Oura Ring experiences?

[Gregory1]

Does anybody here have experiences with an Oura Ring? What can it be used for? Does it help you / improve your life's quality?

Thanks for your ideas

Gregory

[Flowerfaeiry]

I've heard it's pretty cool if you're into that kind of stuff. 

[hamedsf]

it would transform you upside-down! 

[tsuki]

I'm using garmin vivosmart 4 to track my stress, sleep quality and energy levels.

Does anyone have a hands-on experience with the ring? I'm interested in how it compares.

[Michael569]

I was looking into it at one point and got super close to buying but then I decided to go for Garmin Vivosmar 4, same what @tsuki  mentioned. 

I think what you get with the ring that you don't get with the smartwatch is the convenience of it being a ring. It is more comfortable to wear when you sleep but also easier to lose possibly? I'd definitely lose it at some point. But because it is a ring it means there is more wear and tear. For example I do a lot of calisthenics and bodyweight I dunno how it would work if you're doing a lot of bar work, pushups, weights...you know high amount of direct pressure and friction. But if you don't care about that, the ring may work for you

It has really solid review and if you're ok with the price, go for it and maybe do a short review for the rest of us in a month?

[tsuki]

2 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

I think what you get with the ring that you don't get with the smartwatch is the convenience of it being a ring.

From what I've read on their website, the device uses more accurate readings and claim to be in accord with medical equipment 99.*%. Also, the ring seems to read temperature which is not available in the smartband.

How do you find vivosmart's BodyBattery feature? Do you find it accurate? What are your energy and stress levels throughout the day?

[Michael569]

Just now, tsuki said:

How do you find vivosmart's BodyBattery feature? Do you find it accurate?

Not too useful to be honest  Just based on how I feel after an exhausting day when it still says I have 60% body battery left where in reality it feels more like 10. I'd love to know what variables are being accounted for. Possibly an average caloric expense on average + number of average heart beats + high volume physical activity. 

2 minutes ago, tsuki said:

From what I've read on their website, the device uses more accurate readings and claim to be in accord with medical equipment 99.*%. Also, the ring seems to read temperature which is not available in the smartband.

Yeah, I dunno. There is a reason why medical equipment costs thousands of dollars. But then even a lot of medical measuring units differ from each other inaccuracy. Body fat measuring unit is a brilliant example where you get a variety of results.

I'd say in the end it comes down to self-calibration, at least that's how I use the Garmin Vivo 4. Because you keep using the same watch, you get certain data feed from activities that you do repetitively and then can adjust your exercise and lifestyle accordingly if those numbers start being a bit off. But in the larger picture, those Garmin values may be completely off compared to if you used medical grade heart rate monitor. 

[tsuki]

57 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

Not too useful to be honest  Just based on how I feel after an exhausting day when it still says I have 60% body battery left where in reality it feels more like 10. I'd love to know what variables are being accounted for. Possibly an average caloric expense on average + number of average heart beats + high volume physical activity. 

From what I've gathered, the only thing that it accounts for is HRV-based stress measurement, and (probably) workout activity. It does not take calorie intake into account, but it will detect HRV-related changes due to caffeine, etc. I find it actually pretty smart, as it may detect battery drop when I'm feeling unwell, etc.

I actually own two such devices and lent one to a friend to compare results. It was pretty interesting tbh. If you have like 60% after a full day, then I'm very impressed. I usually start at around 80-90% if I stick to my sleep schedule and end the day with around 20%. I use it to track my fibromyalgia-related issues.

Edited August 10, 2021 by tsuki

[Ora]

so someone on youtube went to a sleep clinic to test his sleep cycles to compare it to the oura ring worn at the same time. the conclusion was something like its only accurate 60% of the time. for example the sleep clinic measured deep sleep at 1 am, the oura ring would only get this right 60% of the time.

there are more accurate sleep monitors, i think even the fitbit was shown to be more accurate. and oura ring is not useful for daily activities really. its basically a pedometer during the day time, you dont get any hrv or anything unless you take a "moment" which requires you to be still for 10 minutes. many people just wear it at sleep time, thats what i do.

its nice to see a daily hrv score though so you can see trends on how your body is doing. for sleep monitoring its helpful just for verification like, ok i did sleep poorly thats why im feeling not well rested today. If you slept poorly youll usually know by how you feel the next day, but its nice to get quantification like "THIS is how bad you slept" and can compare it day by day or week by week to see what adjustments help, like magnesium before bed, blue blocking glasses, etc.

the only reason i would get it over any other device is because the airplane mode at night, and it doesnt emit a green LED. some people believe even green/blue light on the skin can affect melatonin production, and even more esoteric is that green/blue light will modify the bodys physiology from frequency therapy type reasons so having green light shone on your body all the time may disrupt natural biological processes. This is a bit "whoo" but i believe it, so thats the only reason why i would use a oura ring over much cheaper alternatives. its definetly not worth the 330 price tag out of box.