I still remember the first time I heard about Oura. I was fascinated to see a tiny device capable of so much. Considering I was always interested in tech, I was still able to process and see Oura for what it was. However, to the general public, the Oura ring was so much more.
From the look and comfort to tracking capabilities and to finally showing precious data to its users, Oura has nailed a lot of things already. Don’t take me wrong, I still believe it can do a lot of things better, remove its membership, for instance.
For this article, I will be decoding what Oura ring features gathered the most attention and were actually impressive.
Oura’s Impressive Sleep Tracking Features
Oura ring is popularly known for its sleep-tracking feature. You sleep, and it stays awake, monitoring your every breath and heartbeat. Let’s dive into the details of what it does while you are asleep.
Super Accurate Sleep Tracking & Insights
Did you hear about Oura’s sleep score feature? Well, if you are wondering what it is, it’s a mini report card of your last night’s sleep.
Oura Ring’s high-tech sensors allow it to keep track of your sleep patterns, including sleep stages and sleep quality. After closely assessing your sleep, it gives you a sleep score ranging between 0-100. Isn’t that absolutely amazing?
Well, not just that, if you head to the Sleep tab on your Oura app, you will see plenty of other details like – Total sleep, sleep efficiency, Restfulness, REM sleep, Deep Sleep, Breathing Regularity, Latency, etc.
While sleeping, Oura Ring tracks your HRV, RHR, and blood oxygen levels (SpO2) to understand your sleep quality.
Before Oura, sleep tracking was not accurately done by the other devices. Apple Watch did a good job at satisfactory sleep tracking, but again, wearing a watch all the time is uncomfortable, especially while sleeping; it also needs to be charged again and again.
So when the Oura Ring was launched, all eyes were automatically glued to it because of its precious and in-depth sleep-tracking feature, which came in the size of a tiny, comfortable titanium ring. It gained a lot of demand amongst fitness lovers, as proper sleep and recovery form a crucial part of their everyday lives.
Oura’s SpO2 Measurement
Oura ring’s SpO2 feature goes deep into analyzing your blood oxygen levels, which determines the percentage of oxygen-saturated hemoglobin in your blood. The ring tracks your SpO2 during the whole duration of your sleep. Periods of low SpO2 would imply sleep issues or disturbances in sleep.
Oura, Your Sleep Coach
You can say Oura is the real OG when it comes to progressive sleep tracking. Oura ring accurately takes note of the time that you fall asleep and the exact time that you wake up; it will also keep reminding you that your bedtime is approaching via notifications.
Also, when you wake up, it will tell you if you need to rest more, head over to the meditation section, take a nap, etc. Not just this, it will also urge you to take dedicated steps towards fixing your sleep patterns.
We all love being pampered and taken care of, which is why Oura is clearly shining. Owing to its precise sleep tracking, Oura’s demand is growing. In my opinion, there might be other sleep-tracking devices, but I don’t think anyone does it like Oura.
Nap Detection With Oura
Naps aren’t just fulfilling, they are important for body recovery as well. I myself take naps every now and then to recharge myself.
Oura takes you deeper into sleep tracking as its high-end sensors detect your naps. It does not matter whether you are taking a nap in the evening or the afternoon. It can detect it anytime based on your body movement and other metrics it rightly detects.
If your sleep time varies between 15 minutes and 3 hours, Oura will automatically detect it as a nap, and anything beyond that would be considered proper sleeping. Isn’t that cool?
Oura Ring’s Heart Health Features
A healthy heart is everyone’s top priority, and that is why a lot of people are also going gaga over Oura’s seamless heart rate tracking technology. Let’s see what exactly it is about Oura’s heart rate tracking that is winning hearts.
How is Your Heart Doing?
We have been hearing about so many heart attack cases recently. Cardiovascular health has become a very important topic these days, and everyone is proactively trying to keep a check on their heart’s health and making necessary changes for it. And this is why Oura’s real-time heart rate tracking is turning heads.
Whether you are sleeping or awake, Oura is always at your service, taking care of your heart. It tracks your RHR (resting heart rate), HRV (heart rate variability), and the regularity (or irregularity) of the time between pulses and provides you with a detailed observation of how your heart responds throughout the day to different activities and situations.
All these details are prepared exclusively for you in the form of a graphical representation. Along with that, a summary is also provided to you, which can be compared to your baseline metrics and the previous day’s report. This helps you understand more about your heart health and identify any patterns or risks.
What’s Your Cardiovascular Age?
Did you know there is something called a Cardiovascular age, which is the estimated age of your heart and blood vessels? It is different from your chronological age; Oura calculates it by understanding your lifestyle choices and closely monitoring your heart rate patterns. It is extremely fascinating for me as a user to see Oura come up with such interesting features.
While it is understandable that this age might be just a made-up number, just looking at this number does make me think about my heart health. And I think that’s the main goal of the team behind it. For people to just think about their cardiovascular health on an everyday basis.
