As a holistic health coach and founder of a wellness brand, I’m always on the lookout for the latest wellness gadgets that can help me get juuuust a bit healthier, fitter, and stronger. I’ll admit that some are purely for vanity, but most of the time, it’s to ensure that when I’m 80 years old, I can still do most of what I do today and have the best, most positive energy possible. When the Oura ring came out and we caught wind of it a few years back, I knew I had to get my hands on it. On Christmas morning 2023, Santa delivered! I got my third generation Oura ring and started wearing it immediately. After wearing and testing it out for almost a year, I’m here to help you answer what you’ve been wondering: Is the Oura ring worth it?
What It Does
In case you’re not familiar with the Oura ring, it’s a smart ring equipped with red, green, and infrared LEDs which measure heart rate, HRV (heart rate variability), blood oxygen, and respiration rate. It also contains a digital sensor to measure temperature variations, a sensor to track movement and activity (the entire day!), and an infrared sensor to account for when your ring isn’t optimally aligned. Why in the world would you need all that when you’re a perfectly healthy individual? The Oura ring comes with an app, which looks like this:
All those sensors and metrics can help you paint a picture of how well you sleep (whether you feel like it or not!), how well you’re moving throughout the day, how your morning HIIT class or that late night pizza affects your body temperature, HRV, and recovery the next day, and so much more. For me, one of the most helpful pieces has been tracking my menstrual cycle and knowing when to adjust my levels of exercise based on the time of the month (more about this below!). You can definitely piece together some of those metrics using phone apps and a smart watch, but having all your metrics tracked by something as easy to ignore as a ring is pretty magical. For many, the Oura ring is the only device in the room and on your body at night. It definitely is for me. Due to the low EMF and the fact that it’s not online while you sleep, it’s really the only gadget that I feel comfortable wearing while I sleep.
What it Tracks
Ok, so here’s a breakdown of some of the metrics that the Oura ring tracks: you’ll set your baseline calories and Oura will then track your active calorie burn, your inactive time, and give you an Activity Score based on how well you’re moving throughout the day and your level of exercise. What I love (especially with my coaching hat on) is that you can personalize all this by either having Oura count calories or steps AND you can decide on a calorie opt out if that sort of measurement stresses you out. Your Oura ring can import exercise, activity levels, and more from your watch, which keeps measurements of these nice and consistent.
About two hours after you start wearing your Oura ring, it also measures your body’s stress levels. As you can see below, I do best with stress on my recovery day, which is on Sunday right now – shocker, right? 😉
Oura factors in your sleep, stress levels, and exercise to give you a readiness score after you wake up and your Oura ring has a chance to connect to your phone. For many, one of the most insightful aspects is the sleep score. As you can see below, there’s so much more to sleep than how long you’ve slept! If you’re still skeptical about how alcohol affects your sleep and HRV, the Oura is great at making that crystal clear – one more reason I’m sipping on these fabulous wine alternatives.
If you’re more interested in your activity levels, Oura will give you metrics similar to those you get on your Apple Watch: hourly movement, meeting daily goals, but also more broad goals, such as training frequency, volume, and recovery time. You don’t get a score for these, but more of a qualitative ranking: optimal, good, fair, or pay attention. Staying true to life, I’ve covered all of those categories for multiple metrics and I think this is where the motivation to check your app and wear your Oura ring truly surfaces: it relies on our internal drive for constantly wanting to do and be better. It’s gamification at its best and can be a huge motivator.
If you’re not familiar with HRV, since that’s not a common metric in most wearables, your heart rate variability is a measure of your autonomous nervous system resilience and could be a predictor of longevity. It measures the time between successive heartbeats, which varies and is generally better the higher this number goes. HRV is an indicator of autonomous nervous system activity. A higher HRV indicates better cardiovascular health and a more resilient autonomic nervous system. Most people will find that a late meal, being sick, a high altitude, and alcohol will negatively affect your HRV. Again, nothing earth shattering here, but great insight and a motivator / reinforcer of healthy wellness habits for many. I have to say that my HRV has been pretty low, which is a mystery to me since I’ve been training for a marathon and get a ton of cardio in every week. Definitely something worth looking into, but also: it could just be that my body simply doesn’t love it. It’s absolutely fascinating what can amplify and detract from your HRV: it’s been reported that more mindful breathing and spending time with close family results in higher HRV scores. Makes so much sense on an intuitive level.
