OURA ring sleep monitoring

[NelliePledge]

Hi Ive recently got an Oura Ring which monitors sleep and shows the pattern of deep,light,REM and awake.
Ive only got a couple of weeks results but when I do get a reasonable amount of sleep in a night I seem to have REM sleep for the majority of the time on some nights as much as 70%. and not much deep sleep 0-10%

Does anyone else have an Oura Ring - what are you finding?

Also anyone who has any useful info about what causes high levels of REM sleep I'd really appreciate it

 

[Butydoc]

Hi Ive recently got an Oura Ring which monitors sleep and shows the pattern of deep,light,REM and awake.
Ive only got a couple of weeks results but when I do get a reasonable amount of sleep in a night I seem to have REM sleep for the majority of the time on some nights as much as 70%. and not much deep sleep 0-10%

Does anyone else have an Oura Ring - what are you finding?

Also anyone who has any useful info about what causes high levels of REM sleep I'd really appreciate it

I have used the ŌURA ring for the past 3moth. I really haven't seen its information particularity useful. I also have a Fitbit Charge 2. There has been some new updates to the fit bit which sleep mode mirrors that of the Oura ring. If I were to buy only one of these, I would prefer the Fitbit.

Best,
Gary

 

[Diwi9]

The Oura Ring helps me figure out my crash cycles, I can see my level of activities, and view trends. I've also implemented certain protocols to improve my sleep quality and can see when my sleep is lagging. I tend to be highest in light sleep and my deep sleep is normally below 10%, sometimes as low as 3%. My best nights of sleep seem to equate with the nights I have a lower resting heart rate. Unfortunately the ring needs to be charged daily, and it does not provide a real-time heart rate monitoring like the FitBit.

 

[Butydoc]

m

The Oura Ring helps me figure out my crash cycles, I can see my level of activities, and view trends. I've also implemented certain protocols to improve my sleep quality and can see when my sleep is lagging. I tend to be highest in light sleep and my deep sleep is normally below 10%, sometimes as low as 3%. My best nights of sleep seem to equate with the nights I have a lower resting heart rate. Unfortunately the ring needs to be charged daily, and it does not provide a real-time heart rate monitoring like the FitBit.

My fitbit recently automatically updated its software and now displays , awake, light sleep, rem and deep sleep. It correlates well with my Oura ring and seems redundant. Part of the problem is understanding the sleep cycles and understanding what they really mean in our disease.

Best,
Gary

 

[Richard7]

I have used neither but remember that lucinda bateman said in one of her presentations that they were doing some research on Oura rings with ME/CFS patients at the bateman horne centre and found that they were in some sense not recording things properly in pwme/cfs.

 

[NelliePledge]

yes I saw that video in my experience no problems with the data being recorded as long as I remember to charge the ring before going to sleep but the ring is set up for healthy individuals so the suggestions about activity levels etc have to be ignored

 

[Diwi9]

@Butydoc - I'll have to look for an update, as the FitBit has not done as well as the Oura for sleep tracking. I've been told that you can play with the sensitivity settings...but can't figure it out, so will have to mess around a bit more. Thanks for the heads up on the software update, I've been wearing two devices and I'm sorta tired of charging and tracking two.

 

[LaurelW]

I agree with Nellie, it's not very useful for activity levels as it's set up for normal people, but it is useful to track sleep. I've had mine since July, and I've also found that the lowest resting heart rate is a good indicator of how I feel. I also found that one hour of deep sleep and one hour of REM sleep are when I feel the best (I rarely get more than than). But, at times, it thinks I'm sleeping when I'm not and vice versa (this is in the light sleep stage). I think Oura themselves say that it's 85% accurate. I do use it to see how I'm doing med-wise and when I've overdone it as well.

 

[NelliePledge]

yes I ignore the activity comments but I do look at the profile of activity and try to move, within my envelope,every hour

It helped me identify that Im inactive on the afternoons when I do my 15 hours a week of part time work - need to make sure I take breaks every hour to rest which involves walking away from the desk so clearly Ive not been taking my breaks

 

[NelliePledge]

I've read that REM sleep can take more energy than being awake which is a bit concerning as I seem to have an unusual amount of REM. not been able to find anything about high levels of REM in adults it seems it is small children who normally have high levels

that being said Ive only been getting this info for a few weeks so I need to give it a few months to get a better idea of what normal really looks like for me

 

[Little Bluestem]

But, at times, it thinks I'm sleeping when I'm not and vice versa (this is in the light sleep stage).

Are basing this on whether you think you were asleep? When I did a sleep study, it said I was in stage 1 sleep when I thought I was awake. I am assuming the sleep lab equipment was correct, so you might be in stage 1 (light) sleep and not know it.

 

[trishrhymes]

My fitbit is pretty useless for monitoring sleep. It's just a movement sensor, and registers times I'm lying in bed reading or listening to the radio as sleep. However for times when i know I've been asleep it does show when I've been restless.

 

[NelliePledge]

It would be interesting to know what is going on with our energy production (metabolomics) when we are asleep and if sleep disturbance is entirely responsible for the unrefreshing sleep. (chicken and egg situation?)

Has any research been done on this?.......I imagine it would be a bit tricky to take blood samples without waking the patient up but even if it did it might give a 'snapshot' of what's happening.

Most sleep studies at best only seem to look at cortisol levels to explain sleep disturbance but maybe, for us, there is more going on?

Agreed @slysaint I think there must be something going on as according to my monitor I get so much REM and so little deep sleep. it concerns me as the deep sleep is when you get physical rest and repair. I don't need this amount of REM as I'm not an infant needing to spend my energy to process and learn so much. It seems if I'm spending this time in REM I must be exhausting myself when asleep.

