March 2, 2025 • 23 mins
After six years of using the Oura Ring, I’ve seen it improve in some ways but decline in others. In this video, I’ll break down what the Oura Ring does well, where it’s gotten worse, how it compares to WHOOP, and why I’m still using it despite its flaws. If you’re considering buying an Oura Ring or looking for an upgrade, watch this first!
Oura Ring https://hckait.com/oura
WHOOP (1 month free) https://hckait.com/whoop
Eight Sleep ($350 off) https://hckait.com/eightsleep
Blue light glasses (15% off: HCK15) https://hckait.com/sleepglasses
Natural Cycles app (20% off) https://hckait.com/naturalcycles
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:58 Oura ring vs WHOOP
01:11 Oura ring vs Eight Sleep
02:40 What is Oura Ring?
03:42 How to use the Oura Ring app
04:12 Oura Ring accuracy
07:05 Sleep and recovery score
08:48 Activity score
09:35 New features
12:04 Data fatigue
13:20 What I like about Oura Ring
16:34 Oura Ring fertility tracking
19:29 Oura Ring subscription cost
20:23 What I don’t like about Oura Ring
21:16 Battery life
21:51 Who should and shouldn’t use Oura?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the HealthyNow Complicated podcast.
Now I have been using my Aura ring for over six years and I
did a review, I think probably after two years of using it, and
I thought it was time for an update.
So I'm going to do a bit of a review.
In today's video, I'm going to breakdown what the Aura ring is,
(00:20):
what it tracks, how it works. We'll get into what I like about
it, what I don't. We'll also talk about how it
compares to other wearables suchas Woop, which I've used for
over 4 years. And I'll also compare it to 8
sleeve Apple Watch, that sort ofthing.
And I'll also get into, well, despite the issues I have with
Aura, I keep using it. And the reason why it might
(00:43):
surprise you because Aura has made some updates over the
years, some good, some not so good.
And as someone who has used a lot of wearable devices over the
years and different sleep trackers, I did a review a few
weeks ago on Whoop and talked a little bit about Aura in that
(01:04):
video and how Whoop compared to it in a few different ways.
Again, some good some bad. I've also used 8 slee which is a
mattress cover that tracks your slee metrics.
But the other part to it is, is it also adjusts your temperature
while you sleep. So when you first go to sleep,
(01:24):
you want your body temperature to cool and you want it to be
cooler in the first half of the night and then you want it to go
up slightly in the second half of the night.
And I like AIDS Sleep as well because it has sort of a built
in alarm feature where the mattress actually vibrate softly
to wake you up and also warms up.
So that aspect of AIDS sleep I really like.
(01:45):
Maybe I'll do a review on AIDS Sleep as well because I actually
don't use the sleep tracking metrics and the sleep score on
that as much as I have WOOP and aura.
But I do really like the whole temperature adjusting aspect to
it and the alarm. And I feel like that has made a
significant impact on my sleep in a positive way.
(02:09):
But today we're talking about Aura.
So I'm going to do a bit of a review.
In today's video, I'm going to break down what the Aura ring
is, what it tracks, how it works.
We'll get into what I like aboutit, what I don't.
We'll also talk about how it compares to other wearables such
as Woop, which I've used for over 4 years.
And I'll also compare it to 8 sleep, Apple Watch, that sort of
(02:31):
thing. And I'll also get into well,
well, despite the issues I have with aura, I keep using it and
the reason why it might surpriseyou.
So what is the aura ring? Aura ring is a wearable sleep
and recovery tracker. It also tracks your activity as
well. Of course, it's a ring, so you
wear it on your finger. And unlike traditional
(02:52):
smartwatches, it focuses more onsleep and recovery and it has
less of an emphasis on real timefitness and activity tracking.
Although it does have these features as well, it does track
your steps, it does track activities and exercise, and it
does sync with Strava so you canupload your activities straight
(03:13):
from Aura. Like I said, I've been using
Aura Ring for over six years, for over six years.
I got a notification a little while ago that said it was my
six year anniversary. I originally started with I
think the second generation ringand now I have the third
generation ring and I've had this one since I think I looked
(03:35):
at the date the other day. Since 2021.
Still working, still great. So that's almost four years.
The way Aura works is every day it gives you 3 scores out of
100. It gives you a sleep score which
measures how well you slept based on the duration, the
quality, your heart rate variability and your movement.
