Is the Oura ring worth it?
December 14, 2021 11:46 AM Subscribe
Has anyone used this and actually gotten useful feedback about your sleep? I've been having shitty sleep for a while and am kind of curious what my sleeping patterns look like. Or is there some other wearable that's better?
the fitbit inspire 2 my wife uses gives her all the sleep metrics that her data-driven heart desires. It was ~$70
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:24 PM on December 14, 2021
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:24 PM on December 14, 2021
I got one of the previous generation rings from work. It's expensive but it's really unnoticeable after a while, long time between charges, etc. Way easier to deal with day-to-day than my old Fitbit. The insights are fine-to-good, but the new one with oxygen saturation levels should be even better.
posted by supercres at 12:49 PM on December 14, 2021
posted by supercres at 12:49 PM on December 14, 2021
I've had one for over two years (the previous v2). Short answer: not really, unless the "ring" form factor is the only wearable that you're willing to sleep with. (very long near-rant follows)
Generally all sleep wearables are based in questionable science. There's no strong correlation between "how much you move" and the quality of your sleep. Oura now claims up to 79% agreement with PSG; I think previous algorithms hit 50% or so. The real question is - what is "good" sleep, even with perfect sensors/algorithms? People differ in all kinds of ways - the Oura is only set up to tell you how your sleep matches up with the developers' idea of a "good" sleep. Good luck if you work a night schedule, or you move more than normal, etc.
First off, you should try doing all the regularly recommended things to improve sleep: going to bed earlier, having less light in the bedroom, having less noise, no bright lights at night, no food before sleep, etc. The Oura cannot fix your sleep for you - at the most, it may confirm (or deny) that when you do these things, it improves your sleep (or not). If you're not able or willing to do these things, the Oura will do nothing other than tell you your sleep is the same as it was before. It's cheaper to just write down in a notebook how you feel when you wake up, and base your sleep analysis that way. Sometimes when I wake up, I feel great, but my Oura says that my sleep is no different that any other day.
The Oura is also just a very expensive device that does very little. It can't show you the time, or text message notifications, or track a run. The battery is so small that any claims of "daytime" or "workout" heart rate have to be taken with a grain of salt - and you have to pull out your phone to see it anyway. You can't wear it when lifting weights, because it will get damaged. You know how they tell you to never drain a battery to 0% or it will damage it? The Oura's miniscule battery is particularly prone to this. If you start retaining water or have weight fluctuations, the fixed-size of the ring means that you'll have to put it on a different finger, and sometimes you just run out of fingers. It's also a much thicker ring that most people realize, especially if you have smaller hands. At the same time, it's easier to lose than other wearables since it's so tiny.
If you really want to buy a wearable, I'd start with the Fitbit Inspire which is currently 1/3 the price. Although I'm personally a fan of Garmin's Body Battery.
posted by meowzilla at 1:04 PM on December 14, 2021 [5 favorites]
Generally all sleep wearables are based in questionable science. There's no strong correlation between "how much you move" and the quality of your sleep. Oura now claims up to 79% agreement with PSG; I think previous algorithms hit 50% or so. The real question is - what is "good" sleep, even with perfect sensors/algorithms? People differ in all kinds of ways - the Oura is only set up to tell you how your sleep matches up with the developers' idea of a "good" sleep. Good luck if you work a night schedule, or you move more than normal, etc.
First off, you should try doing all the regularly recommended things to improve sleep: going to bed earlier, having less light in the bedroom, having less noise, no bright lights at night, no food before sleep, etc. The Oura cannot fix your sleep for you - at the most, it may confirm (or deny) that when you do these things, it improves your sleep (or not). If you're not able or willing to do these things, the Oura will do nothing other than tell you your sleep is the same as it was before. It's cheaper to just write down in a notebook how you feel when you wake up, and base your sleep analysis that way. Sometimes when I wake up, I feel great, but my Oura says that my sleep is no different that any other day.
The Oura is also just a very expensive device that does very little. It can't show you the time, or text message notifications, or track a run. The battery is so small that any claims of "daytime" or "workout" heart rate have to be taken with a grain of salt - and you have to pull out your phone to see it anyway. You can't wear it when lifting weights, because it will get damaged. You know how they tell you to never drain a battery to 0% or it will damage it? The Oura's miniscule battery is particularly prone to this. If you start retaining water or have weight fluctuations, the fixed-size of the ring means that you'll have to put it on a different finger, and sometimes you just run out of fingers. It's also a much thicker ring that most people realize, especially if you have smaller hands. At the same time, it's easier to lose than other wearables since it's so tiny.
