I tested out the £500 Oura ‘smart ring’ the England team hope will be ‘secret weapon’ at Euro 2024 – and I’m hooked
A COUPLE of months ago, I hopped on the Oura ring bandwagon, which gives me a wealth of information surrounding my health and wellbeing.
As it turns out, this nifty Oura ring that I’ve been wearing on my left index finger is also loved by the England football team.
Manager Gareth Southgate and players Conor Gallagher and Marc Guehi have been spotted wearing their Oura ring during training for the Euros 2024 in Germany.
It’s been speculated that the health-tracking rings could be the “secret weapon” in the team’s bid to become Euro champions.
Defender John Stones is also a fan, telling Face Magazine in 2023: “The first thing I do once I’m out of bed is check my Oura ring to see how I’ve slept — it’s addictive.”
Meanwhile, other celebs who are also loving this tech-filled smart ring include Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Aniston and even royalty, Prince Harry.
It’s definitely garnering more attention as more famous faces are spotted wearing this band on their finger.
The Oura ring, launched back in 2013 by Oura Health, a Finnish technology company, is filled with several sensors which provide biometrics for various areas of health including sleep, stress and recovery.
It comes with a hefty price tag, starting at £277 and costing up to £500.
Oura says that this ring is the first wearable designed to paint a truly holistic picture of your health.
So what’s the deal? Is it worth the hype? I reckon yes, and here’s why.
It’s helped to improve my sleep
Prior to wearing this ring I honestly was the biggest anti-sleep tracker ever, adamantly believing that waking up and reading my sleep stats would change my perception of how well I slept.
Now, two months in, I’m a sleep-tracking-obsessive. To the point where my boyfriend and I actually compare our sleep ‘scores’ in the morning.
My sleep ‘score’ is influenced by how long I’ve been asleep, my sleep cycles (four sleep stages make up one cycle and you’ll have four to six cycles across the night), my restlessness during the night, how long it takes me to fall asleep, as well as my heart rate and temperature.
I’ve noticed how my sleep can be influenced by my temperature, also tracked by the Oura ring. And prior to my period, when my temperature rises slightly, my sleep isn’t so good.
I’m also more restless after a night on the booze or when I’m stressed and my sleep isn’t as deep when I’ve had my dinner too close to bedtime.
Ultimately the aim of sleep tracking is to try and improve your sleep and I’ve certainly become stricter on sleep timings and also winding down before bed.
I prefer to read a book before bed now rather than scrolling social media.
My lowest score so far is 68 on a night my boyfriend went out, got in late, woke me up and I didn’t get back to sleep as I was so restless and annoyed.
My best score? 91. I am desperate to hit 100 and I’m doing everything I can to get there. I WILL get that perfect sleep!
I’ve become more attuned to my recovery
Although my regular muscle aches and injuries don’t really allow me to anymore, I used to bash my body with intense workouts every single day. And I gave myself zero breaks.
But now, I am suddenly so much more attuned to my stress, my heart rate and ensuring that I get enough rest and recovery to keep my body balanced amid the long intense runs and gym sessions that I cram in every week.
The Oura ring also tracks my daytime stress and I can see the points where maybe I was flapping over a deadline.
Which celebs have been spottewearing the Oura ring?
MOVE over Apple Watches - the Oura ring is the newest health-monitoring gadget to be spotted on celebs fingers.
The nifty band – available its website and John Lewis from £299 up – allows you to keep track of your sleep quality, heart rate, stress, blood oxygen levels and periods of activity.
The ring has been spotted on the likes of high-profile celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Prince Harry and Kim Kardashian.
Kim K started sporting the wearable tech a couple years ago, regularly posting her health scores on her Instagram stories and described it as “the most accurate sleep and activity tracker”.
Jennifer Aniston was spotted wearing the Oura ring even earlier, revealing she was “addicted” to the device while appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel show in 2021.
“I’m so obsessed with the Oura Ring and looking at my sleep patterns and how badly I sleep and it shames me every day,” she said.
Jen revealed how she’d freaked out about losing the ring while tossing a salad and started frantically “digging” through the leaves to find it.
This isn’t bad stress – as the Oura app states – rather it can be used to be more productive.
But, all the stresses over a course of a day (with my main one being exercise) contribute to the daytime stress which then impacts the Recovery Bar and also how much recovery is needed.
Better sleep means my recovery ‘need’ is met, and down time during the day also contributes to this.
However, when I exercise, endure stress during the day and then get little sleep, my recovery plummets and the Oura app reminds me to relax.
The Readiness score reveals how recovered you are in comparison to the amount of stress your body endures.
When I took a recent trip to Italy, I was so relaxed between the morning workout, city walking and epic sleeps, that my Readiness score shot up.
I’ve definitely noticed myself paying more attention to my recovery and I love checking my heart rate on the Oura app to see where it’s at.
It pairs well with my Apple Watch
When it comes to exercising, the Oura ring takes a backseat and my Apple Watch is my number one tool.
My Apple Watch never leaves my wrist during the day, especially when I exercise, as I’m checking my heart rate, my distance during runs, my speed and also the number of laps I’ve done in the pool.
The Oura ring can’t be worn during weight sessions as it’s on my finger so it could break or get scratched when I’m throwing dumbbells around, which makes my Apple Watch even more of a necessity when I workout.
But the two pieces of tech do connect and once I’ve logged a workout on my Apple Watch, it then passes onto the Oura ring so the workout can contribute to my stress and recovery bars.
The workouts I track also contribute to my Activity bars; the Oura ring tracks my steps, my distance moved per day, my heart rate and how regularly active I am.
All this stress, movement and recovery also helps to dictate how resilient I am to stress.
As it stands I’m ’strong’ but this can go as high as ‘exceptional’ and as low as ‘limited’.
It’s all very complex. But great.
I have a greater understanding of my cycle
Every month, us females go through the same four-week cycle; period, follicular phase (AKA feeling like a queen), ovulation and luteal phase (AKA feeling like hell).
The main reason I started wearing the Oura ring was to gain a greater understanding of my cycle in terms of my temperature, when I ovulate and also my heart rate.
In about 15 days, I will have been wearing the ring long enough for it to start predicting my ovulation dates based on the various factors mentioned.
I love that it notes when my temperature rises which tends to mean I am building up to my period.
Oh, and I will add that the ring only needs charging every five days or so, so it can be worn for a period of time without being taken off.
The downsides?
Honestly, the only thing that does turn me off a little is that the ring is a bit bulky.
But hey, if that’s the only negative, then it’s pretty good! I have no doubt that over time, Oura may adapt the ring slightly to make it a little slimmer.
There are also endless new features being introduced all the time…watch this space.
Meanwhile, I hope the Oura ring helps the England team as much as it’s helped me. Go England!