It gives you an activity score because like I said, it tracks
(03:58):
your movement throughout the dayand your recovery levels.
And it gives you a readiness score O This uses your sleep
data, your heart rate variability or HRV, your resting
heart rate, and your body temperature to determine how
recovered you are. Now because the device sits on
your finger, it tends to be moreaccurate than devices that are
(04:19):
worn on your wrist in terms of measuring your heart rate and
your HRV. Now there have been times where
I have used three different sleep devices at once.
Like I said, I used WOOP for over 4 years.
That also measures sleep and it also tracks your recovery and
also 8 sleep. That's just on my mattress.
(04:40):
And although I don't refer to the sleep score and the sleep
data as much on that, when I've compared the three, they all
tend to trend the same direction.
Like if my resting heart rate was low one night or high one
night, they all trend the same way, although the numbers might
not be exactly the same. And the same goes for HRV.
(05:01):
Out of the three, 8 sleep tends to be the least accurate when it
comes to HRV and resting heart rate and even just sleep
duration and things like that. Sometimes I'll just be like
lying in bed and it will think I'm sleeping.
Whereas with Aura, it kind of knows if I'm reading before bed
and when the point is I actuallyfall asleep.
(05:23):
So it's more accurate in that sense.
Now, if you guys don't know whatHRV is, I'll quickly talk about
that. I talked about this MO Boop
video as well, but it's heart rate variability, which measures
the variability between your heartbeats and if your heart
rate is more variable. So there's different durations
in between your heartbeats. And this is very, very, very
(05:47):
small variation, like nothing you would be able to notice just
measuring your pulse or anythinglike that.
More variation means your body is adapting better moment to
moment. So things that are changing,
it's adapting. And so a higher HRV, more
variability is better. And this has been studied a lot
in terms of like exercise recovery.
(06:07):
And it has been determined to bea very good indicator of how
recovered your body is. Because if you're struggling
with recovery, then your heart rate is going to be less
variable. It's not adapting as quickly
because it's kind of struggling a little bit.
So HRV is a strong predictor foryour recovery or I guess
(06:30):
indicator rather than predictor.Aura, I think was one of the
first wearable devices to track HRV and to use this metric.
Traditionally, older devices just used to look at your
resting heart rate, which can also be a good indicator, but
not as much as HRV. So I like Aura in the sense that
(06:50):
it combines HRV with your resting heart rate and with your
sleep duration and everything else.
I think most devices nowadays are measuring your HRV, so this
isn't as big of a selling point for Aura as it used to be, at
least now when it comes to the sleep score and the recovery
score, out of the three devices that I have used for years and
(07:13):
years, I find that Aura is the most accurate at tracking sleep,
tracking the stages of sleep, tracking how long you slept.
It's also pretty accurate for resting heart rate and for HIV.
But when it comes to recovery, it balances all these out and
sometimes the recovery score canbe lower than what I think it
should be. For example, with WOOP it has a
(07:36):
heavy emphasis on HRV in measuring recovery.
So even if you were didn't get alot of sleep but your HRV was
high, then it will give you a higher recovery score.
Whereas with Aura, I find that if I haven't high HRV, but maybe
I didn't get as much sleep as itthinks I needed, then I'll have
a lower readiness score, which Idon't think is as accurate.
(07:58):
Because like I said, if HRV is high, this is one of the
strongest indicators of your recovery.
And the amount of sleep that these devices say you need can
sometimes be a little bit off because it's based on your
activity the previous day and other factors, sleep debt
building up. But it only knows so much.
It doesn't know exactly what's going on in your body.
(08:20):
So I think the readiness score can be a little bit off.
And this is where I think just looking at the HRV on its own
and comparing it to your baseline because HRV can vary
between people and it varies a lot.
So you don't want to be comparing your HRV to anyone
else. You only want to be comparing it
to yourself. But looking at your HRV on its
own and be a little bit more helpful than looking at the
(08:42):
overall readiness score. The sleep score I think can be
really good. The readiness score I also think
can be good, the activity score and the step counter and
activity tracking in general. This is not accurate.
The steps that aura ring thinks you take in a day are way higher
than any other device says. I've noticed this, others have
(09:04):
noticed this. I've tested it myself just
taking like 100 steps and counting and then seeing what
aura ring says I took. So personally for me, I have
only worn aura for sleep for thepast several years.