If you really want to buy a wearable, I'd start with the Fitbit Inspire which is currently 1/3 the price. Although I'm personally a fan of Garmin's Body Battery.
posted by meowzilla at 1:04 PM on December 14, 2021 [5 favorites]
Also, Oura sorta botched the v3 release. They were never a big company and from what I hear, their customer service is overwhelmed with v3 orders/returns/exchanges. Many of the new v3 features aren't even available, and when they are, they will be behind a paywall. I wouldn't make any decision until those features are actually released and people are praising it or complaining about it.
posted by meowzilla at 1:27 PM on December 14, 2021
posted by meowzilla at 1:27 PM on December 14, 2021
I went through a big thing this year where I got diagnosed with sleep apnea and am much better rested now that it's treated. So I'm very skeptical of these sleep tracking devices. Most of them are working by measuring movement, body temperature, or pulse and trying to guess at sleep quality for that. The science on that is not at all well established.
What does work, or at least worked for me, is an SpO2 sensor measuring your blood oxygen. That was my first clue that I had a serious sleep apnea problem, I basically was suffocating at night. I used an O2Ring to measure mine, it's a pretty solid product. It's very simple though, only measures SpO2 and pulse and doesn't make any deep inferences. Ouya's site claims they will be monitoring SPO2 "in 2022" which seems a little strange but encouraging.
If you think you may have sleep apnea the right thing to do is get a sleep test with a sleep doctor. At home tests are available and pretty easy. They measure various things (in particular, breathing flow) to make a real diagnosis. But sleep apnea is only one kind of sleep problem.
posted by Nelson at 2:46 PM on December 14, 2021
What does work, or at least worked for me, is an SpO2 sensor measuring your blood oxygen. That was my first clue that I had a serious sleep apnea problem, I basically was suffocating at night. I used an O2Ring to measure mine, it's a pretty solid product. It's very simple though, only measures SpO2 and pulse and doesn't make any deep inferences. Ouya's site claims they will be monitoring SPO2 "in 2022" which seems a little strange but encouraging.
If you think you may have sleep apnea the right thing to do is get a sleep test with a sleep doctor. At home tests are available and pretty easy. They measure various things (in particular, breathing flow) to make a real diagnosis. But sleep apnea is only one kind of sleep problem.
posted by Nelson at 2:46 PM on December 14, 2021
I do this thing where if I’m sleeping lightly, and wake to full consciousness every time I turn over, I feel like absolute death in the morning because all I remember is a string of brief wakings that all run together.
The ring really helps me because I can look at the movement graph and see that no, I wasn’t sleeping any worse than a night where I was still turning, just not remembering it. Seems weird but that aspect alone is super helpful to me.
As others have said, its ability to actually detect which part of sleep cycle you’re in is basically guesswork. I find the heart rate and temperature info interesting, but not useful for much beyond spotting which nights I’ve drunk some alcohol.
posted by Jobst at 2:57 PM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
The ring really helps me because I can look at the movement graph and see that no, I wasn’t sleeping any worse than a night where I was still turning, just not remembering it. Seems weird but that aspect alone is super helpful to me.
As others have said, its ability to actually detect which part of sleep cycle you’re in is basically guesswork. I find the heart rate and temperature info interesting, but not useful for much beyond spotting which nights I’ve drunk some alcohol.
posted by Jobst at 2:57 PM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
I have an Oura ring and I like it - I don’t think it’s worth it for everyone, but it’s worth it for some people. I have an Apple Watch too, and it’s just as good or possibly better at tracking sleep, but I find it uncomfortable to sleep in so I charge it at night and just use the Oura for sleep (tho I wear the Oura during the day too).
Wearing the Oura helped me realize how significantly alcohol disrupts my sleep - I can tell if I had alcohol from just looking at a graph of my heart rate overnight. I also like being able to see the trend of my body temperature during my menstrual cycle, I get a heads up about my period starting in a few days when I see my temp drop.
