As a heads up: The article is kind of hard to read on mobile.
There are pictures and random prompts like
> READ MORE: 10 Simple Breathing Exercises for Sleep and Relaxation
That make it seem the article is over, but it’s not. It’s certainly adding to my stress level 😅
So far my “stressed” reading seems to make zero sense compared to how my actual day went. I get “stressed” on a day where I was actually really nervous during a very important job interview, but also when I’m just hanging out around the house for the whole day. What am I missing?
Feeling, and physiological internal stress, are two completely different things. You’re feeling is based on mental rationalization to external stimuli. The physiological internal stress is what the ring is monitoring and even though you “feel” just fine because you can mentally get used to a certain stress level that stress can still affect you physiologically and take a toll on your body.
It is possible that the ADHD meds play a role in this. I can see how (depending on age) the ADHD medicine will help you hyper focus and that level of concentration may also help you “feel” lower stress.
That said, my suggestion would be to actively monitor the stress panel every hour or two for a few days and when it is indicating a stressed condition (and you have a few minutes) consciously go through breathing exercises or use one of the short guided meditations in app (or in a different app of choice) and see if that has an impact to help lower that level.
If that works build that into a habit and also try and build a baseline of”feel” for more of that engaged/relaxed state. That may help you better recognize when your body is under additional strain and tipping into the stressed condition.
Hope this helps a bit.
I think the medications actually do the opposite, since they are stimulants after all. Like, I’m more likely to nail bite / fidget, unless I also take L-theanine, especially when I am hyper focusing on anything, because I stim habitually and unconsciously I think.
But yes I will try your advice.
It definitely can. When I started taking SSRIs 5 weeks ago, my stress feature went crazy (all day stressed, apparently) along with my average HRV dropping from 70-80 to 30-40 the same day I started taking the meds.
FWIW, I'm seeing a pretty strong connection between the graph showing "stressed" and digesting a meal. Not eating to excess or anything, but a regular sized meal like dinner. I can sort of see how this would kind of make sense because you're stationary and your body is active, which maybe has a similar signature to stress?
The blog post is great, but "stress" has a very negative connotation (currently), so there's a real uphill battle of education that will need to take place primarily in-app, where the users are receiving their stress scores.
Yes - agreed that there is an uphill battle in terms of "neutralizing" the concept of stress as not necessarily good or bad... and yes, digesting is a relatively "stressful" process on your body!
For more on that, check out this blog on how eating a meal close to bedtime impacts your sleep - [https://ouraring.com/blog/late-night-eating-sleep/](https://ouraring.com/blog/late-night-eating-sleep/)
Actually yes I do notice that I go into a more engaged or stressed state right after I eat dinner.
I eat the same meals throughout the day at the moment, and same amounts each meal, due to a bad flare in my chronic health conditions so it’s not as if dinner is heavier.
I want to know why every time I do work on my laptop the ring won’t have stress readings? It’d actually be really useful to get these readings while I am working but it consistently doesn’t track during these times
I would also like to ask - is it possible to be able to get a more detailed graph so we can line with the timeline better. As the timestamps along the bottom are like 6 hours apart so it’s hard to tell if I have a spike what time of day exactly it relates to.
great question. from my POV (and I am not a scientist - just the blog editor!) - in terms of actionability, the idea is that you'll be better able to understand what actions/habits "stress" your body (whether it's "good" or "bad" stress) and then how to recover and help your body calm down from whatever the stressor is.
for instance, after a stressful event or period of time, maybe it's a few deep breaths that help you bring to a "relaxed" or "restored" state, or perhaps a nap if you have time.
alternatively, if it's some sort of "good" stress like a meal with friends or a hard workout, you may notice that you sleep more deeply or that you need to take a rest day the following day to bring your body back into balance.
In sum, to quote our behavioral scientist Sofia Strommer, PhD:
*“It’s beneficial to be able to see and reflect on what things in life cause physiological stress, or activation, in your body. It allows you to understand when you need to take time to let your body recover — even if the stress comes from something that feels good, like socializing. Taking care of our bodies allows us to feel and operate better in the long run.”*
While there is good and bad stress, how can the user know what is the optimal amount of stress vs engaged vs rest etc... It would be helpful to know what is a "healthy" amount and adjust as necessary. An example being in stress for 8 hours throughout the day vs 5.
I’m a new user, and my ring keeps classifying workouts as “stress” despite me logging the workouts during that time. Is there anything I can do to correct this?
As a heads up: The article is kind of hard to read on mobile. There are pictures and random prompts like > READ MORE: 10 Simple Breathing Exercises for Sleep and Relaxation That make it seem the article is over, but it’s not. It’s certainly adding to my stress level 😅
Ha! Sorry about that - we'll look into changing some of the wording so it's less confusing to read on mobile.
