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Logan is a Certified Sleep Science Coach with a deep understanding of what it means to struggle with sleep. Her years of experience researching and testing sleep products – including mattresses, natural sleep aids, and bedding – are critical to her role helping lead the editorial team. As a chronic insomniac, she aims to bring her findings to anyone struggling with getting adequate rest. Her expertise is in creating informative, trustworthy, and useful health content. When she’s not testing mattresses or researching CBT-I, she enjoys spending time in the sunshine with her husband and her dogs Pepper and Winston.
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The wearable Oura Ring is a small and lightweight device designed to fit snugly around your index or middle finger. Don’t let the size fool you, though — it’s packed with sensors that measure a wide range of body metrics associated with fitness, sleep, and readiness for physical activities.
As a sleep tracker alone, the Oura Ring is impressive. Each morning, you’ll receive a score based on how well you slept the previous night. The ring calculates this score based on how much time you spend in each of the four stages of your sleep cycle, along with heart rate and heart rate variability, core temperature, and other body metrics that change during sleep.
Oura recommends wearing the device for at least two weeks to establish a baseline for your individual metrics. I wore my Oura Ring for three weeks and tested how it felt and performed during a wide range of activities. The ring generates an impressive — and, at times, intimidating — amount of data, and I was also impressed with the app and its metric delivery. That said, the wearable design is better suited for certain daily and nightly activities, and less so for others.
Below, I’ll break down the Oura Ring’s essential functions and how to properly use it. I’ll also cover the nuts and bolts of buying and setting up the device.
The Oura Ring, created by the Finland-based health tech company Oura Health in 2016, is a comprehensive health tracker that monitors a host of metrics both during the day and while you sleep. The goal is to provide a holistic overview of your activities over a 24-hour span and to determine how physically and mentally prepared you are for the day ahead.
The current version of the Oura Ring, released in 2021, is a third-generation model. According to Caroline Kryder, Oura’s science communications lead, the biggest change to the third-gen model is two new LED colored sensors. These additional colors expand the ring’s abilities for tracking heart rate, blood oxygen, and other body metrics.
Other new features of the third-gen Oura Ring include:
We’ve long known that the amount of time you spend in each stage of your sleep cycle is crucial to overall sleep quality. However, many of today’s sleep trackers either don’t monitor this metric or produce results that can be vague, if not downright inaccurate.
The Oura Ring uses body temperature, blood oxygen levels, heart rate and heart rate variability, and breathing rate to determine which stage you’re in at any given moment while you sleep — and how long you spend in that stage before transitioning to the next. The ring itself does not have any sort of screen or interface, so you’ll need to view your data in the free Oura app.
Sleep stages break down as follows:
Using these bodily changes that occur throughout the sleep cycle, the Oura Ring can accurately gauge your current stage. The ring combines the first two stages as “light sleep.” It also monitors sleep efficiency, or how much time you spend asleep after initially nodding off. Other metrics include latency, or how long it takes you to fall asleep after getting into bed, and “restfulness,” which tracks how much time you spend awake or moving around in bed.
These metrics all contribute to the sleep score generated each morning, which follows a 100-point scale.
The Oura Ring also has a few resources to help you raise your daily sleep score. One is the Bedtime Guidance tool, which displays the optimal time you should go to sleep that night based on your recent sleep scores and the activities you’ve engaged in that day. The app’s library also includes tutorials for relaxing and optimizing sleep hygiene, guided breathing exercises, and other helpful programs.
One last sleep-tracking feature of the Oura Ring is “nap detection.” If you snooze during the day, the amount of time you spend asleep will contribute to the amount of sleep you’ve received during a 24-hour period. Napping doesn’t necessarily boost your sleep score, since most naps don’t involve all stages of your sleep cycle, but your sleep duration does contribute to your readiness score, which I’ll discuss further below.
Overall, I was quite impressed with the Oura Ring’s sleep-tracking capabilities — especially for a tracker this small. The sensors seem to work well, especially with improvements to the newest generation of the device. My sleep score generally lined up with how I felt in the morning and throughout the day. The data can be a bit overwhelming, but once I figured out how to interpret the scores, graphs, and other calculations, I was grateful for the wealth of information.
