I got an Oura ring in June 2022, after several months of debate. What finally pushed me to buy one was getting COVID on a vacation to Hawaii, which ruined the trip. I knew Oura was being used by the NBA to provide early COVID-19 detection, and wondered if it could have alerted me to impending sickness. I was also drawn to the amount of biomarkers that it tracks, and its super small (and stylish) form factor. Now 7 months into using my Oura ring, I wanted to share a review. TLDR; the Oura Ring is my favorite wearable, having measurably improved my sleep and performance. Get one now!
THE HYPE
Firstly, much of the hype IS worth it! The amount of data available from a small and nonintrusive wearable is impressive. The ring comes in multiple sizes, but it could take a little trial and error to find the right fit. I ended up buying the smallest size Oura ring because I knew it would fit more fingers and give me more options. Still, I moved the ring around the first couple months and finally settled on the middle finger of my right hand. You may find your finger gets waterlogged where the ring is; Oura recommends to slide the ring up and down your finger after hand washing, to dry off the whole finger, and this helps!
SLEEP SCORE
Sleep was one of the features I was most excited about. Oura does not disappoint, providing both a Sleep Score and a Readiness Score each morning. The Sleep Score takes into account your total sleep, efficiency (percentage of time you’re in bed and asleep), restfulness (amount of movement during sleep), REM and Deep sleep, latency (how long it takes you to fall asleep), and timing (when you went to sleep). It provides breakdowns of when you had light/REM/deep sleep, and when you woke up or moved during the night. It tracks average oxygen saturation with SPO2, as well as heart rate and heart rate variability.
Before getting the Oura Ring, I had difficulty sleeping, and thought I might have a sleep disorder. Instead of seeing a sleep neurologist, I now have months of data with Oura to analyze. Using Oura, I learned that I was having objectively great sleep, yet I was still feeling tired, leading me to question whether I was getting sick, or not. Why am I still tired? What can I do about it? The Readiness Score has answers.
READINESS SCORE
Oura’s Readiness Score uses multiple factors to assess your overall “readiness” and suggest an amount of activity for that day. This helps me decide what type and intensity of workout to apply. The score accounts for resting heart rate, HRV balance, body temperature, recovery index, sleep, sleep balance, previous day activity, and activity balance. Through this score and component breakdown, I learned that I had no “easy” days for several weeks, even if I didn’t run at all. My daily activity outside of actual workouts was too high. As I looked closer, I realized where I was overdoing it, and made small changes, from how I walk my Golden Retriever, to which days I do chores, to giving myself more time to just relax. Simple, yet effective!
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Still, I felt tired in the morning. I learned that I can’t make up for going to bed “late” by sleeping longer. My middle school teacher once said that the hours of sleep before midnight are the best, and she was on to something. In fact, Oura measures “recovery index” as how long it takes for your resting heart rate to stabilize during the night. Oura says that, ideally, this should happen in the first half of the night, at least 6 hours before you wake up the next day. For most people, this probably places the target several hours before midnight. So, I’ve started going to bed a little earlier each night, and am now going to bed a full hour earlier than before. When I go to bed earlier, it also takes me LESS time to fall asleep! Win-win.
WOMEN’S FEATURES
A few months after my Oura purchase, they partnered with Natural Cycles. Natural Cycles is a natural, hormone-free, FDA-cleared fertility and birth control app which uses basal body temperature to track your cycle. This was a homerun for me, and something I was hoping Oura would add since before I bought it. Before the partnership, Natural Cycles required you to take your temperature first thing in the morning, within a specific time frame, and enter it into the app. Now, Oura syncs this data seamlessly with Natural Cycles. It’s simply amazing. I’ve been using Natural Cycles for 3 years now, and wish I had switched off hormonal birth control sooner. The Oura ring also uses your temperature fluctuations to predict your period start. I was already using Natural Cycles for this, so now I cross-check several apps to triangulate my start date. I guess that’s my engineer showing.
ILLNESS
When I bought the Oura ring, I was super hopeful it would help me answer whether some malaise is due to sickness, stress, over-training, my period, or Mercury Retrograde. However, Oura did not pick up on the fact that I was sick this year (not COVID, just a bad cold). I tagged my illness in the Oura app, so maybe it will pick up on future illness earlier. I’m hopeful that future Oura upgrades will be able to detect mild illness without a fever. That said, the Readiness Score provides a good barometer for when to have a hard workout, a moderate or easy workout, or a rest day, to prevent exhaustion and susceptibility to illness.
WORKOUT FEATURES
While Oura has added workout heart rate features, it cannot replace a running watch, so I’m keeping my Garmin. Obviously the Garmin has a wrist-mounted display while the Oura doesn’t, and has greater GPS capability, so Oura will always take a backseat to realtime workout monitoring with a Garmin. But, Oura can now track workout heart rate and pick up when it thinks you’re doing a workout without you having to enter it into the app, which is great! It’s not accurate enough to really train against, but since it has your heart rate and just about every other metric, I think it would be good to pair workout training on your Garmin with Readiness on the Oura.
WHAT’S NEXT
Sleep-wise, I’m really interested in how Oura could be used for sleep disorder diagnosis and/or management. Already, Oura analyzes your SPO2 and notes any breathing irregularities–a good measurement to watch as a possible indicator of sleep apnea. I’d love to see Oura integrated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI) methods. For example, could Oura use your sleep data to inform your CBTI protocol, telling you when to go to sleep or wake up accordingly when adjusting your sleep cycle.
I’d also love to see more insights related to the menstrual cycle. Oura already provides insights regarding elevated temperature and resting heart rate during the second half of the menstrual cycle, and timing harder workouts at the front end of the menstrual cycle. But how much weight should this carry when making a training plan? I can’t wait to see Oura’s next software (and hardware!) evolutions!
SUMMARY
The Oura is a fantastic wearable that’s small, stylish, and accurate. No other wearable provides insight into as many biomarkers and data with the accuracy that Oura does. It’s not a replacement for a running watch, but it is a nice complement that can help you track your body’s readiness and help you get to the next level of performance. If you’ve ever struggled with sleep, getting the Oura is a no-brainer.
Health and longevity are areas of my budget where there’s practically no limit. More and more I realize that I can either spend now on something preventative and more “fun,” or spend later, in a not-so-fun way. $350 for an Oura Ring and better sleep? You’d be hard pressed to pay just that in one visit to a sleep neurologist. Do yourself a favor and buy the Oura Ring now. Then let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a small commission if you make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This income goes to supporting this website. As always, ideas and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.
