Apparently, having a Fitbit wasn’t enough for me, so I now sport an Oura ring on the ring finger of my right hand. I was compelled by the ability to capture my sleep data more consistently since I struggle getting the Fitbit in the right spot on my wrist to get all the nifty sleep data it provides with any consistency. The Oura has delivered on that promise without fail, providing heart rate, sleep zones, temperature fluctuations and other cool info every day. It takes this information and provides a Readiness score, theoretically telling you whether your body is up to the tasks you may have planned for the day.
As a snapshot, last night I slept 7 hours and 15 mins, with a resting heart rate of 38 beats per minute. Restfulness was good, although REM and Deep Sleep were not as long as I’d have liked. My body temperature remained within a small -0.2 degree variance, which Oura tells me is Optimal. You know how I love Optimal. My overall sleep balance was good (probably not Optimal because of the limited REM and Deep Sleep) and my previous day’s activity and overall balance of activity were Optimal.
It seems to start learning one’s patterns as it has started alerting me of when my ideal sleep time is approaching, and mildly scolded me last night for going to sleep at 11:39 PM instead of no later than 11:15 PM.
I am participating in a couple of COVID-19 studies using the ring, and it takes only a few moments each day to complete the information.
Battery life is impressive as I’ve only charged it once since I got it 9 days ago and it charged to 100% in no time.
I absolutely love this thing. It is beautiful, comfortable unless I’m lifting weights, and the app is both informative and aesthetically pleasing. Since it doesn’t provide real time data, i.e. you don’t check your heart rate on it or anything like that, it’s no big deal for me to remove it when lifting weights or in the shower. It does it’s heavy lifting overnight when you sleep. While it’s waterproof, I still think H2O and electronics should stay in their own lanes, so I have been removing it to shower and wash my hands, but like Gollum and his Precious, I keep it close by and put it back on immediately.
While it may seem like overkill to wear a Fitbit and the Oura, they perform vastly different functions and I think the combination is sweet. Fitbit gives me the real time data I like, the step counts and friendly reminders to get off my ass, while Oura gives me the detailed sleep indicators I want consistently, and the kind of data I think will be very telling should anything go awry inside my temple of a body.
It’s expensive; no question about that. I paid almost double what I paid for the Fitbit, but I think it’s a powerful piece of tech to own and use, and while it doesn’t provide the power of invisibility or allow me to rule the world, it definitely provides a feeling of power. Power over my own health, which is probably more important than the ability to command an army of Orcs.
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