Do Oura rings track blood pressure?

Forbes Vetted

Jason R. Rich

Forbes Staff

Forbes Vetted

Contributor Group

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Apr 8, 2022,06:00pm EDT|

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Perhaps, like me, you’ve figured out that entering middle age can be challenging from a health and fitness standpoint. Based on my doctor’s recommendation, I’ve recently needed to put more effort into watching my weight, blood pressure, stress level, heart rate and sleep pattern. While I continue to use my Apple Watch Series 7 to handle some of these tasks, I’ve also come to rely on the Oura Ring (Generation 3).

The inside of the Oura Ring contains a variety of highly accurate sensors that collect data ... [+] throughout the day and night.

I’ve found that wearing this ring all day and night on my right index finger is unobtrusive. Its size and weight are like any other metal ring and it’s fully waterproof. Plus, its rechargeable battery lasts for about a week. This makes its maintenance hassle-free. Nobody can tell I am wearing a monitoring device.

Unfortunately, this is not some magical item from The Lord of the Rings, nor does it make a great pick for Wedding Week. However, the inside of the ring is packed with technology that constantly measures my heart rate, activity level, sleep pattern and body temperature. It then wirelessly sends data to my iPhone to be analyzed. What I love about this device is that it provides a tremendous amount of insight without annoying beeps, vibrations, notifications or visible LED lights that are common in smartwatches and fitness trackers.

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Oura

Oura Ring

Dr. Michael Breus, Ph.D is a medical board certified sleep specialist and clinical psychologist. He uses the Oura Ring with most of his patients. “There are several types of people that will find this ring useful. This includes anyone with an overall interest in their health. It’s a very good educational tool that’s particularly useful to people with any type of sleep disorder, depression, anxiety or cardiac issues,” posits Dr. Breus. “No matter what you do, you’ll do it better with a good night sleep. The Oura Ring collects and analyzes data that helps people understand their sleep patterns and the quality of their sleep.”

It's necessary to purchase the unisex Oura Ring directly from the manufacturer’s website. Because it requires a perfect fit, the buying process starts by ordering a sizing kit that includes 13 plastic ring mockups. Selecting the correct ring size is essential for achieving accurate data collection.

The objective is to try each sample ring on and then choose the one that offers a snug but comfortable fit. The company recommends wearing the plastic ring for at least 24 hours to ensure a proper fit, since some finger swelling throughout the day and night is common. The plastic sizing ring I selected turned out to be the exact size and almost the same weight as the actual Oura Ring I wound up ordering.

Using the provided ring sizing kit, achieving a perfect fit for your Oura ring is easy.

When ordering the actual ring online, I could choose between a silver, black, stealth or gold finish. I went with the black version because I felt it offered an understated appearance and would blend nicely with my typical wardrobe.

The Oura Ring arrived within a week. It included a six-month Oura Membership (required to use the ring). After that, the monthly fee is $6. The first step was installing the Oura app on my smartphone and pairing the ring to the phone. This process took less than five minutes. After allowing the ring to fully charge, I slipped it on my finger and went about my daily routine. The ring began gathering and recording information immediately.

It took several days for the app to get to know me before it started providing insightful analysis (as opposed to raw data). It’s the Oura mobile app that is the true brains behind the ring. The app provides both up-to-the-minute and long-term insight pertaining to readiness, sleep and activity—but not in the same way as a fitness tracker, like a Fitbit or Apple Watch.

The Oura mobile app gathers a vast amount of raw data that's continuously collected from the ring.

The app continuously displays three scores (along with a lot of data used to calculate each score). The Readiness score and analysis offers insight into what my body can currently take on based on my most recent sleep, activity level and body stress signals.

The separate Activity score shows how I’ve balanced my activity, inactivity and rest throughout the day. It does this by measuring how much I’ve moved, how long I’ve sat dormant (which I refer to as my laziness score) and the quality of my sleep the previous night. The daily Sleep score considers my bedtime schedule, nightly heart rate, body temperature and overall sleep time. It also considers the amount of deep sleep, REM sleep and light sleep I achieved during the night.

