How My Oura Ring Changed My Views On Alcohol
I met my now husband in 2016, standing in line for food at the ski resort’s employee party. I was with my childhood friend who was the only person I knew at Copper Mountain. Days earlier, I had just driven from NYC to Copper to restart my life (read why I moved here).
I had just unsuccessfully come back from the cash bar, not realizing I needed actual cash to buy a drink. My friend was talking to Alex (my now husband) in line and I came back and told her about my unsuccessful trip to the bar. Alex immediately offered to lend me $10 so I could buy a few drinks.
As I walked away with my friend to buy a glass of wine, my friend told me that Alex didn’t drink. I remember being shocked, saying, “what?! you let me borrow money to buy wine from a guy who doesn’t drink???”. I was mortified.
The life I had recently left in NYC was largely centered around two things: work and alcohol, with the two often commingled in my Mad Men-esq office. Alex was the first person I had met in a very long time that didn’t drink. When we later started spending time together, I remember wondering what we would do to hang out if he didn’t drink. At the time, anything social in my life included alcohol.
Needless to say, we got to know each other without alcohol. We skied together, we would read together, and go on walks together. Alex was always comfortable around alcohol, just chose not to participate, so throughout our entire relationship I still drank. Sure, much less than I did in NYC, but I still drank several nights a week for the majority of our now 9 year relationship.
However, this year, I have changed my relationship with alcohol. In some ways it has been a slow slide into less and less drinking. My body has been struggling since 2022 and every night that I drank, my body seemingly struggled more. This brought an awareness to alcohol that I never had before. Sure, I knew alcohol wasn’t great for me, but I never saw any harm in a few drinks.
Fast forward to April of 2024, when I purchased my Oura ring (read my full, *not-sponsored review of the Oura Ring here).
I bought my Oura Ring for two main reasons. I wanted to easily track my menstrual cycle and I wanted to dial in my sleep habits/routines. For a year or so I had been trying out different magnesium supplements for their sleep benefits and I wanted some data to understand their true effectiveness (or ineffectiveness).
The data.
The data from the Oura Ring was far more insightful than I ever expected, notably when it came to my alcohol consumption. For those who do not have an Oura Ring, when it comes to sleep it tracks: Total Sleep, Sleep Efficiency, Restfulness, REM Sleep, Deep Sleep, Latency (how long it takes you to fall asleep), Timing (circadian rhythm), Heart Rate, and Temperature.
With the contribution of any of the 3 magnesium supplements I used, my numbers would increase positively. I was sleeping deeper and more restoratively. It was really encouraging to have this confirmed, especially considering the investment in magnesium I have made.
The majority of my data was alcohol free because at this point in my life I didn’t drink much at all outside of social settings or when dining out. On a night when I went out with friends and had far more drinks than I probably should have, I wasn’t surprised at all to see all of my sleep numbers decline sharply to the lowest point they had ever been at. I was surprised to see that it took me 4 (sober) nights to return to a decently restful sleep, and over a week for my body to return to its normal state of sleep. I would have never thought one night out would change anything about my body after my hangover subsided. It was even more surprising to me considering I did hot yoga 4 times that week, which I previously felt like sweating alone would correct any imbalances.
After this surprise, I paid more attention to the nights when I had a few drinks, but not enough to be drunk. While nights of moderate drinking didn’t tank all of my sleep numbers as low as a very drunken night, they all did decrease. After a night of moderate drinking, it would take my body about 4 nights to normalize. Again, kind of shocking to me, considering I didn’t have any hangover from drinking on these nights.
My biggest surprise came after nights with a single glass of wine. Many nights if I had a single glass of wine, I would consider it not really drinking. It didn’t feel like the glass of wine impacted me at all, so I figured my body wasn’t impacted either. I was incorrect. One night of drinking would sink my numbers for the first night almost the same as a night of moderate drinking, taking my body 2 nights to normalize.
Rethinking my relationship with alcohol.
In 2023 and 2024, I have worked really hard to build a healthy body and home, to grow my strength, and fuel my body with nutritious foods. I asked myself if I was willing to take a step back in my goals or my health for alcohol? The answer for the last few months has been not regularly. I now treat alcohol very similarly to how I treat processed foods or processed sugar, they aren’t off limits, but I don’t incorporate them into my daily or weekly life. At the end of 2024, I often went weeks without a drink, and for me, I didn’t even notice alcohol’s absence.
Where I am now.
In 2025, I have decided to get really honest with myself, to hold myself accountable, and lean into the things that make me feel good. Because of this, I have not had a drink since Christmas Eve 2024. At the time of writing this post on Feb 6, that brings me to 42 days without alcohol. My honest review, I feel great. Like really great.
I understand that decreasing alcohol consumption isn’t for everyone. I often wonder how many of us know what it is like to feel good in our own bodies. For me, during the height of my drinking in college and in my professional years in NYC, I certainly had times where I would have said that I felt good, but looking back, it was relative. I also would have never considered taking a break from alcohol during that time in my life. I hilarious recall a time in NYC when I blacked out, was unhappy with the result, and decided to take a break from straight bourbon for a few weeks. I still drank 6 days a week, but felt like I was really doing something positive for myself by choosing less-potent drinks.
I am really thankful to have reached a point in my life where I am in tune with my body enough to hear and feel its responses to different inputs. If I could wave a magic wand and give this feeling to anyone else, I would in an instant. It is empowering and peaceful, and has guided me gently, without feeling restricted in any way, to a healthier me.
Will I ever drink again?
Probably. I try not to live a restricted life, so it feels counter-intuitive for me to say alcohol is a never. I’m not sure what the reason would be, or if it will happen again, but if it does, I won’t beat myself up over it. In many areas of my life I live by the 80/20 rule. One day this might apply to alcohol again, for now, I am thoroughly enjoying life without it.