The Oura Ring’s activity tracking power is equally robust. A built-in 3D accelerometer uses the movements of your hand to interpret what the rest of your body is doing, and it tracks metrics accordingly based on your current activity. The accelerometer can also measure leg movements, so the Oura Ring is a reliable step counter.
There are complex algorithms that go into how the ring interprets movement based on intensity threshold. These allow the sensors to not only determine how hard you’ve pushed yourself during an activity, but also to ignore movements that don’t normally occur during that activity. So, for example, you won’t receive weird data if you wave to someone.
I mentioned earlier that the third-gen Oura Ring has extra LEDs. These allow the device to track new metrics, including:
These metrics, along with breathing rate and body temperature, are used to calculate your daily activity score. Like the sleep score, the activity score uses a 100-point scale and provides feedback using the same ranges of 85 to 100, 70 to 84, and below 70.
Other metrics tracked in the Oura app include:
Again, the capabilities of this small ring are remarkable, and the amount of physical activity data it tracks is somewhat intimidating. The first two weeks were a mixed bag in terms of tracking accuracy, but I noticed more consistency after my baseline was established.
I should point out one aspect of the Oura Ring that I personally didn’t enjoy. Most of my workouts consist of weightlifting, rowing, pullups, and other activities that involve gripping things with my hands. The Oura Ring is far from bulky, but it was still a hindrance during my workouts. I eventually stopped wearing it when I exercised, and as a result, I missed out on quite a lot of data that would have been relevant to my overall health.
If your workouts aren’t hand-centric like mine, then your experience will probably be quite different. I could see the Oura Ring being particularly useful for people who run, swim, or engage in other types of cardio exercises. On the other hand, you might find the ring more comfortable for lifting and rowing than I did. But based on my personal experience, the Oura Ring has some limitations as a workout companion.
Your sleep score and activity score are used to generate a readiness score, which predicts how prepared your body is for the day ahead. Specifically, the readiness score is based on the following:
Like other Oura data categories, readiness score is based on a 100-point scale. A score of 70 to 84 is good and indicative of adequate measures across these metrics. Higher than 85 means you are ready for more challenging activities.
If the score is lower than 70, this means you need to improve your recovery by finding a middle ground between vigorous activity and inactivity. For example, rather than pushing yourself to the limit, you could try to integrate yoga, light walking, or stretching into your daily routine. The idea here is to take things slow without being completely inactive.
Lastly, I want to mention a feature called Rest Mode. You can activate this mode when something interferes with your daily plans, such as an illness, physical injury, or jet lag. Rest Mode shouldn’t be used for days when you just feel like hunkering down and being inactive for no reason. More importantly, Oura stresses that you shouldn’t use the function to diagnose an illness or health condition.
As you might expect, navigating all these data points and programs can be challenging at first. Oura’s online guide to the ring’s different functions is a must-read for first-time users.
I’ve talked about how uncomfortable the Oura Ring felt during certain exercises. The rest of the time, I barely noticed it at all. This was true during the day and while I slept. So in terms of overall comfort, I’d give the Oura Ring a favorable rating.
One important factor to consider is which finger you want to use. The device is technically designed for either the index or middle finger, but the goal should be a comfortably snug fit. After placing an order, you’ll receive a free kit with sample rings in several sizes. I personally found that the most comfortable size fit snugly on my ring finger, so that’s the size I chose. This turned out to be perfectly fine.
As Oura’s Caroline Kryder told me, some users even wear the device on their thumb or pinkie because that size provides the best fit. This may result in more data gaps during the day, but it’s not a deal-breaker. The index and middle fingers provide the most accurate heart rate readings, so either of these fingers are encouraged over the others.
Here are a few other things to know about using the Oura Ring:
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Finally, here’s what to expect when you purchase the Oura Ring:
CostThe ring costs $299 or $399, depending on the color you choose. Each purchase includes a six-month subscription. After that, subscribers pay $5.99 per month. You can cancel the subscription, but pausing is not allowed.The Oura Ring is a genuinely impressive device in terms of sleep and activity tracking. A wealth of data points, bonus resources to optimize your daily routine, and a user-friendly app set this device apart from a lot of other trackers on the market today. The upfront cost may be prohibitive to some, but a $5.99 monthly subscription fee is more palatable.
As I’ve mentioned, the Oura Ring is more suitable for certain activities than others. But I’ve found this to be true of a lot of wearable trackers, so this is more a disadvantage of the entire product category.
