Is The Oura Ring Dissolving Your Intuition?

And what I'm doing to achieve a 100 sleep score.

Only a 76 on my sleep score. Damn! Although I felt great and was ready to kick ass that day, my Oura Ring told me something different. And I believed it.

This is the story of my experience with the Oura Ring. Ill talk about why I stopped wearing it, and whether you should consider getting one.

I've had an Oura ring for around three years now.

I got perks out of it, but it also came with a lot of negatives.

The Oura Ring started to become a game. Sleep was the playing field. I ensured I did everything right to wake up, check my phone, and see a 90 or above on my readiness score. I wanted an A every morning.

I remember thinking of all the ways I could get my sleep score higher. So I did them.

I placed a water mat under my bed to cool my body temperature at night to 63°F. I outfitted the whole house with red light. I began taking a long list of sleep supplements, which at one point included 400-800 mg of melatonin a night. Oh, and yes, it was a suppository; thank you for asking.

So yeah, I tried really hard to get amazing sleep. I stopped going out on weekends, even during my senior year of college. I enjoyed waking up early, but I stopped the going to all of the nighttime parties I use to hit up. I went to bed at 9:30 most weekend nights and woke up early. It allowed me to grow and stay disciplined, but did I miss out?

I never went to this one bar that was always across the street from my apartment. I remember just walking my dogs and seeing my friends but never going in. I watched a lot of dogs; that was my main job in college. Just writing about this makes me reminisce.

• Maybe I was doing this for a lack of As in school.

• Maybe I just wanted to delve into self-improvement.

• Maybe I just wanted something to validate that I was doing the right thing.

What are my biggest concerns with the Oura Ring?

This applies to other self-quantification devices as well, like Whoop, Fitbit, etc.

I believe there is utility in these tools. But we must use them as tools and not crutches. The Oura ring does a great job of gamifying your health by giving you scores and helping you unlock achievements, including 5,000 steps or above, high sleep scores, etc. But does that detract from the point of life?

I think it makes us more prone to stripping away the fun of life and transforming it into a game where the goal is to achieve remarkable scores from a device that isn't 100% accurate. We begin to lose our consciousness to a controller. Now health becomes something strict and rigid. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in health is that when you have low stress, many great things can happen. When you have high stress, it leads to chronic illness.

Pros with Oura Ring

The main pro for the ring is that it's the ultimate accountability partner. You almost feel obligated to become healthier when you wear it. It's a cool identity hack of sorts. It makes your brain go, "Oh, we are wearing the Oura Ring today; time to do 20 burpees every hour."

By seeing my metrics, I know I'm lacking on something like steps and can do something about it, like get moving more or work out. If you are female and want to track your cycles, the Oura Ring can do that as well. It can also track when you're super stressed out and even when you're getting sick. I think it's awesome, and everyone should try out some sort of device like this.

You can also track your HRV which is essential for longevity. The higher the HRV the better. Through your HRV Oura Ring will tell you if today is a day to chill or to do a hard workout. Pretty cool stuff.

Overall I love the ring, and all of the data it provides. What a time we live in. Unfortunately it had minor annoyances.

Why did I stop?

I haven’t worn the Oura Ring in a while for a couple of reasons.

One major theme was accuracy. Many people believe it is 100% accurate, as did I, but it’s only around 70% at most.

Here are some stats on accuracy:

Key findings include:

• Oura Ring was five percent more accurate than Apple Watch and 10 percent more accurate than Fitbit in four-stage sleep classification, adjusted for chance and compared to gold standard assessments, based on Cohen’s kappa (Oura Ring: 0.65, Apple Watch: 0.60, Fitbit: 0.55).

• Oura Ring had the highest sensitivity for wake detection at 68.6 percent compared to 67.7 percent for Fitbit and 52.4 percent for Apple Watch.

• Oura Ring had the highest sensitivity for deep sleep detection at 79.5 percent compared to 61.7 percent for Fitbit and 50.5 percent for Apple Watch.

• Oura Ring did not significantly underestimate or overestimate any of the four sleep stages, while Apple Watch overestimated light sleep by an average of 45 minutes and deep sleep by an average of 43 minutes.

Some days, I would wake up feeling great, but the Oura ring would say otherwise. I also started a new job and didn’t want to look odd with a ring on, so I took it off and put it in my drawer.

I also didn't want to fall into the biohacker trend of, “Oh, you got the Oura Ring.” Yes, it's cool, and it's great that people care for their bodies, but I guess I spent too much time around those who have Oura Rings.

It almost became a status symbol, like a watch. I have an Oura Ring. This is my identity. I am a cool biohacker. Man, I don't want to fall into that category. The category of blue light-wearing, EMF hat, quantum necklace, and infrared lights up my ass. I just want to be me.

Now that we've broken that down, I want to share the ways I will try to achieve a 100 sleep score and readiness score with my Oura Ring.

Just to see if I can hack the system.

Steps for a 100 Sleep Score

• Sleep Schedule Go to bed at 9:30 and wake up at 5:30. After using a couple of these devices, I found the AI loves seeing 8 hours of sleep, so I would start there.

• How to Stay asleep for 8 hours: use high-dose magnesium and Sleep Breakthrough.

• Avoid Artificial Lights: the second the sun goes down, avoid all artificial lights. Use only red light.

• Sauna Timing Use the sauna 1.5-2 hours before bedtime. Avoid doing it right before bed to prevent an elevated heart rate.

• Pre-Bedtime Routine Read a book before bed. It’s nature's melatonin.

• Sleep FM: Listen to nature noises while you sleep.

• Get Grounded Spend 1 hour getting grounded by putting your feet in grass or water.

• Sun Exposure Get 1.5 hours of sun exposure in the morning, midday, and nighttime.

• Daily Movement Walk a lot and include a nice weight training session midday.

• Creative Flow Engage in two rigorous flow states of writing, reading, or drawing/creating.

• Eating Schedule Stop eating 5 hours before bed. Take 10 digestive enzymes and 4 probiotics during that meal.

• Hydration Before Bed: stop drinking water 2 hours before bed.

• Evening Massage Get a massage sometime near evening.

• Neurofeedback Training Consider neurofeedback training with the Mendi.

I can't think of anything else. Any biohackers out there?

Basic Health Foundations

1. Wake up with the sun and go to sleep with the moon.

2. Eat an ancestral diet full of nutrient-rich foods like pasture-raised animals, organic veggies, and fruits.

3. Move daily. This can include walking or playing tennis. Work out 2-3 times a week with heavy weights.

4. Have a self-care routine to relax, including massage, breathwork, and meditation.

5. Surround yourself with a great community of like-minded people.

I suggest experimenting with the Oura Ring. Test it for 3 months, track your data, and see what happens. Notice what causes a poor sleep score. Also, if you feel great, but the Oura Ring says otherwise, question that.

Pros of the Oura Ring

• The Oura ring looks cool.

• You can track metrics like activity levels, steps, and HRV.

• Regardless of accuracy, it's cool to see these metrics and track your cycles.

Cons of the Oura Ring

• It can lead to gamifying your health.

• It is expensive, like many health products.

• I would compulsively check my performance metrics throughout the day.

• Sometimes, I felt rested in the morning, but the Oura ring showed a poor sleep score.

What’s your Oura ring experience like?

Disclaimer

The information in this article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a healthcare provider before starting any new treatment or supplement, especially if you have medical conditions or take other medications. Individual results may vary.

Consider seeing a specialist in functional medicine.