Oura’s Scores and Sickness Alerts
Other eye-catching features of Oura include temperature sensing, readiness score, activity score, battery life, etc. Let us understand in detail how these features make the Oura ring unique.
Readiness Score
How about having a personal genie tell you every morning if you are ready to slay the day?
Every morning, Oura Ring prepares a personalized Readiness score just for you, which also ranges from 0 – 100. It gives you an idea of how ready you are for the day, if you had a sound sleep or not, and how well your body is recovering from mental as well as physical strain.
A detailed analysis is shared with you each morning after you wake up. A lot of people, including me, are obsessed with the Readiness score, as it sets the tone for the day.
The readiness score is calculated by taking a lot of parameters into consideration in the background-
HRV (during sleep), nighttime RHR, 24/7 monitored body temperature, sleep stages (light, deep, and REM sleep), overall sleep quality, previous day’s activity levels, and recovery index (how fast your heart rate drops after falling asleep).
Oura also takes note of the trends in all these parameters over time and notes any deviations from established baseline metrics.
Oura’s Activity Overviews
Oura keeps you on your toes by constantly analyzing your daily activities. It keeps track of your calories burned and the number of steps you are taking. If you are not optimally active, like a good friend, it gives you personalised recommendations to help you reach your health goal. It also gives you an honest Activity Score, ranging from 0 -100, which a lot of people find useful.
Oura app also sends you a “stretch your legs” notification if you have not been active for an hour. I think it is pretty useful especially when I am at my desk for straight 5 hours, deep into work and such reminders remind me to take a breathers in between work.
Sickness Alert!
What if I tell you that you can predict if you will be fit or sick in the coming days? It sounds mysterious, right? Behind this mystery is Oura’s another distinctive feature, called Temperature Monitoring.
It gives you an idea of your Baseline Body Temperature (BBT), which helps keep track in case there are any swings in your body temperatures that might result in a health hazard (sickness, exertion, etc.). This means that if you notice high temperatures, you need to switch your health gear, as it is a sign that you might fall ill in the upcoming days.
But do not panic! The good news is that you don’t have to do it all by yourself; Oura also provides you with ways to recover and get back to your typical body temperature.
Firstly, it will notify you of any deviation from your normal health metrics. It will provide you with a detailed breakdown of what has gone wrong, e.g., high RHR or Low HRV, increase in body temperature, etc. Then, it also comes up with personalized recommendations curated just for you to help you up your health game!
Rest Mode
I stumbled upon a feature called the Rest Mode, which turns out to be a very interesting feature that allows you to take a break from your everyday strenuous activities, if you are not feeling well or need a break for any other reasons.
The best part is how well the Oura ring figures out, on its own, that your body needs rest. I feel with a busy lifestyle I have, sometimes days go on when I do not sit and relax to take everything in. It does take a toll on my body.
For whatever reason, you need rest; even without the app suggesting it, you can still turn on the Rest Mode, and that shuts your activity goals until you keep it off.
Oura’s Stress Tracking
When I heard Oura is introducing stress tracking, I will be honest I was pretty doubtful about it. I know for a reason physiological stress does not equate to mental or psychological stress. But when I actually used some of the features, it was indeed pretty insightful to find out how the times when I am actually under mental stress affect my body.
Daytime Stress Tracking
Oura Ring tracks your daytime physiological stress (when you are not sleeping), which can be a result of variations in your physical activities like excessive workouts or not having proper sleep and recovery. This might result in headaches, body aches, muscle fatigue, drowsiness, and other such problems.
Oura tracks our physiological stress levels by monitoring our heart rate, HRV (heart rate variability), motion, and body temperature trends; based on that, it generates our stress levels. This helps you analyze and take the necessary measures, like taking a nap or doing guided meditations, to combat it.
Build Your Resilience
Oura also comes up with a Stress resilience feature to help you understand your ability to withstand any kind of physiological stress. It helps you strike a balance between your stress levels and recovery by telling you how you are coping with your stress levels. Wow! I mean it’s like having a mentor sitting just next to you to help you get through the odd times.
Resilience levels are calculated by taking into consideration your daytime stress, daytime recovery, and nighttime recovery. These are again dependent on your HR, HRV, RHR body temperature variations, Readiness score, Sleep score, and Recovery Index. Pretty detailed work, isn’t it?
Well, that’s how Oura is actually providing value for money by giving you such deep insights about so many things that are going on within your body.
Special Focus on Women’s Health
Cycle Insights
Launched in 2023, this feature has all my heart as my cycle is quite unpredictable and there are days when I keep anticipating it or waiting for it. With Oura’s cycle insights feature my period tracking has become super easy.
Although I have been using Flo for a while now, being able to log in my periods in Oura, and seeing what exactly changes in my body does prove to be very insightful.
