WHY I DITCHED MY APPLE WATCH FOR THE OURA RING

Every morning for the past three months, I wake up wearing a shiny gold ring on my right pointer finger. If you look closely, you can see beams of red or green light leaking out the sides as it scans my heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature. I roll out of bed, grab my phone, and open the Oura app.

- DONNA SCHILL

There, I see my daily health briefing. My Sleep and Readiness score give me a snapshot that helps me plan my activities for the day. Readiness score in the 70s? Perhaps I’ll work from home and go on a walk with my German Shepard. Readiness score above 80? Time to hit my high-intensity spin class! Next, I quickly approve the activities my ring detected in the last 24 hours—the quick walk I took over lunch and the afternoon pickleball session. Finally, I sync my data with the Natural Cycles app so I can see where I am in my cycle.

If I want to dig deeper, I can see a full breakdown of my night’s sleep, including the timing of REM and deep sleep. I’ve discovered how important those early hours of sleep are—all my deep sleep takes place before 2 a.m.! I can also see my Daytime Stress levels, resilience score (how you respond to physiological stress), and even my Chronotype (which calculates my body type’s preferred hours of rest and activity). All of this happens within a couple of minutes, and then I’m ready to go about my day.

I decided to give Oura a try after years of wearing an Apple Watch. This decision came from a shift within me. My Apple Watch was great at encouraging me to do just a little bit more than I thought I could, whether that was training for a half marathon or reaching my stand goal for the day. As someone who has a tendency toward burnout, I realized I needed encouragement to slow down.