If you haven’t heard about this sleep tracking device already, then you should definitely read this article about my Oura Ring review.

What is the OURA Ring

Sleep is vital for health and performance. But just going to bed and staying between your bedsheets doesn’t mean you’re actually getting any benefits from your sleeping. That’s why it’s crucial to improve the quality of your sleep, not the quantity.

And that’s why I also use the OURA Ring. You might have seen me wearing this in my videos for a while and I must say that it’s quite amazing.

Basically, the OURA Ring is an activity monitor that tracks your sleep and movement.

It records how you slept during the night and then gives you precise data about how long you spent in different sleep cycles, how much time you actually spent awake and when did it happen.

Imagine if you could have something that measures your biological readiness, tells you what state your body is in and how to improve your physical and mental performance.

Imagine how much healthier, how much more productive and stress-free you could be.

The OURA Ring does exactly that. Quite amazing, I know.

How Does the OURA Ring Work

So, how does the OURA Ring actually work?

You put it on and it starts to measure the pulse in your arteries

It measures your heartbeat, body temperature, and activity levels during the day. How many steps you take, how much time you spend in a sedentary position and how often you should move around.

All of that data will be synced to the OURA cloud app where you can see every measurement on the days you wore the ring.

I like how you can see graphs and certain trends in your daily habits. This can really help you to make objective adjustments in your training, your routines, and recovery.

What Does the OURA Ring Track

The cloud app has 3 tabs:

#1 The Sleep Tab has data on your sleep

When you go to bed, the ring will automatically start measuring your sleep cycles. I can’t believe how accurately it does this.

For instance, last night I went asleep at 11:30 PM. You can see I was in light sleep 40% of the time, in deep sleep 30%, REM sleep 20% and I was awake 10% of the time. Of course, it’s not 100% accurate but this information is just invaluable – it tells you whether or not you’re actually sleeping and if you need to improve it in some way. The app will then give you a daily score, which for that night was 77 – not the best one, which means I have something to work on.

On a good night, the ring will tell me how good my sleep was. It’s going to calculate the score based on how fast you fell asleep, how many times you woke up, how much deep sleep and REM you got, and other biomarkers like heart rate. My highest score has been 97.

#2 The Movement Tab has data on your activity levels.

Based on how well you slept, the app is going to tell you how active you should be.

I’m not so sure about that because it will tell you to walk less, whereas walking is a very good recovery exercise, especially after a bad night. It’s going to measure your steps and how long you’ve stayed being inactive. You can set notifications when you’ve been motionless for too long so the ring will tell you to get off your ass and start moving.

There’s also a very accurate graph about the intensity of your movement. For instance, when I did some jumping jacks, it went up and when I was writing it went down.

For instance, when I did some jumping jacks, it went up and when I was writing it went down. It counts your daily steps. Like any other fitness tracker, it has a step counter and it’s pretty convenient. You can assess your levels of physical activity and motion throughout the day. One problem I noticed was that it doesn’t pick up the steps you take on a walking treadmill desk because your hands are not swinging along.

Like any other fitness tracker, it has a step counter and it’s pretty convenient. You can assess your levels of physical activity and motion throughout the day. One problem I noticed was that it doesn’t pick up the steps you take on a walking treadmill desk because your hands are not swinging along. You can wear it while working out and while lifting weights as well because the ring itself is very strong. They say it’s made of highly scratch resistant ceramic zirconia, which sounds resilient. I haven’t had any issues with the material of the ring.

They say it’s made of highly scratch resistant ceramic zirconia, which sounds resilient. I haven’t had any issues with the material of the ring. It’s also going to measure your calories burned for the day but I don’t trust any of these calorie measurers because how many calories you actually burn during exercise depends on many things, like your cardiovascular fitness and metabolic homeostasis. So, for that, this function isn’t very accurate but it can give you some extra data if you like to track those kinds of things.

#3 The Readiness Tab has data on your preparedness for physical activities.

It’s based on how well you slept and what your other physiological markers are like.

Apparently, the ring measures your heart rate variability (HRV), which is the interval between your heart beats. Your heart doesn’t beat in a monotonous single rhythm like 1-1-1-1-1 but it has these random fluctuations of 1-1-0-2-0-1-1. A high HRV with a lot of these ripples indicates a robust and recovered nervous system. If your HRV is low, then you’re still in a sympathetic state and you should focus more on rest and recovery. I’m not sure how accurately the OURA Ring measures your HRV because you’re not wearing any additional measuring device strapped around your chest like a normal HRV monitor would, but the HRV score itself is another invaluable piece of data. If you’re working out hard on compromised and under-recovered nervous system, then you’re doing more harm than good – you’re going to dig a much deeper hole for you to come out from. That’s why going balls to the wall beast mode every day will lead to burnout. HRV will help to prevent that.