My advice: If you use your hands during exercise, give the Oura Ring a shot and see if it works for you. You might find it more comfortable than I did. But even with gaps in data from taking off my Oura Ring during workouts, I found the device highly useful for tracking my personal data during the day and night.
Our product experts have extensive experience testing just about every sleep product on the market. Send an email to [email protected] or call us at (877) 672-8966 with your questions and we’ll help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
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Explore the SHOPNew year, same me. Just different goals. At the end of every year, I reevaluate my personal goals and made a pact to myself to get better quality sleep, incorporate more exercise, track my period, and decrease stress levels. Last year was tough, to say the least. The combination of spiraling thoughts, my distracting TikTok "for you" page (it's filled with cooking tips and cute cat videos, if you must know), and occasional doomscrolling took a hit on my physical and mental health. Determined to prioritize my health and wellness with more intention in 2023 , I decided to test out the much talked-about Oura Ring Generation 3, which you may or may not have already seen on your social media feed.
Unlike other health tracking devices like a FitBit or Apple Watch, the Oura Ring is a health tracking wearable that delivers and records health metrics in real time. Using red infrared light beams, this tracker ring measures heart rate and body temperature to deliver personal data on quality and amount of sleep (which we tested separately in a story specifically about how the Oura Ring helped optimize our editorial commerce director's sleep and, as a result, increased her performance at the gym), calories burned, oxygen saturation, period prediction, and more.
According to Sharon Gam, PhD, CSCS, a personal trainer and health coach based in Orlando, Florida, the Oura Ring uses technology known as photoplethysmography (PPG). "Basically, the device uses light and light sensors to detect changes in blood flow," says Dr. Gam. "The device sends light into the skin and measures how much light is reflected back from the tissues." The light reflection is then used to detect tiny changes in blood flow to calculate heart rate. "It can also calculate breathing rates from that heart rate data because of a process called respiratory sinus arrhythmia," adds Dr. Gam.
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Using heart rate, the Oura Ring can track heart rate variability, aka the change in the time between each individual heartbeat. Since "heart rate variability is a good indicator of what's going on with the central nervous system," heart rate variability can deliver insights on whether you're in a relaxed or stressed state, explains Dr. Gam. Changes in heart rate variability along with body temperature can be used to garner information about sleep, too.
Another notable metric that the Oura Ring tracks is blood oxygen. In short, blood oxygen levels can show how much oxygen is being carried to red blood cells. To track this metric, the Oura ring uses the same PPG technology, but the color of the light used in the ring—green or red—makes a huge difference. "Many devices use green light, which doesn't penetrate very deeply into the skin. If red light is used, the light can penetrate deeper and measure more signals, including oxygen saturation," says Dr. Gam. "The Oura ring uses red light."
Compared to laboratory-grade measurement devices and tests like electrocardiograms (ECG)—devices that record electrical signals from the heart—Oura Ring delivered comparable measurements in controlled conditions, per an Oura Ring-conducted study. Oura was found to have 99.9 percent reliability compared to medical-grade ECG for resting heart rate and 98.4 percent reliability compared to medical-grade ECG for heart rate variability. "Some of those studies were done or funded by the company, so it's always a good idea to take those findings with a grain of salt, but overall it seems like the Oura Ring is pretty accurate," says Dr. Gam.
Compared to a phone, a ring is much better, says Neil Paulvin, DO, an anti-aging and regenerative medicine doctor based in New York. "A ring in most cases is better than a phone since it has direct contact with the skin," he says. While more research on the accuracy of the Oura Ring compared to heart rate monitor watches and phones needs to be conducted, all devices are subject to issues with accuracy during movement, per Dr. Gam. One 2020 study1 published in Plos One compared the accuracy of a chest-strapped ECG devices to PPG devices like a watch, earbuds, a ring (not Oura), and a forearm band during outdoor trail running. The study found that none of the PPG devices were accurate in measuring heart rate. So, it's the best we've got right now—but it's certainly not perfect.