Probably no. There was probably a time where
I was wearing woop and or at thesame time during the day.
But because I was wearing woop Iwouldn't wear my or ring
(09:27):
throughout the day. I would just wear it at night.
And I'll talk about why I still wore it at night.
And this also ties in with the main reason why I'm still using
Laura, so I'll get to that in a second.
But some of the other new features that WOOP has
introduced in the last couple ofyears that I do think are kind
of cool are it tells you your cardiovascular age.
So this feature estimates how old you are compared to your
(09:49):
actual age. And it basically uses technology
that measures the stiffness in your arteries.
And it does this by shining a light into your blood vessels.
So I don't think I'm going to beable to show you on my ring.
I'll probably put a photo up on the screen that shows you just
the. I'm trying to take it off just
the little lights. Yeah, you're definitely not
going to be able to see that. The little lights that are on
the inside and the sensors. So the reflected light is
(10:12):
measured by a photo detector andthe wave shape of the reflected
light is analysed and this is interpreted to estimate your
arterial stiffness. And this combined with your
height, your age, your sex givesyou your cardiovascular age.
So if this is aligned with your actual age or if it's lower,
this is a really good sign of heart health.
(10:33):
If it's higher, then this is a sign you might need to make some
adjustments to your diet, to your lifestyle.
The other new ish feature that OR has introduced is your stress
level throughout the day. And this is both good stress and
bad stress. Because I think a lot of people
hear the word stress and they automatically have a negative
connotation with it. But stress isn't a bad thing.
(10:56):
Short bursts of stress are what make us stronger and what help
us build muscle, for example. Because if you think of
exercise, exercise is a stressor.
But because you do it in short durations now if you're over
exercising then that's when it turns into a bad stress because
any stress that's chronic isn't a good thing.
(11:17):
You don't want to be stressed out all of the time, both
physically or mentally. So Aura measures your stress
levels by tracking physiologicalstress and recovery and it
categorises your stress into 4 zones stressed, engaged, relaxed
or restored. So signs that your body is in a
higher state of stress are a higher heart rate, elevated body
(11:39):
temperature, higher respiratory rate.
So it uses all these to determine your stress level.
And I do think this is a good feature.
Like I said, I only have worn aura at night for the last few
years, so I haven't really takenadvantage of this.
Although Whoop has a similar feature where it shows your
stress levels throughout the day.
And if you've watched that video, I talked about why I
(12:02):
stopped using Woop recently after four years.
And the main reason was data fatigue and just becoming a bit
hyper fixated on the numbers. So I would look at my stress
graph throughout the day and it would stress me out if I wasn't
in the state that I wanted to bein.
So obviously when you're exercising, you're going to be
in a higher stress level. This is a good thing.
(12:24):
But if I was trying to take a nap, for example, or just do
some to unwind and my stress levels were still high, I would
get more stressed out and just be like, Oh my God, I'm doing
everything wrong. Why can't I relax?
Oh, and that was something that I don't know.
Obviously it's within your control.
You can control your breathing and certain things, but becoming
(12:47):
fixated on it like I was to a degree is not a good thing.
So I haven't used this feature personally.
With Aura, I do think it can be beneficial for some people, but
I just was not a fan of it. With Woop, I found it was just
making things worse rather than making things better.
I prefer for these devices to have that data and then just
(13:09):
present me a summary of it rather than giving sort of the
real time tracking. So let's get into what I like
about whoop and what I don't like about whoop.
So the pros and the cons. The first thing I mentioned
earlier in this video was the sleep tracking.
I think the sleep tracking is the most accurate out of any
device I've used. Like I said, in terms of the
(13:29):
time I fall asleep, the durationof my sleep, the time I spend in
different sleep stages. I think this is all more
accurate than my Whoop was more accurate than sleep and
especially when I first started using Aura because this was the
first sleep tracker that I ever used.
There were certain things that Inoticed that significantly
decreased my sleep quality. Things like alcohol, even having
(13:53):
one or two drinks before bed or like in the hours before bed
significantly drops your HRV. It decreases the amount of REM
sleep you get. It also increases the amount of
times you wake up throughout thenight.
But you really, really see it with your HRV.