which is the interval between your heart beats. Your heart doesn’t beat in a monotonous single rhythm like 1-1-1-1-1 but it has these random fluctuations of 1-1-0-2-0-1-1. A high HRV with a lot of these ripples indicates a robust and recovered nervous system. If your HRV is low, then you’re still in a sympathetic state and you should focus more on rest and recovery. I’m not sure how accurately the OURA Ring measures your HRV because you’re not wearing any additional measuring device strapped around your chest like a normal HRV monitor would, but the HRV score itself is another invaluable piece of data. If you’re working out hard on compromised and under-recovered nervous system, then you’re doing more harm than good – you’re going to dig a much deeper hole for you to come out from. That’s why going balls to the wall beast mode every day will lead to burnout. HRV will help to prevent that. The Readiness Tab also measures your resting heart rate, which again can give you some idea of the trends in your sleep and activity levels. There’s a recovery index measures how long it takes for your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) to stabilize and reach its lowest point during the night, which can also be useful for determining what is making you sleep badly.

What I’ve Benefited from Using the OURA Ring

I looked up some of the studies done on this thing and they show that the OURA Ring measurements are all very accurate and precise – both the sleep cycles, HRV, and body temperature.

What I’ve found it to be most useful for is structuring my daily activities around my sleep and readiness scores.

If I see that my sleep score is 60 and I only got a few hours of quality sleep – which is horrible – then I’m not going to hit the gym hard, even though I might have scheduled a heavy workout for that day. Instead, I’m going to look at the state of my body objectively and do some easier exercises like Yoga, foam rolling or just low-intensity cardio.

If I see that my readiness is very high then it shows my nervous system is recovered and ready for a more intense training session. In that case, I’ll lift weights and do HIIT because I’m capable of handling it.

But the benefits of the OURA Ring don’t apply to just physical training:

The sleep and readiness scores also tell me how much stress I’m dealing with. If I see it’s starting to get a bit too high, then I can pre-emptively implement some other relaxation activities that promote recovery. Like foam rolling, having a short power nap, going to a sauna or just chilling in general.

Stress affects both your body and mind – your productivity, your cognition, your mood, and your relationships are all affected by cortisol.

Using data provided by the OURA Ring, we could all be less stressed out, be more productive over the long term, be healthier and happier. That’s why you should Get the Body Mind Empowerment Handbook free e-book.

Here are the PROS of the OURA Ring:

Accurate quantification and tracking

Extremely durable and resilient

The battery lasts for up to 7 days, which is a huge improvement from the first generation ring that lasted only for 2-3 days

You can turn it to airplane mode which prevents you getting exposed to the Bluetooth signal, which is a massive plus. EMF and Bluetooth lower testosterone, decrease your sleep quality and degrade your bone density as well, so you want to keep the ring off all the time. When you do connect it to the mobile app, you’ll sync all the collected data to the cloud where you can see the graphs and trends.

Waterproof up to 50 meters so you can wear it while showering, sweating or swimming

It fits your finger perfectly and I can’t really notice wearing it.

Looks cool as hell – there are 3 colors, Arctic White, Mirror Black or Stealth Black

Here are the CONS of the OURA Ring:

Some of the data isn’t very useful, like the calories burned and it can overwhelm the user

It’s not always accurate. For instance, some days you may feel like crap but your readiness score is high. But on other days you feel invincible whereas the ring shows you’ve slept only 4 hours.

You have to be your own coach and base your activities on your past experiences and how you’re really feeling.

It’s not as cheap as your average wristband or a step counter. The price is €314 euros and it could be potentially cheaper. I think the awesome looking design and resistant material of the ring bumps up the price but if it creates a better project and it’s ultimately worth it.

Why You Should Get an OURA Ring

Imagine how much money a poor night’s sleep costs you? Or what cost it has on your overall health? Over the long term, the price of the ring is nothing in comparison to how much more productive and high-performing you’ll be.

That’s the greatest reason why you should get an OURA Ring – accurate quantifiable sleep data.

There aren’t many other tracking devices out there that do this that precisely.

The airplane mode function is extremely important and beneficial

It’s not going to disturb your sleep because you won’t even notice wearing it

Of course, there are some things that could be better about this ring but my rating for the OURA Ring would be 9.2/10.

How to Get Your OURA Ring Coupon

The price of the ring might have scared a few of you off but don’t worry – it’s worth it.

I’ve also managed to get an affiliate offer for the OURA RING for €50 off, so you can get it under €275 euros.

After you purchase the product, they’ll send you a ring size tester with fake rings you can wear for a few days to see which size fits your fingers the best.

When you’ve decided on the size, they’ll send you the ring with the color of your choosing, a charger and a manual.

After the delivery brings you the ring to your door, you’ll download the app to your smartphone, connect the ring and start wearing it.

Over the course of a few days and weeks, you’ll get a better understanding of your sleep cycles and how you could optimize them.

Stay Empowered

Siim