In April of 2024, I bought an Oura Ring. I bought it for two main reasons, to track my menstrual cycle and to improve my sleep, by better understanding which supplements and routines were actually helpful. For reference, I have the 3rd generation Oura Ring.

I would like to note that I purchased my own Oura Ring. This post is not sponsored by Oura Ring.

What is The Oura Ring?

For those who aren’t familiar with the Oura Ring, it is a piece of wearable technology to track biometrics throughout the day. It analyzes sleep metrics from HRV (heart rate variability) to the amount of REM and Deep Sleep you achieve each night. It also is an activity tracker (although I haven’t personally found this to be very accurate). It has the capability to read your temperature and oxygenation levels. This is a very brief explanation, if you would like to learn more about the capabilities of the Oura Ring, I recommend visiting their website.

My Initial Thoughts

• The look: At first I didn’t love how large the Oura Ring is. After wearing it for a few weeks, it started to grow on me. Now the look doesn’t bother me at all.

• The price: I almost exclusively wear gold jewelry, so the gold ring was really the only option for me. I was disappointed that the gold option comes at a much higher price point.

• The subscriptions: The Oura Ring itself requires a monthly subscription ($5.99). I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of having a monthly subscription, but now that I have had the ring for about 10 months, the subscription price is worth it to me.

Pros

• Cycle Tracking

  This was one of the main reasons I purchased the Oura Ring. At the beginning of my health journey, it was recommended to me that I remove my IUD to balance my hormones naturally. I have been on the pill or had an IUD since I was 16. For my body, a break from birth control has been really beneficial.
  
  My husband and I have decided not to have any more children, primarily because of how my body responded to my first pregnancy, so cycle tracking has been really important to me. I have loved getting to know my body and the actual phases of my cycle, but I wanted to be more exact about tracking, without taking ovulation tests or taking a daily temperature by mouth (this must be done at the same time each day).
  
  The Oura Ring syncs with with the Natural Cycles app and takes my temperature each morning to tell me exactly when I am ovulating, and when I am not. The only drawback to this has been the additional subscription to the Natural Cycles app. For me, knowing exactly when I am ovulating is worth the additional monthly cost. I personally signed up for an annual Natural Cycles plan during their Black Friday sale, which helps. Overall, for cycle tracking, I give the Oura Ring a 10/10.

• Sleep

  I have always been a terrible sleeper, but in the last two years I have done a lot of work to improve my sleep. I have found that magnesium supplements really improve my sleep, but I have a few that I like, which come at varying price points, so I opted for the Oura Ring to help me gather data vs just going off of feeling each morning. This has been incredibly helpful for me to choose which magnesium supplement best fits me, but also which elements of my daily and nightly routines impact my sleep. The ring has helped me to better understand my body and its responses. I went into depth on the impacts of alcohol on my body that I discovered with my Oura Ring in the article linked below.
  
  Over the past 10 months, the Oura Ring has helped me to improve my sleep greatly. For this reason, the sleep analyzing features of the Oura Ring are a 10/10 for me.

• What Surprised Me

  The stress tracking also has been incredibly helpful for me. When I first received my ring, it always reported that I was in a “high stress” mode. This helped me to be more honest with myself about my triggers, my meditation practice, and what I really was doing to regulate my nervous system. I bought the ring about a week after we started a 9 month stretch of a stressful family situation. I was surprised at first that my stress levels were high, but when I really looked at my life at the moment, I was very stressed.
  
  Over the next few months, I worked to regulate my nervous system and calm my mind amid the stress. This ended up being such a gift for me. It actually may have been the most impactful health benefit of all of 2024 for me. Learning to manage my stress and have awareness of the factors that calmed my nervous system was not something I expected out of the Oura Ring, but this feature has been a 10/10 for me.

Cons

• Activity Tracking

  In my experience with the Oura Ring, it does not accurately track activity. I don’t always track my activity, but when I do, I much prefer my Apple Watch. For example, when wearing the ring in an hour long hot yoga class, it will tell me I burned 10 calories (vs over 400 calories burned on my Apple Watch). I also found that my steps are usually much lower with the Oura Ring. Unless I am outside walking, it does not track many steps. However I am cleaning my house and scrubbing, in which case it tracks much higher steps than my Apple Watch. Overall, I have found the Oura Ring to be less accurate in activity tracking. I do not rely on the Oura Ring if I am wishing to track my activity and give this feature a 2/10.

• Wear and Tear

  When I first received my Oura Ring it was so shiny, almost too shiny. It did not take long for it to get scratched up. I made the mistake of wearing it when lifting weights one time with metal weights and the underside of my ring is now partially silver from where the gold wore away. I’m not impressed by the durability of the ring and am a little disappointed at how scratched up it has become.

Overall View

Scratches and all, I can honestly say I love my Oura Ring. It has been an incredibly helpful tool for me to better understand my body and establish a more honest relationship between my habits and my goals. While it isn’t perfect and is quite expensive, I do believe that it has helped me to achieve a higher level of wellness (and not get pregnant!). If I had to rate the Oura Ring overall, I would give it a 9/10.

Even with this, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone. I would recommend it to someone who is looking to improve their health, but is willing to take steps to get there. The ring on its own won’t do anything other than give you information, but if you are looking to understand yourself a bit more, it can be incredibly useful. I also would recommend it to anyone who is looking to do a better job at tracking their cycle.