Oura Gen3 makes use of your night body temperature and HRV to predict your next period date. The period-tracking will start after Oura collects 60 nights of data from you.
In 60 days it establishes your body temperature baseline also known as temperature trends to be able to dive deeper into your cycle phases. That’s pretty detailed I know! Kudos to Oura for launching this female centric feature.
Pregnancy Insights
The first time I heard about this feature, I was taken aback. Like, I couldn’t stop wondering that a little ring could do so much.
In March 2024, Oura launched its Pregnancy Insights feature that aims to guide and support women throughout their pregnancy journey. How thoughtful is that!
Oura uses your temperature trends along with other data like Basal body temperature, heart rate, and sleep quality to help and guide you in your pregnancy journey.
I am really impressed by Oura as, along with everything else, it is also coming up with such amazing features for women.
Good Looks and Comfort
Many people are also admiring Oura’s sleek and premium look. I myself have an inclination towards things that look unique, stand out, and add to my personality. For a lot of people, the right fashion forms a huge part of their personalities. Let’s get to know what it is about its design that is grabbing attention.
Rich Look
Oura looks extremely classy, especially in its Horizon style. Brushed titanium, gold, and rose gold are most people’s top three favorite finishes. When worn, it looks like an ornament, much like a wedding band if worn on the ring finger, with all eyes glued to it.
Comfort
It’s quite comfortable to wear and pretty light (4-6 grams) compared to smartwatches. Some people, like me, have trouble sleeping with accessories on, but the thing about Oura Ring is that it can be worn all day.
Other Noteworthy Features
Oura Ring collects your data and intelligently prepares recommendations exclusively for you to elevate your existing lifestyle. It is water resistant, has a long battery life, and works in integration with various other health apps.
App Integrations
I love it when brands collab with each other for the better usage of their data. Oura proudly boasts its partnership with Strava on all of its social handles. Both Strava and Oura share data with each other. Oura stickers can be shared on Strava feed and Strava’s workout data is very well synced with Oura’s app.
Oura also integrates with Natural Cycles, Flo, and Clue app to gather and better process health related data. There have been so many testimonials by women online, where they share how Oura helped them conceive or not conceive. Basically allowing women to go contraceptive-free and live a healthier life.
Moreover, Oura also connects with Apple Watch, Fitbit, and Garmin to better sync all the fitness gear and combine the data. After all, many people prefer wearing a watch rather than a ring while working out.
Many other integrations are also available such as Headspace, Zero Fasting App, and Glow. Oura keeps collaborating with new apps every now and then and hence widens its audience even more.
Battery Life and Water Resistance
Oura Ring has a battery life of up to 7 days on a single charge. It requires to be charged for around 20-80 minutes. This helps your ring to be on your finger giving you uninterrupted health tracking experience..
Oura Ring is water resistant up to 100 meters, and it can withstand any water sport like swimming, surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, etc. This means there is no need to take it off while washing your hands, showering, etc
These features make Oura ring durable and reliable for tracking your health and wellness. You can wear it without any tension of being damaged in water or running out of battery. Cheers!
Meditate, Relax and Breathe
The coolest thing about Oura is that it doesn’t leave you alone after scoring you. It hosts a range of guided meditations and breathing exercises that can be done to fix any problems. Doing these meditations and breathing exercises boosts your health internally, which will be reflected in your Oura scores.
Overall having Oura is like hiring a coach that is directing you, helping you, being truthful to you and guiding you to take motivated steps.
There is a Catch! – Hidden Behind Membership Costs
If all this while you were thinking all these awesome features would be available to you after investing some $300 then let me spill the beans. For you to be able to access all these features you need to pay additionally for a membership to the Oura app (Monthly or yearly).
Honestly, in my opinion, without a subscription, a Gen3 Oura ring is pretty useless, but with a subscription, it provides a whole lot of valuable insights and actionable data.
A lot of people find it a scam or a way for Oura to earn more money, but many people who believe in the age-old saying “Health is Wealth” also find an investment of around $6 monthly a pretty decent investment.
Oura definitely hosts a variety of features, and some people really find it value for money. But I personally think Oura could have made some basic features accessible without a subscription and could have kept features like Stress tracking, Cardiovascular age, etc, a part of its monthly subscription plan. This way, it could have added a lot of value to people’s lives without making them feel anything negative about Oura’s membership.
Note: Oura provides a 1-month free subscription to the Oura app for new users.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wrap Up
These features clearly set Oura apart and testify to Oura’s uniqueness. It’s definitely a new-age health monitoring gadget that is here to shake the dynamics of the wearables industry.
As per my experience, I used to use a smartwatch initially, but wearing it all the time was really difficult for me. With the Oura ring, it feels like I am wearing almost nothing, and life has become much easier. Now, I wake up excited every day to check my scores. It feels like I always have a personal doctor/coach with me who keeps checking on me and guiding me toward better habits, thereby upgrading my lifestyle.