And like I said, that is a strong indicator of how
(14:14):
recovered you are. And if you have two drinks and
you're like, oh, no big deal. OK, I feel like I slept fine.
I woke up feeling OK, I don't feel hungover.
But then you look at your HRV and you're like, wow, that is
significantly lower than it usually is.
And this just goes to show how much energy your body has to put
into processing that alcohol outof your system.
And when it's doing this, it's not prioritising your recovery.
(14:37):
So that was one thing. Eating too close to bedtime,
that's another big, big negativeimpactor on my sleep and my
recovery. Also, blue light before bed, not
getting morning sunlight. Another 2 big things that I
noticed impacted my sleep and myrecovery.
I talk about light and how it impacts our sleep all the time,
(14:58):
both in a good way and in a bad way.
I stress this so much because I have seen the data and I have
felt the results for myself. So when you're first starting
out, I think that this can be helpful and especially adding
the tags like you had alcohol before and just seeing the
trends in that sense, very helpful.
Like I said in my Whoop video, data fatigue was something that
I experienced because there comes a point where you've done
(15:22):
all the work, you've done all the tracking, and you know
exactly what is going to hurt and help your recovery and it
just gets to be a bit tedious. Like I said, I know if I drink
alcohol, my recovery score is going to be much lower.
My readiness score with Aura is going to be much lower.
There comes a point which is nothelpful anymore.
Another thing I like about Aura is the HRV.
(15:43):
Of course I said that they were one of the 1st to use HRV, but
now a lot of other devices are using it so I do still like this
aspect of it. And I do think that the HRV is
pretty accurate and I'm judging accuracy based on me looking at
all three devices. My whoop and my aura would
always be closer together than 8sleep would be.
(16:05):
Like sometimes 8 sleep is so off.
You know what I think the issue is?
Also, I think 8 sleep sometimes tracks my cat sleeping, which is
so funny because there's been times where I've left it on by
accident. Like I had a nap and I turned on
the cooling or whatever and forgot to turn it off.
But then my cats were sleeping on the bed and then it tracked
their sleep. So so funny.
(16:26):
So I think maybe that impacts ita bit.
I'm not entirely sure, that's just my hypothesis, but I do
find Aura to be the most accurate.
Now this is the main reason why I am still using Aura and it is
because of the temperature tracking or it tracks your body
temperature every night and it can detach patterns over time.
(16:47):
Now, the reason that I like thisas a woman especially, is
because the way your body temperature changes throughout
your cycle can help you track your cycle.
Because during the first half ofour cycle, our body temperature
is lower. Along with this, we have higher
HRV, a lower resting heart rate.Things are great in the first
half of our cycle, but then onceyou get into the second half,
(17:09):
your body temperature increases significantly.
Your HRV goes down, your restingheart rate goes up, and you can
use your body temperature to #1 track when you ovulate.
And you can also use it to predict exactly when your period
is going to come. This is so, so handy.
So for me, I know that as soon as my body temperature starts to
(17:30):
increase, exactly 10 days later,my period is going to start.
Yeah. And like I said, this is super,
super handy. Obviously, knowing exactly when
your period is going to start, fantastic.
But also, if you're trying to get pregnant, if you're tracking
your fertility, very, very useful tool.
If you're someone who struggles with PCOS or insulin resistance
and you have a regular cycle, this can help you to get it back
(17:53):
on track. Now, of course, you need to
address the underlying cause, which is insulin resistance, but
this can help you to track your cycle, track your temperature
and monitor progress. Extremely, extremely helpful.
And I've done cycle tracking with like the thermometer that
you use every morning. That is stressful to do because
(18:14):
First off, you need to do it first thing in the morning
before you even start to move, before you even sit up.
You need to remember to pick up that thermometer, take your
temperature and record it right away.
And even if you've been lying inbed for a little bit and your
body temperature has started to go up, then yeah, it's not going
to be accurate. But using Aura, I find it
extremely, extremely accurate. Now, of course, there are things
(18:36):
that impact your body temperature.
Alcohol, you're going to see an increase in your body
temperature the night after you've been drinking.
Again, even just one or two drinks can impact this.
So if you're drinking frequently, this isn't going to
be helpful for you. I pair my Aura ring with Natural
Cycles, the app, and if you markin the app that you were
(18:58):
drinking the day before, it disregards your temperature
altogether because it's not gonna be accurate.
