The single best metric to monitor your performance readiness and overall wellbeing is Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and the device best suited to give you that metric is the Oura Ring.
If you want to consistently perform at your best, HRV is the best metric for cutting an optimal growth path.
For the past five months, I've been using the Oura Ring to track and monitor my HRV and sleep. Here's what I've learned, and why I recommend the Oura Ring.
Why HRV?
An increase in HRV is mapped to improved performance. A decrease in HRV is correlated to all-cause mortality (that's as bad as it sounds).
Imagine having a metric that can guide your performance, whether that is cognitive, athletic, or general health. Think of what can improve with an increase in your cognitive regulation including your working memory and your ability to sustain attention.
Remember a time when you were performing at your best. Ideas came easily. You had lots of energy and were highly focused. You most likely had a high HRV on that day.
What is HRV?
A heart beat contains irregularities. For example, a 60 beats per minute heart rate doesn't mean that every second it beats for one minute on the clock.
HRV is the variation among the intervals between your heartbeats within a specific timeframe, measured in milliseconds (ms). The Oura ring's timeframe is 5 minutes.
If the intervals between your heartbeats are rather constant, your HRV is low.
If the length variates, your HRV is high, which is the direction you want to be trending.
Increasing & Decreasing Your HRV
HRV is increased by...
Fitness programs
Breathwork
Sleep
Hydration
Likely CBD
HRV is decreased by...
Overtraining
Alcohol and smoking
High dose THC
Compounding high intensity training with low HRV (basically you're not recovered enough for the training)
The Oura Ring: Recovery Matters
Sleep and rest days are essential to improved, sustained performance, and they are one of the best ways to increase your HRV.
The Oura Ring is a wearable device that tracks your activity throughout the day and your recovery throughout the night. That means it takes into account how much effort you've expended during the day to be able to determine the amount of rest you need.
Along with your HRV, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, time asleep (including REM, light, and deep sleep), the Oura Ring combines it all to give you a single recovery score to use to determine whether you are ready to press forward or take a lighter approach to the day or days ahead.
The device is a ring that you wear 24/7. It has a battery life of 4-5 days. I easily wore it on a long weekend business trip without needing a charger.
It has 3 sensors on the underside of the ring, and is durable and waterproof. I've showered with it and had it mucked up with lotion, sweat, hair product, and soap without any problems.
The app is full of data and trend analysis, but it has a simple, single metric to work from each day, the Readiness Score. 80+, 70+, 60+, 50+, Sub 50 are all great indicators to help avoid getting sick, stave off burnout, and know when to attack the day.
If you're below 60, you're probably a day or two away from getting sick. My five month Readiness Score average is a 76.8, and I've had a few days in the 60s with my lowest at 43 (more on that day later).
My best day was 94, Thanksgiving Day, with 8hrs 41 min of sleep. I'm able to go back to that day in the app and see what I tagged in the notes such as Late screen time, Alcohol, Sleeping Aids, Travel, Hot bedroom, Sex, Late Work, etc. I can also add in any of my own notes that I think may have affected my Readiness Score. That night, I tagged Travel because I was coming off the second day from a West Coast to East Coast jet lag. I also didn't tag Alcohol, so that positively affected my Readiness Score.
How's the Oura Ring different from the Apple Watch?
I really like my Apple Watch. I have the Apple Watch Series 5 model and wear it nearly every day. On that same long weekend business trip where the Oura Ring's battery lasted the entire trip, I forgot to pack the Apple Watch charger. While it did give me two full days, it died by the third.
Both devices notify me when to stand up and my activity for the day, on a day to day basis, but the Oura Ring's Readiness Score is the most actionable data point.
The Apple Watch does track HRV, but the Health app doesn't give you insight into how to use that metric. Plus it doesn’t combine other data for the valuable Readiness Score provided by the Oura app
While you can wear the Apple Watch at night to track sleep and get more HRV data points than just wearing it during the day, it's cumbersome to wear in bed in my experience.
Even sleep trackers that work under your mattress and are the least intrusive sleep tracking aren't ideal since you don't sleep in your own bed every night. Those away nights are the ones that you actually need the feedback on your sleep quality. That's why the Oura Ring offers you the best balance of form and function over other sleep tracking solutions.
For workouts, the Oura Ring doesn't compare with the Apple Watch. The Our Ring gives you zero immediate feedback during your workout. Plus the Apple Watch does a nice job of nudging you along throughout the day with its notifications.
One of the friction points with buying the Oura Ring is getting the correct ring size. You'll most likely need to order the company's ring sizing kit, which is $20 with shipping and then order the ring after you figure out your size. The Oura Ring is $314 with shipping for the basic design and finish. Total $334 all in for the Oura Ring.
The Apple Watch Series 5 will run you $399 for the entry model.
If I was deciding between the two products, I'd probably pick the Oura Ring over the Apple Watch because of cost vs. actionable value. Ideally, you can wear both.
How I use the Oura Ring?
When I pick up my phone while getting ready in the morning, one of the first things I check is the Oura app. Right before checking, I try to guess my Readiness Score. This helps me connect how I'm feeling compared with the data. Over time, I’m getting better at knowing my Readiness Score based on how I’m feeling physically and mentally.
A Readiness Score in the 80s and even 90s means I'm ready to kick ass for the day. Under 70 and I should be looking at a rest day. Too many of those in a row and not only am I not showing up at my best, I'm probably heading for sickness.
I also like to check my resting heart rate. For me, when it's ~45 beats per minute, that's a good sign I recovered well (everyone’s resting heart rate is different). Additionally, when in the night I dropped to my lowest resting heart rate is important. If it happens too late in the sleep cycle, then I’m waking up just when my body is deep in recovery.
HRV over time is another interesting and actionable metric. While it’s an essenetial part of the Readiness Score, I like to look at it separately. Week over week, if I've seen a decrease in HRV then I need to pay attention to activities that will increase it over the upcoming week.
What I've learned?
My biggest takeaway is the impact of alcohol on my HRV. While I did an entire talk at the Quantified Self Conference on measuring the impact of alcohol and the benefits of consumption for longevity in 2015, the tracking tools available at the time weren't as valuable as what can now be found from the Oura Ring.
After consuming even small amounts of alcohol close to bedtime, my resting heart rate can increase 10 - 20 beats per minute during sleep. And it takes hours longer for my body to get to the fully rested state with my lowest heart rate during the night. In that scenario, I'm hitting my lowest resting heart rate only an hour or two before waking up when my body is at the best state for recovery.
Remember that day when I said my Readiness Score was a 43. It was a big night of celebrating over the holidays and when we woke up I didn't feel good. My partner asked me how I was feeling, and I held up the Oura app and said, I feel like a 43! That day was definitely full of recovery activities and the next day I was back up to 86.
I've tried a multitude of sleep and recovery products, apps, and solutions over the years, but none of them match the versatility, accuracy and function of the Oura Ring and its HRV tracking.
Additional Resources:
Read my post: Fitness Tracker to Sickness Tracker: How to Use the Oura Ring to Detect Coronavirus
Watch my talk Tiny Habits for Sleep & Recovery During the Pandemic
Download my Resource Guide: Tiny Habits for Better Sleep.
Have an Oura Ring? Participate in Stamina Lab’s research study examining the effects of sleep on optimal performance and flow states.
Acknowledgements:
The Flow Research Collective provided key information on HRV for this article.
The HRV graphic was created by Germany based Kenkou, working to resolve stress.