While other wearables, including some sleep wearables, can also track heart rate and temperature, the Oura Ring does go beyond that and offers a "readiness" score, which is based on a variety of factors, like resting heart rate, HRV balance (this stands for heart rate variability, and it measures how or if the previous day's activities impacted your body), body temp, sleep balance, recovery index (how long it takes your resting heart rate to stabilize while you sleep), and more. Under 70 means you're not fully recovered, and the ring will suggest you take it easy that day (maybe fully relax, or get some recovery walking in), 70-84 is good, and 85 or higher means your body is ready to take on an intense workout.
Our senior commerce editor, Gina Vaynshteyn—who also has the Oura Ring—finds the readiness reading ultra helpful. "I've only become consistent about going to the gym in the last year, so I really have yet to learn when my body needs to recover. The Oura Ring can quantify when I need to rest, which is so important in my (and anyone's fitness regimen)," Vaynshteyn says. Below is an example of a score that indicated she needed a rest day (this happened to be the day before she tested positive for COVID—the ring really did gauge her body's readiness!).
When I received my ring in the mail, which takes a few business days to deliver, the first thing I had to do was charge it. For my ring to fully charge, it took roughly 80 minutes for the very first charge and between 30 minutes to an hour for subsequent charges. Once my ring reached full battery life, I downloaded the Oura Ring app—which is compatible with iPhones and Androids—and paired my device to activate it.
All I needed to do was set up an account using my email and enter some personal information like height, weight, and date of birth. During set up, I was also asked what goals I wanted to work on, from managing stress levels to being more present and focused. The app delivers health metrics based on the parts of your health that you want to improve on.
Using red infrared light beams, the Oura Ring measures and tracks
Lightweight, the ring clocks in at just 0.1 pounds or three grams (I weighed it using my food scale) and is about the size of a quarter. It's available in sizes six to 13 and in five colors: silver, black, matte black, gold, and rose gold.
Compared to a regular ring, the Oura fits differently because it features three nodes with tracking technology underneath. To find my best size, I utilized Oura's free sizing kit, which comes with 13 differently-sized rings for me to try before having the ring delivered.
So far, I've been testing the ring for three months, and it's been insightful. Using my resting heart, which usually ranges between 48 and 60, Oura delivers the data on how long I've slept, the time I've spent in various stages of sleep—awake, REM, light, and deep—and my heart rate. Considering these factors, I'm given a sleep score, ranging between 55 (not-so-great sleep) and 88 (good sleep). If I reached sufficient sleep, the app gives me a virtual high-five. If I'm lacking sleep, it sends me a notification that day to unwind to get a better night's rest for the following day. Also nice? It tracks my movement during my snooze using a line system; the higher the line, the stronger my movement.
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is check the Oura Ring app to look at my sleep score and time spent in slumber land—both of which makes me more cognizant of the fact that I need to turn off my electronics and get into bed earlier in the evening. What's helpful is the app sends me a sleep recommendation to take it easy around 9 p.m.—every night. For me, unwinding looks like writing in my gratitude journal, taking a hot shower, and powering down my phone.
Over the past few months, I've experienced improvement in my sleep scores and sleep times. In the early days of using the ring, I was getting scores in the 50s and 60s and falling asleep at around 2 a.m. But having used it for three months now, I'm getting sleep scores in the 70s. I'm now in bed by 11 or 11:30 pm, and I feel less sluggish and more energized the next day.
Using body temperature, the Oura Ring also predicts the exact (or at least, very close) day when my period is coming. As someone with a longer cycle and irregular period, the Oura has been a godsend, informing me what days I should be wearing a pad or my trusty pair of period underwear.
Since I hit the gym four times per week, I love using the heart rate tracker and activity recorder. The ring tracks my beats throughout time and even delivers it in real-time, no matter if I'm walking or running. What's cool is if I hold down the heart rate function, I can feel the beats per minute (neat, I know).When I'm working out, I record and time my runs and walks, both indoor and outdoor, on the app, all of which contribute to my activity score.
Since getting more physically active was a goal of mine, the app preset an activity goal of 350 calories. While I'm not meticulously tracking my calories on a daily basis, seeing this number enables me to plan my workouts to get in more movement throughout the day. For example, if my calorie burn is lower toward the end of the day (I go to the gym after 6 p.m.), I'll hop on the treadmill for a 20 to 30-minute walk to ensure I've gotten in enough steps.