But this is just, I think this is actually a good thing because
it discourages you. So there's that.
The temperature feature can alsobe helpful because it can detect
illness before it starts. Not in every case, but sometimes
I find that the temperature tracking on whoop not as
(19:21):
accurate as Aura. So that's why this is the main
reason why I still use Aura. Is basically to track my
temperature and track my cycle. And this is I guess the other
reason why I'm still using Aura.I think with the release of Gen
3, they introduced a subscription model.
I believe it's six U.S. dollars per month now.
(19:42):
This has become more and more common.
I started using Aura when there was no subscription model and
because of that, I'm a legacy member, so I don't have to pay
for it at all. If I was having to pay the $6
monthly, which would be probablylike $8 Australian, then no, I
don't think I would still be using Aura because like I said,
(20:02):
I don't. Where during the day I mainly
use it for the temperature tracking, and now I've been
using it a little bit more for sleep because I've stopped using
Whoop. Although I'm not putting as much
weight into the readiness score as I used to.
So because I'm a legacy member, that's another reason that I use
(20:22):
Aura. Here's what I don't like about
the Aura ring. I think that the activity
tracking is terrible. When I first heard of Aura, I
was so excited because I thought, OK, I'm not going to
have to wear this Garmin watch on my wrist.
I'm going to have this sort of cool looking device that's going
to be able to track my activities.
Like I said with the steps, it'snot accurate.
(20:44):
Heart rate and calorie tracking and that sort of thing during
activity, not accurate. Calories with any wearable
device aren't going to be accurate.
So you should never be looking at those to begin with.
But yeah, applies to Aura as well.
If you're doing any sort of weight lifting, of course,
because it's a ring, you're not going to want to wear it.
It's sort of like pinches your finger.
(21:04):
I used to wear it back in the day, but yeah, not worth it.
So if you're looking for an activity, a fitness tracker,
this is not for you. I would recommend Whoop if
that's what you're after. Now I also feel like the battery
life isn't that great. I think at this point I can
probably get three nights of sleep on one charge before I
(21:26):
have to recharge it, which isn'tterrible because like I said,
I've been using it since 2021, so like 3 in a bit years.
Three nights pretty good. I'm not sure what it would be
like if I was wearing it throughout the day as well.
And obviously another downside is the subscription model, which
isn't something that I personally have to deal with,
but yeah, it would dissuade me from signing up and using Aura
(21:51):
now. So in conclusion, I do think
Aura is a great device if you are someone who is wanting to
track their sleep, who is new tosleep tracking, who has no idea
what helps and hurts their sleep, if you're struggling to
sleep, that sort of thing, I would recommend Aura.
If you are someone who is an athlete who is looking for
fitness tracking, this isn't a replacement for other wearable
(22:14):
fitness trackers. Don't use this to track your
workouts. If you're just a casual
exerciser and you aren't too concerned with like metrics, if
you're not using it for like runs and for pace and that sort
of thing, then yeah, it might befine.
And if you're someone who is looking to track their cycle,
then I can't recommend Aura enough.
(22:35):
And the way that it syncs with Natural Cycle is just fantastic.
It makes it so easy. On that note, I really like the
Natural Cycles app as well, so I'm going to link to that in the
description box down below as well if you guys want to check
that. But anyways, that is going to
conclude today's episode. I hope you guys found this
helpful. If you are considering buying
Aura or if you've used Aura in the past, let me know in the
(22:56):
comments what your experience has been.
Have you used Whoop? Have you used 8 Sleep?
I love hearing from you guys, solet me know and see you guys
next time. Bye.
Hello and welcome to the HealthyNow Complicated podcast.
Now I have been using my Aura ring for over six years and I
did a review, I think probably after two years of using it, and
I thought it was time for an update.
So I'm going to do a bit of a review.
In today's video, I'm going to breakdown what the Aura ring is,
(00:20):
what it tracks, how it works. We'll get into what I like about
it, what I don't. We'll also talk about how it
compares to other wearables suchas Woop, which I've used for
over 4 years. And I'll also compare it to 8
sleeve Apple Watch, that sort ofthing.
And I'll also get into, well, despite the issues I have with
Aura, I keep using it. And the reason why it might
(00:43):
surprise you because Aura has made some updates over the
years, some good, some not so good.