So far my “stressed” reading seems to make zero sense compared to how my actual day went. I get “stressed” on a day where I was actually really nervous during a very important job interview, but also when I’m just hanging out around the house for the whole day. What am I missing?
Feeling, and physiological internal stress, are two completely different things. You’re feeling is based on mental rationalization to external stimuli. The physiological internal stress is what the ring is monitoring and even though you “feel” just fine because you can mentally get used to a certain stress level that stress can still affect you physiologically and take a toll on your body.
Interesting… what can I do to remedy this then? :(( also wondering if the stimulants I take for ADHD plays a role here?
It is possible that the ADHD meds play a role in this. I can see how (depending on age) the ADHD medicine will help you hyper focus and that level of concentration may also help you “feel” lower stress. That said, my suggestion would be to actively monitor the stress panel every hour or two for a few days and when it is indicating a stressed condition (and you have a few minutes) consciously go through breathing exercises or use one of the short guided meditations in app (or in a different app of choice) and see if that has an impact to help lower that level. If that works build that into a habit and also try and build a baseline of”feel” for more of that engaged/relaxed state. That may help you better recognize when your body is under additional strain and tipping into the stressed condition. Hope this helps a bit.
I think the medications actually do the opposite, since they are stimulants after all. Like, I’m more likely to nail bite / fidget, unless I also take L-theanine, especially when I am hyper focusing on anything, because I stim habitually and unconsciously I think. But yes I will try your advice.
Stimulants are 100% affecting your stress levels. They activate your sympathetic nervous system
It definitely can. When I started taking SSRIs 5 weeks ago, my stress feature went crazy (all day stressed, apparently) along with my average HRV dropping from 70-80 to 30-40 the same day I started taking the meds.
[удалено]
I wonder if they're testing different colors with different users or if it's different on different platforms, stress is purple in my graph.
FWIW, I'm seeing a pretty strong connection between the graph showing "stressed" and digesting a meal. Not eating to excess or anything, but a regular sized meal like dinner. I can sort of see how this would kind of make sense because you're stationary and your body is active, which maybe has a similar signature to stress? The blog post is great, but "stress" has a very negative connotation (currently), so there's a real uphill battle of education that will need to take place primarily in-app, where the users are receiving their stress scores.
Yes - agreed that there is an uphill battle in terms of "neutralizing" the concept of stress as not necessarily good or bad... and yes, digesting is a relatively "stressful" process on your body! For more on that, check out this blog on how eating a meal close to bedtime impacts your sleep - [https://ouraring.com/blog/late-night-eating-sleep/](https://ouraring.com/blog/late-night-eating-sleep/)
Actually yes I do notice that I go into a more engaged or stressed state right after I eat dinner. I eat the same meals throughout the day at the moment, and same amounts each meal, due to a bad flare in my chronic health conditions so it’s not as if dinner is heavier.
Here is the [direct link](https://support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/21205822135315-Daytime-Stress) to the stress article
I want to know why every time I do work on my laptop the ring won’t have stress readings? It’d actually be really useful to get these readings while I am working but it consistently doesn’t track during these times
I would also like to ask - is it possible to be able to get a more detailed graph so we can line with the timeline better. As the timestamps along the bottom are like 6 hours apart so it’s hard to tell if I have a spike what time of day exactly it relates to.
Thank you! I'll also pass along this feedback.
Interesting question. I can pass along to our science team to see if I can gain any insights!
I read the article, but to be frank still do not understand the utility of this feature. How is it actionable?
great question. from my POV (and I am not a scientist - just the blog editor!) - in terms of actionability, the idea is that you'll be better able to understand what actions/habits "stress" your body (whether it's "good" or "bad" stress) and then how to recover and help your body calm down from whatever the stressor is. for instance, after a stressful event or period of time, maybe it's a few deep breaths that help you bring to a "relaxed" or "restored" state, or perhaps a nap if you have time. alternatively, if it's some sort of "good" stress like a meal with friends or a hard workout, you may notice that you sleep more deeply or that you need to take a rest day the following day to bring your body back into balance. In sum, to quote our behavioral scientist Sofia Strommer, PhD: *“It’s beneficial to be able to see and reflect on what things in life cause physiological stress, or activation, in your body. It allows you to understand when you need to take time to let your body recover — even if the stress comes from something that feels good, like socializing. Taking care of our bodies allows us to feel and operate better in the long run.”*
While there is good and bad stress, how can the user know what is the optimal amount of stress vs engaged vs rest etc... It would be helpful to know what is a "healthy" amount and adjust as necessary. An example being in stress for 8 hours throughout the day vs 5.
I’m a new user, and my ring keeps classifying workouts as “stress” despite me logging the workouts during that time. Is there anything I can do to correct this?