So far, I've reached my activity goal every day. One caveat to note: The app cannot track specific activities like jumping rope, lifting, and HIIT exercises, so I take the activity score with a grain of salt. It can only detect an elevated heart rate from those aforementioned activities. Vaynshteyn finds that it's still effective when she uses it during Orangetheory (basically a HIIT class, but performance tracking is based on heart rate). It imports it from Apple Watch (yes, that's two to three if you're wearing the OTF heart rate monitor—wearables, but well-worth it if you're curious about workout performance outside of just cardio). See below for how this tracking gets broken out in the app:
I can wear the ring for days at a time without a charge (between three and four days). However, once the battery levels dip to 30 percent, Oura recommends a charge, especially before bed. That's because the sleep-tracking function uses a lot of horsepower. I like to charge my ring while I'm in the shower, sweeping my apartment, or washing the dishes.
Well, the pros were right. The Oura Ring has the ability to give you the best health tracking results technology outside the doctor's office can provide. It's not perfect, but it's pretty dang awesome. Before the Oura Ring, I didn't track my health metrics because I didn't like the idea of health tracking devices like watches, but the Oura Ring makes it possible to monitor my sleep, activity, and stress levels sans bulkiness. And since I wear jewelry on a daily basis, this ring fits right in as a piece of bling in my collection. I also love that it's lightweight, is water-resistant up to 330 feet, and is simple in design.
As a weightlifter, I do find the ring bothersome during certain activities like assisted pull-ups and pull-downs, but I've learned to take off the ring during certain exercises (just remember to put it back on if you're at the gym!). Other than that, I love having it on me to track my heart rate during treadmill sprints and runs. The Oura Ring Generation 3, the successor of the original Heritage Ring, retails for $349 in the silver and black colorways, $449 for stealth, $499 for gold, and $549 for rose gold. The silver and black colorways are similar in price to health tracking watches.
Having tested this ring for several months now, I don't sleep or go about my day without it and foresee the Oura being in my health regimen for the long run (pun fully intended). It's helped me stay more informed about my sleep habits and sculpt better practices for nighttime. The ring even helps me get in more physical activity by sending me notifications about moving around. I'd recommend this ring to all wellness and fitness enthusiasts and pros looking to get more shut-eye, track their stress levels, predict their periods, and be more informed about their body.
Editor's note: While the Oura Ring is a great tool to use, always call your doctor or healthcare provider if you're experiencing health concerns. The Oura Ring is a great supplemental device to use for everyday monitoring, but it shouldn't replace visits to the doctor, nor can it diagnose illnesses.
It depends on you and your lifestyle. “I think having access to their real-time health and fitness data can be a great tool to help people improve their health habits and motivate them to be more active and take better care of themselves,” says Dr. Gam. At the same time, some people may have trouble using that data objectively, and it can create unnecessary pressure, “so whether it’s right for someone is a personal decision,” she adds.
“It’s pretty well-established that the sensors and technology that the Oura Rings use to collect data is accurate,” says Dr. Gam. One 2022 study2 found that the ring was accurate in assessing sleep and another concluded that it accurately measured resting heart rate3. It’s important to note that most studies have been conducted on generation 2 rings, so further testing would be needed to determine the accuracy of generation 3 rings.
Per a 2022 study, the Oura Ring Gen 2 and Apple Watch were able to detect two-state sleep, aka REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement), but Oura outperformed Apple when it came to detecting wake epochs4, a period of wakefulness in a sleep cycle. Wake epochs are an important measurement because as they help researchers determine the duration and frequency of awakenings throughout the night.
When it comes to accurate heart rate measuring, “almost all fitness trackers have issues with accuracy during activity because movement causes problems with the sensors that measure heart rate, so I wouldn’t rely too heavily on either tracker to be able to accurately measure heart rate during exercise,” explains Dr. Gam.
Caroline Kryder, product manager and women’s health lead at Oura, tells W+G that without a membership, the Oura Ring Gen 3 can only be used with limited functionality. “You’ll be able to see your three daily Oura scores (readiness, sleep, and activity), ring battery, basic profile information, app settings, and the explore tab. With the Oura membership, users have access to in-depth sleep analysis, live and accurate heart rate monitoring, body temperature readings for early illness detection and period prediction, heart rate tracking during workouts, and daily, weekly, and monthly health trends.
Yes, the monthly fee is $5.99 (USD), according to Kryder. New customers who purchase an Oura ring will receive one free month of Oura membership.
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