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

I have been looking at sleep stages on my Fitbit and I definitely feel miles better the following day if I've managed to get over an hour of deep sleep. If it's below an hour ...say 30 minutes or 45 min, I feel much worse. The amount of deep sleep I get doesn't seem to correlate to anything (activity during the day, amount of hours sleep, whether it's a Epsom salt bath day etc etc.)

Its about half of the days in a month over 1 hour and the other half under. The pattern is a bit random and unpredictable.

 

[slysaint]

It would be interesting to know what is going on with our energy production (metabolomics) when we are asleep and if sleep disturbance is entirely responsible for the unrefreshing sleep. (chicken and egg situation?)

Has any research been done on this?.......I imagine it would be a bit tricky to take blood samples without waking the patient up but even if it did it might give a 'snapshot' of what's happening.

Most sleep studies at best only seem to look at cortisol levels to explain sleep disturbance but maybe, for us, there is more going on?

posted this before but am reposting as I found this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2917728/

which might/might not be relevant.
need someone with more scientific understanding
@Hip @alicec

 

[Thomas]

I’ve had the Oura Ring for around 16 months and I’ve been wearing and updating it very consistently since I got it. I always wear it on my non-dominant index finger. The only time I take it off is when I’m showering. As much as I’d love to keep it on for this exhausting activity, the soap just makes it way too slippery to even try.

Anyways my question is with respect to the daily step counter. I know that no pedometer on earth is 100% accurate and most will confuse other movements like rolling around in bed or typing on a computer as possible steps. But I’m wondering if any other Oura user here has felt that the sensitivity of the ring’s pedometer has increased over time? They’re a relatively new company so they are constantly updating the app and tweaking things. I’ve asked them directly but I never really get a concrete answer. The reason I’m asking is that I feel like recently my step count seems much higher than it was on days of similar activity say 3, 6, or even 12 months ago (I keep a daily activity journal so it’s easy for me to check back in time).

This is an important activity measurement for me and I’d really like to know if in fact I’m taking way more steps now which would be great or if it is just the technology that has perhaps changed over time. Any other users have any feedback?

 

[NelliePledge]

I’ve had the Oura Ring for around 16 months and I’ve been wearing and updating it very consistently since I got it. I always wear it on my non-dominant index finger. The only time I take it off is when I’m showering. As much as I’d love to keep it on for this exhausting activity, the soap just makes it way too slippery to even try.

Anyways my question is with respect to the daily step counter. I know that no pedometer on earth is 100% accurate and most will confuse other movements like rolling around in bed or typing on a computer as possible steps. But I’m wondering if any other Oura user here has felt that the sensitivity of the ring’s pedometer has increased over time? They’re a relatively new company so they are constantly updating the app and tweaking things. I’ve asked them directly but I never really get a concrete answer. The reason I’m asking is that I feel like recently my step count seems much higher than it was on days of similar activity say 3, 6, or even 12 months ago (I keep a daily activity journal so it’s easy for me to check back in time).

This is an important activity measurement for me and I’d really like to know if in fact I’m taking way more steps now which would be great or if it is just the technology that has perhaps changed over time. Any other users have any feedback?

No evidence to back this up @Thomas as I'm not good on discipline and recording which is one reason why I got the activity monitor. I feel you could well be right I know they've been tweaking things and I do sometimes find the step count nowadays is a bit higher than I expected.. I move about quite a bit in my house but it is a very small property so each burst is only a few steps I did feel at first that it didn't seem to reflect the amount of pottering about.

Edited to add
Just registered the point about moving in bed being counted. I don't see an issue with something like rolling over in bed getting counted as a movement under steps. It's not a step but must contribute something to overall energy use. In my case as a larger person rolling in bed takes a reasonable bit of effort equivalent to a few steps. Fairly vigorously typing probably takes a bit of energy too.

 

[Thomas]

No evidence to back this up @Thomas as I'm not good on discipline and recording which is one reason why I got the activity monitor. I feel you could well be right I know they've been tweaking things and I do sometimes find the step count nowadays is a bit higher than I expected.. I move about quite a bit in my house but it is a very small property so each burst is only a few steps I did feel at first that it didn't seem to reflect the amount of pottering about.

Yeah same. When I first got it I thought it was undercounting. Now I feel like it’s overcounting. I haven’t left my relatively small apartment today and it’s already telling me I’m beyond 4,000 steps. This can’t be correct as I haven’t been walking around that much. I guess the only way to test it would be to compare it to a pedometer that is only a pedometer and nothing else. Or manually count every step you take but that would just be ridiculous. I’ve manually counted in small bursts with relative accuracy but when I try and combine them they are often skewed.

I guess the calories burned through activity marker on the ring would be a good indicator of overall activity trends as well.

 

[NelliePledge]

Yes 4000 for a day at home sounds a lot for me that would be a day that I go out of the house and involves activity and also walking a few minutes from the car park and back. At home is more like 1500/2000 on a reasonable day and 1000 or less on a worse day

Edited to add
The calorie burned isn't one I take any notice of because the activity levels I have aren't high enough to contribute more than a couple of hundred calories a day. Although I'm working on weight loss calories and exercise aren't my focus. I'm doing low carb and finding that is delivering weight loss without exercise other than daily living activity and I don't calorie count
I do monitor the inactive hours as I want to avoid negatives from sitting/lying for long periods so try to have zero hours with no movement.

 

[Thomas]

Yes 4000 for a day at home sounds a lot for me that would be a day that I go out of the house and involves activity and also walking a few minutes from the car park and back. At home is more like 1500/2000 on a reasonable day and 1000 or less on a worse day

Yep that sounds more reasonable to me as well.