And as someone who has used a lot of wearable devices over the
years and different sleep trackers, I did a review a few
weeks ago on Whoop and talked a little bit about Aura in that
(01:04):
video and how Whoop compared to it in a few different ways.
Again, some good some bad. I've also used 8 slee which is a
mattress cover that tracks your slee metrics.
But the other part to it is, is it also adjusts your temperature
while you sleep. So when you first go to sleep,
(01:24):
you want your body temperature to cool and you want it to be
cooler in the first half of the night and then you want it to go
up slightly in the second half of the night.
And I like AIDS Sleep as well because it has sort of a built
in alarm feature where the mattress actually vibrate softly
to wake you up and also warms up.
So that aspect of AIDS sleep I really like.
(01:45):
Maybe I'll do a review on AIDS Sleep as well because I actually
don't use the sleep tracking metrics and the sleep score on
that as much as I have WOOP and aura.
But I do really like the whole temperature adjusting aspect to
it and the alarm. And I feel like that has made a
significant impact on my sleep in a positive way.
(02:09):
But today we're talking about Aura.
So I'm going to do a bit of a review.
In today's video, I'm going to break down what the Aura ring
is, what it tracks, how it works.
We'll get into what I like aboutit, what I don't.
We'll also talk about how it compares to other wearables such
as Woop, which I've used for over 4 years.
And I'll also compare it to 8 sleep, Apple Watch, that sort of
(02:31):
thing. And I'll also get into well,
well, despite the issues I have with aura, I keep using it and
the reason why it might surpriseyou.
So what is the aura ring? Aura ring is a wearable sleep
and recovery tracker. It also tracks your activity as
well. Of course, it's a ring, so you
wear it on your finger. And unlike traditional
(02:52):
smartwatches, it focuses more onsleep and recovery and it has
less of an emphasis on real timefitness and activity tracking.
Although it does have these features as well, it does track
your steps, it does track activities and exercise, and it
does sync with Strava so you canupload your activities straight
(03:13):
from Aura. Like I said, I've been using
Aura Ring for over six years, for over six years.
I got a notification a little while ago that said it was my
six year anniversary. I originally started with I
think the second generation ringand now I have the third
generation ring and I've had this one since I think I looked
(03:35):
at the date the other day. Since 2021.
Still working, still great. So that's almost four years.
The way Aura works is every day it gives you 3 scores out of
100. It gives you a sleep score which
measures how well you slept based on the duration, the
quality, your heart rate variability and your movement.
It gives you an activity score because like I said, it tracks
(03:58):
your movement throughout the dayand your recovery levels.
And it gives you a readiness score O This uses your sleep
data, your heart rate variability or HRV, your resting
heart rate, and your body temperature to determine how
recovered you are. Now because the device sits on
your finger, it tends to be moreaccurate than devices that are
(04:19):
worn on your wrist in terms of measuring your heart rate and
your HRV. Now there have been times where
I have used three different sleep devices at once.
Like I said, I used WOOP for over 4 years.
That also measures sleep and it also tracks your recovery and
also 8 sleep. That's just on my mattress.
(04:40):
And although I don't refer to the sleep score and the sleep
data as much on that, when I've compared the three, they all
tend to trend the same direction.
Like if my resting heart rate was low one night or high one
night, they all trend the same way, although the numbers might
not be exactly the same. And the same goes for HRV.
(05:01):
Out of the three, 8 sleep tends to be the least accurate when it
comes to HRV and resting heart rate and even just sleep
duration and things like that. Sometimes I'll just be like
lying in bed and it will think I'm sleeping.
Whereas with Aura, it kind of knows if I'm reading before bed
and when the point is I actuallyfall asleep.
(05:23):
So it's more accurate in that sense.
Now, if you guys don't know whatHRV is, I'll quickly talk about
that. I talked about this MO Boop
video as well, but it's heart rate variability, which measures
the variability between your heartbeats and if your heart
rate is more variable. So there's different durations
in between your heartbeats. And this is very, very, very
(05:47):
small variation, like nothing you would be able to notice just
measuring your pulse or anythinglike that.
More variation means your body is adapting better moment to
moment. So things that are changing,
it's adapting. And so a higher HRV, more
variability is better. And this has been studied a lot
in terms of like exercise recovery.
