Smart rings are better than smartwatches when it comes to sleep tracking, period. They are easier to wear, less obstructive as you toss and turn in your bed, have longer battery life, and are screenless. All these factors make for a light, inobtrusive wearable that will easily track your sleep.
This Horizon ring from Oura is a competitive sleep tracker, with insights into everything from sleep efficiency, restfulness, readiness, latency, and more. I’ve been using the Oura Ring for a while now, and it’s not only given me deeper insight into my sleep but supplements those data points with explanations behind the numbers. Oura claims to accurately track sleep cycles, total sleep time, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and movement.
Every morning I get a sleep score for last night’s sleep, can view my heart rate, my sleep efficiency, and my suggested bedtime range for the day. The sleep score helps me understand my energy levels for the day and understand my activity bandwidth, like whether I should exercise or rest. The lightweight build of the ring makes it a perfect bedtime companion — I barely notice it on my finger as I fall asleep, and I eagerly wake up every morning to check my sleep data and get my score. But it’s not just deep sleep it can track and point out; the Oura Ring can detect the shortest of naps as well and factor those into your sleep score for the day. Plus, the sleep tab on the app offers up information on sleep efficiency, restfulness, REM, deep sleep, latency, and timing, so you can dig deep and go beyond viewing only a sleep score and your time spent in bed.
As if there aren’t enough sleep-friendly features through the Oura Ring, Oura also unveiled a body clock feature that teaches you more about your circadian rhythms and body clock. The feature measures my sleep chronotype, calculated by my body temperature, sleep-wake cycle, and physical activity, and through this data gathered that I’m most productive during the late morning
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The battery life is masterful. It charges quickly and stays charged for days on end. The one downside to the ring is the extra $72 you spend on the Oura subscription a year, on top of the $350 you just spent on the ring itself.
Best Buy reviewers say the ring has helped them improve and further understand their sleep, and they appreciate the lighter build of the ring compared to smartwatches like the Apple Watch. Redditors also agree that the Oura Ring, as a sleep tracker, is worth it. “If you struggle with sleep quality, overtraining, or anything else that affects recovery, I’d say it’s worth it,” one user wrote in a thread on the topic. One Best Buy reviewer noted, however, that the ring doesn’t offer half sizes, which could be an issue if your fingers swell, because the ring won’t accurately measure your biometric data, so keep that in mind as you shop for a sleep tracker.
Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon specs: Up to 7 days battery life | Sleep cycles | Bluetooth | 7.9mm wide, 2.55mm thick | Up to 100m water resistant | Blood oxygen, skin temperature sensor, heart rate monitoring | iOS and Android compatible