My Oura Ring studies patterns to pinpoint abnormalities. It uses body temperature and heart rate data, for example, to predict potential problems while making personalized recommendations about how to improve my overall mental and physical health.

Oura

Oura Ring

The app reports many numeric ratings and results, but also displays easy-to-understand charts and graphs. It points out when certain contributors are poor, good or optimal, and showcases what an ideal result should be. I really like that Oura Ring provides a broad overview and real time personal analysis. It graphically shows how current data compares to previously collected data. 

The most useful insight I’ve discovered so far, in the few weeks I’ve been wearing this device, is that maintaining a consistent bedtime and wake-up time directly impacts my daily energy and alertness level.

By following the advice offered by the app (that’s based on my personal data), I have noticed an improvement in my nightly REM Sleep and Deep Sleep, and have seen continuous increases in my Readiness score with each new day. This has begun to translate into being more awake and alert throughout the day—without relying on extra caffeinated beverages.

“There are people who get so caught up in studying their sleep data that they develop what we’re calling Orthosomnia. They get so involved in their sleep tracking that their activities actually disrupt their sleep,” said Dr. Breus. For this reason, he recommend carefully reviewing the data provided by the Oura Ring app only once or twice per week. “I suggest checking the app’s data and analysis on Wednesdays and then again once during the weekend.”

The Oura Ring can be comfortably worn all day and night.

According to Dr. Breus, what sets the Oura Ring apart from the other sleep trackers on the market is its form factor and the level of analysis the wearer receives via the mobile app. “Among many other things, the Oura Ring collects and analyzes core body temperature extremely accurately. This is useful data when analyzing someone’s sleep accurately,” he expounds. “Oura as a company is committed to sleep tracking and science, which is what sets it apart from competing fitness trackers that only measure a few aspects of someone’s sleep.”

One of the key features that Dr. Breus particularly likes about the Oura Ring is its ability to track heart rate variability, or HRV. “This is a great overall metric of heath. When someone is sleeping better, their HRV tends to rise. I look at this as a good overall general metric of health,” he stated. “I then focus on the sleep score and related data provided by the Oura app.”

The Oura Ring provides a lot of data on a daily basis and over time. While the app does a nice job explaining what this data means to the wearer, Dr. Breus recommends finding a sleep specialist or doctor who understand what the Oura Ring is. This will allow the ring wearer’s doctor to properly analyze the data collected so they can make an accurate medical diagnosis if one is required.

“People should use their Oura Ring to look at trends over time. Looking at 30 days or more worth of someone’s data, one thing I want to know is whether the wearer is waking up and going to sleep at a consistent time. Wake time inconsistency is the number one reason why people experience disrupted sleep. Average total sleep time is also something that’s important to evaluate,” said Dr. Breus.

He added, “There are a lot of insights people can get from the data collected by the ring over time. The more long-term, longitudinal data that’s collected, the more useful this information can be. If someone is consistently not sleeping well, this is a major indicator that something is wrong.”

It’s important to understand, according to Dr. Breus, that the Oura Ring is not an FDA-cleared diagnostic medical device. That’s not what it’s designed to be. Instead, it collects and analyzes data and looks for inconsistencies, which can then be used by a medical professional to help diagnose an issue. “Oura continues to add new functionality to what the ring can do. Most recently, functionality for tracking menstrual cycle was added. In June, the ring will be able to track workout heart rate. Later this summer, blood oxygen sensing [SpO2] will be introduced via a software update,” said Dr. Breus.

During my time wearing the Oura Ring, it’s been an accurate and reliable device that’s become an important tool in my quest to achieve a better mental and physical balance in my life. The price may seem a bit steep, but with minimal effort on my part, I have seen improvements. For me, the $299 was a worthwhile investment.

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