If buying the Oura is financially a stretch for you, I’d skip it. If the cost isn’t really an issue, it might be worth trying.
posted by insectosaurus at 3:51 PM on December 14, 2021
Wearing the Oura helped me realize how significantly alcohol disrupts my sleep - I can tell if I had alcohol from just looking at a graph of my heart rate overnight. I also like being able to see the trend of my body temperature during my menstrual cycle, I get a heads up about my period starting in a few days when I see my temp drop.
If buying the Oura is financially a stretch for you, I’d skip it. If the cost isn’t really an issue, it might be worth trying.
posted by insectosaurus at 3:51 PM on December 14, 2021
I got a good quality second hand Garmin Vivosmart 4 from fb marketplace for £40, which has the Body Battery feature mentioned by meowzilla, as well as specific sleep tracking.
I think it's still as fallible as any of these wearables (pretty sure I should be in hospital if my oxygen sats dipped in the way it suggests in the middle of the night, but I think it just happens when you lie on it funny). And it just so happens the only times it's told me my body battery was up to 100% after sleeping were both times I felt like I'd not really got to sleep properly all night, and woke feeling like death warmed up.
However, it's reasonable generally - I think it's probably as good as anything like it, and was cheap. It's very popular among folk with long covid because despite not being perfect, the body battery feature can give you some helpful feedback for managing fatigue. The 'stress' measurement has really demonstrated for me how much more restorative it is to gaze at my galaxy projector, deep breathing and listening to an audiobook, compared to half-watching Netflix and scrolling twitter. Which maybe shouldn't be a surprise but they both feel like chilling out, but the Garmin can really tell one from the other, presumably because of the mental load/dopamine chasing of the latter.
posted by penguin pie at 4:17 PM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think it's still as fallible as any of these wearables (pretty sure I should be in hospital if my oxygen sats dipped in the way it suggests in the middle of the night, but I think it just happens when you lie on it funny). And it just so happens the only times it's told me my body battery was up to 100% after sleeping were both times I felt like I'd not really got to sleep properly all night, and woke feeling like death warmed up.
However, it's reasonable generally - I think it's probably as good as anything like it, and was cheap. It's very popular among folk with long covid because despite not being perfect, the body battery feature can give you some helpful feedback for managing fatigue. The 'stress' measurement has really demonstrated for me how much more restorative it is to gaze at my galaxy projector, deep breathing and listening to an audiobook, compared to half-watching Netflix and scrolling twitter. Which maybe shouldn't be a surprise but they both feel like chilling out, but the Garmin can really tell one from the other, presumably because of the mental load/dopamine chasing of the latter.
posted by penguin pie at 4:17 PM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
I have tried two sleep monitoring smart watches, and find their accuracy iffy. I just use "Sleep Like an Android" app on my phone, which also records unusual sounds during your sleep. You are supposed to put it next to your pillow so any shaking (interpreted as your movement) would also be recorded which combined with sound can give you a little insight about how well you really sleep vs. how you thought you slept. Like did you snore during sleep and how hard. I find the science a bit iffy, but then I already know I snore and I already use a CPAP. :)
I personally think that a few bucks for an app is probably easier to say "okay, no big deal" than a wearable that costs over 100.
posted by kschang at 3:01 AM on December 15, 2021
I personally think that a few bucks for an app is probably easier to say "okay, no big deal" than a wearable that costs over 100.
posted by kschang at 3:01 AM on December 15, 2021
I use a Bodimetrics O2 Vibe.
It's basically a logging pulse oximeter that measures blood oxygen saturation at close intervals with a finger probe that plugs into a wrist-mounted device.
It also has an alerting feature that can be triggered when blood oxygenation drips below a settable threshhold.
It gives me very good insight into my sleep quality, regarding sleep apnea and its associated sub-acute suffocation. You get a graph each morning of motion, oxygenation and heart rate at 5 or 10 second intervals.
posted by the Real Dan at 11:53 AM on December 15, 2021
It's basically a logging pulse oximeter that measures blood oxygen saturation at close intervals with a finger probe that plugs into a wrist-mounted device.
It also has an alerting feature that can be triggered when blood oxygenation drips below a settable threshhold.
It gives me very good insight into my sleep quality, regarding sleep apnea and its associated sub-acute suffocation. You get a graph each morning of motion, oxygenation and heart rate at 5 or 10 second intervals.
posted by the Real Dan at 11:53 AM on December 15, 2021
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posted by cozenedindigo at 12:01 PM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]