(06:07):
And it has been determined to bea very good indicator of how
recovered your body is. Because if you're struggling
with recovery, then your heart rate is going to be less
variable. It's not adapting as quickly
because it's kind of struggling a little bit.
So HRV is a strong predictor foryour recovery or I guess
(06:30):
indicator rather than predictor.Aura, I think was one of the
first wearable devices to track HRV and to use this metric.
Traditionally, older devices just used to look at your
resting heart rate, which can also be a good indicator, but
not as much as HRV. So I like Aura in the sense that
(06:50):
it combines HRV with your resting heart rate and with your
sleep duration and everything else.
I think most devices nowadays are measuring your HRV, so this
isn't as big of a selling point for Aura as it used to be, at
least now when it comes to the sleep score and the recovery
score, out of the three devices that I have used for years and
(07:13):
years, I find that Aura is the most accurate at tracking sleep,
tracking the stages of sleep, tracking how long you slept.
It's also pretty accurate for resting heart rate and for HIV.
But when it comes to recovery, it balances all these out and
sometimes the recovery score canbe lower than what I think it
should be. For example, with WOOP it has a
(07:36):
heavy emphasis on HRV in measuring recovery.
So even if you were didn't get alot of sleep but your HRV was
high, then it will give you a higher recovery score.
Whereas with Aura, I find that if I haven't high HRV, but maybe
I didn't get as much sleep as itthinks I needed, then I'll have
a lower readiness score, which Idon't think is as accurate.
(07:58):
Because like I said, if HRV is high, this is one of the
strongest indicators of your recovery.
And the amount of sleep that these devices say you need can
sometimes be a little bit off because it's based on your
activity the previous day and other factors, sleep debt
building up. But it only knows so much.
It doesn't know exactly what's going on in your body.
(08:20):
So I think the readiness score can be a little bit off.
And this is where I think just looking at the HRV on its own
and comparing it to your baseline because HRV can vary
between people and it varies a lot.
So you don't want to be comparing your HRV to anyone
else. You only want to be comparing it
to yourself. But looking at your HRV on its
own and be a little bit more helpful than looking at the
(08:42):
overall readiness score. The sleep score I think can be
really good. The readiness score I also think
can be good, the activity score and the step counter and
activity tracking in general. This is not accurate.
The steps that aura ring thinks you take in a day are way higher
than any other device says. I've noticed this, others have
(09:04):
noticed this. I've tested it myself just
taking like 100 steps and counting and then seeing what
aura ring says I took. So personally for me, I have
only worn aura for sleep for thepast several years.
Probably no. There was probably a time where
I was wearing woop and or at thesame time during the day.
But because I was wearing woop Iwouldn't wear my or ring
(09:27):
throughout the day. I would just wear it at night.
And I'll talk about why I still wore it at night.
And this also ties in with the main reason why I'm still using
Laura, so I'll get to that in a second.
But some of the other new features that WOOP has
introduced in the last couple ofyears that I do think are kind
of cool are it tells you your cardiovascular age.
So this feature estimates how old you are compared to your
(09:49):
actual age. And it basically uses technology
that measures the stiffness in your arteries.
And it does this by shining a light into your blood vessels.
So I don't think I'm going to beable to show you on my ring.
I'll probably put a photo up on the screen that shows you just
the. I'm trying to take it off just
the little lights. Yeah, you're definitely not
going to be able to see that. The little lights that are on
the inside and the sensors. So the reflected light is
(10:12):
measured by a photo detector andthe wave shape of the reflected
light is analysed and this is interpreted to estimate your
arterial stiffness. And this combined with your
height, your age, your sex givesyou your cardiovascular age.
So if this is aligned with your actual age or if it's lower,
this is a really good sign of heart health.
(10:33):
If it's higher, then this is a sign you might need to make some
adjustments to your diet, to your lifestyle.
The other new ish feature that OR has introduced is your stress
level throughout the day. And this is both good stress and
bad stress. Because I think a lot of people
hear the word stress and they automatically have a negative
connotation with it. But stress isn't a bad thing.
(10:56):
Short bursts of stress are what make us stronger and what help
us build muscle, for example. Because if you think of
exercise, exercise is a stressor.
