to adjust to than wearing a smart watch. There’s no notifications or distractions to trade for the tracking features.
Now, all the links for the Oura are just my friend referral one. It’ll only work 2 more times to give you a $50 discount and 6 months of free premium app access. I think I might get some gym gear for sharing (but I think that’s ending soon anyway). So while it sounds like an affiliate article, I genuinely love the product and am sharing because of that.
If you get one, let me know how it is for you!
Oura ring v3 referral link
Hi I’m Dr Raffy Halim, an anaesthetist, photographer and podcaster. If you like articles like this, you may also like my weekly newsletter, the Sunday Surprise. For more, check out my website raffyhalim.com
