The Oura Ring: is it worth it?

I bought the Oura ring near the beginning of July and have worn it just about every single day since. I bought it because I wanted to better understand my sleep, was curious about some other data (see below), and wanted a wearable steps tracker that fits my personal style.

I have an Apple watch and still wear it during workouts or days I’m in athletic clothes. The Apple watch was never a daily watch for me mostly because of the way it looked. Sometimes I felt like it stuck out like a sore thumb with certain outfits so I wanted something that fit my style a little better and tracked some health and wellness things for me.

Style-wise, I love the look of the Oura ring. It’s not a small ring but I literally don’t even think about it when I’m wearing it anymore. It’s comfortable to wear and charges *SO* quickly. I usually pop it on the charger when I’m in the shower.

My favorite sets of data to look through are the steps tracker, the sleep data, and the cycle insights. I had some hormone testing done to sort through some odd symptoms I was dealing with at the beginning of the year. It showed that my cortisol levels spiked dramatically in the middle of the night, which would indicate poor sleep. But, I sleep great. I sleep better than ever, frankly. At the recommendation of an RD I was working with, I started taking some supplements but it made my sleep worse. So I was curious to compare data that I collected on my own, against the results of this hormone panel that seemed to either be bad data or something else.

The cycle insights are helpful for me to predict my somewhat unpredictable cycle these days. I need more time wearing the Oura ring to hone in on that but the Oura app synced up with the Clue app I’ve been using for years so that is helpful.

The steps tracker is helpful to me to look at my daily activity. When it comes down to it, my day job involves doing a lot of sitting at my desk. Sure there are plenty of days that I’m filming and moving around, but my job is otherwise pretty sedentary. This information has inspired me to get back into the routine of walking on my treadmill while doing work at the computer to at least move a little bit.

The sleep data is really interesting and I’m learning a lot. I am not the kind of person who will look at my sleep data on a day I didn’t sleep well and be more tired because of it. So, if you are a person who would possibly be negatively impacted by seeing that you didn’t sleep well despite feeling fine in the morning, I would maybe caution you against the Oura ring.

All in all, I have had a good experience with the Oura ring. For me, and for what I was looking for, it’s worth it. If you are considering it, I would think hard about what kind of data you are looking to collect about yourself and whether it would be helpful for you.