For us ladies – read on to explore the best part about the Oura ring below!
Look, Feel & Experience
I asked Santa for the rose gold version of my ring and I have to say it’s GORGEOUS. You’re supposed to wear the Oura ring on your index finger, but I decided that I was more comfortable wearing it on my ring finger. It works. It’s not nearly as heavy as a regular, precious metal ring and though I have scratched it up over time, it still looks pretty and shiny. I’ve showered and exercised with it (not recommended for strength training), and it’s done just fine in water. I really do think the best part about it is that if you’re already used to wearing rings (I’m always wearing my wedding + engagement ring), it’s really easy to forget about and isn’t in the way at all. I think Oura did an excellent job with the design. The only negative I can think of is that the red LEDs light up at night and though they’re too small to be bright, you do see them when you’re rolling over in bed sometimes. Minor inconvenience and really nothing I’m bothered by. My fingers do tend to swell after exercise and due to water retention (hello, luteal phase!), which makes me wish the ring was more flexible in nature, but of course, that’s probably close to impossible with all the sensors it comes with. Overall, I love the clean, slick, and still elegant look. I only charge the ring about once or twice a week, so it does great with battery life in general.
From a day-to-day perspective, I actually don’t check the app as often as you would think. I’m not obsessed with my sleep score, not just because I’m generally a solid sleeper, but because I just get up in the mornings to either start working or get my workout in, whether I feel like it or not. I stick with the plan, not my mood. (Those of you who I’ve coached are probably sick of hearing me say this, but I’m definitely more of a discipline over motivation person…can’t rely on my motivation alone!). This is going to sound even more annoying, but I also don’t get sick very often, so have never seen a rise in body temperature trends due to illness, but many people also love this feature because the Oura ring will usually know when you’re about to get sick, based on your HRV and body temperature trend. Think about how useful that is!
The Best Part
For me, the best part about the Oura ring is by far the cycle tracking feature. I use the rise in body temperature trend (note: this is different from tracking your ACTUAL body temperature, which the third generation of the Oura ring can currently not do) to help me predict the first day of my menstrual cycle. For me, this is a game-changer because I can adjust my diet and exercise accordingly. I no longer beat myself up for not being able to lift as heavy or hit certain running paces when I’m in my luteal phase. Exercising in sync with your cycle can be very helpful, especially in perimenopause. If I need more carbs because I’m approaching my period, I listen to my body and try to eat a bit more.
If you’re interested in fertility tracking, Oura integrates with the Natural Cycles app, which tracks your actual body temperature using a thermometer. Oura can use your HRV, activity levels, and body temperature trends to help you predict ovulation and menstruation. Using the Oura app, you’ll notice that:
- Your body temperature is lower in your follicular phase (right after your period), which also goes along with your energy levels being higher.
- Your body temperature and resting heart rate will be slightly higher during ovulation.
- Your body temperature remains higher for anywhere from a few days to up to a week prior to menstruation.
In short, if you’re interested in being able to better predict your ovulation and fertile window, I recommend trying out Oura together with the Natural Cycles app. If you’re not looking for that level of fertility planning, the Oura ring offers plenty to keep you abreast of your menstrual health.
Of course, anything in the wellness tech world changes rapidly and as I type this, Oura actually just rolled out new cycle features. Check these out here.
All in all, I think the Oura ring is definitely worth the purchase if you’re really into wellness, health data, and tracking metrics. If you’re interested in improving your overall health, it’s well worth the purchase for the added motivation it may give you to do better the next day. If you’re a woman, being able to share your menstrual history with your health care practitioner is empowering and may just give them the missing pieces or interest in your health that they need. Wellness should be simple, but our food supply and healthcare system don’t make it very easy. Oura is another gadget in your wellness toolkit to help empower, motivate, and stay up-to-date with showing up as your best self.
What questions do you have about the Oura ring? Be sure to leave me a comment!