But because you do it in short durations now if you're over
exercising then that's when it turns into a bad stress because
any stress that's chronic isn't a good thing.
(11:17):
You don't want to be stressed out all of the time, both
physically or mentally. So Aura measures your stress
levels by tracking physiologicalstress and recovery and it
categorises your stress into 4 zones stressed, engaged, relaxed
or restored. So signs that your body is in a
higher state of stress are a higher heart rate, elevated body
(11:39):
temperature, higher respiratory rate.
So it uses all these to determine your stress level.
And I do think this is a good feature.
Like I said, I only have worn aura at night for the last few
years, so I haven't really takenadvantage of this.
Although Whoop has a similar feature where it shows your
stress levels throughout the day.
And if you've watched that video, I talked about why I
(12:02):
stopped using Woop recently after four years.
And the main reason was data fatigue and just becoming a bit
hyper fixated on the numbers. So I would look at my stress
graph throughout the day and it would stress me out if I wasn't
in the state that I wanted to bein.
So obviously when you're exercising, you're going to be
in a higher stress level. This is a good thing.
(12:24):
But if I was trying to take a nap, for example, or just do
some to unwind and my stress levels were still high, I would
get more stressed out and just be like, Oh my God, I'm doing
everything wrong. Why can't I relax?
Oh, and that was something that I don't know.
Obviously it's within your control.
You can control your breathing and certain things, but becoming
(12:47):
fixated on it like I was to a degree is not a good thing.
So I haven't used this feature personally.
With Aura, I do think it can be beneficial for some people, but
I just was not a fan of it. With Woop, I found it was just
making things worse rather than making things better.
I prefer for these devices to have that data and then just
(13:09):
present me a summary of it rather than giving sort of the
real time tracking. So let's get into what I like
about whoop and what I don't like about whoop.
So the pros and the cons. The first thing I mentioned
earlier in this video was the sleep tracking.
I think the sleep tracking is the most accurate out of any
device I've used. Like I said, in terms of the
(13:29):
time I fall asleep, the durationof my sleep, the time I spend in
different sleep stages. I think this is all more
accurate than my Whoop was more accurate than sleep and
especially when I first started using Aura because this was the
first sleep tracker that I ever used.
There were certain things that Inoticed that significantly
decreased my sleep quality. Things like alcohol, even having
(13:53):
one or two drinks before bed or like in the hours before bed
significantly drops your HRV. It decreases the amount of REM
sleep you get. It also increases the amount of
times you wake up throughout thenight.
But you really, really see it with your HRV.
And like I said, that is a strong indicator of how
(14:14):
recovered you are. And if you have two drinks and
you're like, oh, no big deal. OK, I feel like I slept fine.
I woke up feeling OK, I don't feel hungover.
But then you look at your HRV and you're like, wow, that is
significantly lower than it usually is.
And this just goes to show how much energy your body has to put
into processing that alcohol outof your system.
And when it's doing this, it's not prioritising your recovery.
(14:37):
So that was one thing. Eating too close to bedtime,
that's another big, big negativeimpactor on my sleep and my
recovery. Also, blue light before bed, not
getting morning sunlight. Another 2 big things that I
noticed impacted my sleep and myrecovery.
I talk about light and how it impacts our sleep all the time,
(14:58):
both in a good way and in a bad way.
I stress this so much because I have seen the data and I have
felt the results for myself. So when you're first starting
out, I think that this can be helpful and especially adding
the tags like you had alcohol before and just seeing the
trends in that sense, very helpful.
Like I said in my Whoop video, data fatigue was something that
I experienced because there comes a point where you've done
(15:22):
all the work, you've done all the tracking, and you know
exactly what is going to hurt and help your recovery and it
just gets to be a bit tedious. Like I said, I know if I drink
alcohol, my recovery score is going to be much lower.
My readiness score with Aura is going to be much lower.
There comes a point which is nothelpful anymore.
Another thing I like about Aura is the HRV.
(15:43):
Of course I said that they were one of the 1st to use HRV, but
now a lot of other devices are using it so I do still like this
aspect of it. And I do think that the HRV is
pretty accurate and I'm judging accuracy based on me looking at
all three devices. My whoop and my aura would
always be closer together than 8sleep would be.
(16:05):
Like sometimes 8 sleep is so off.
You know what I think the issue is?
Also, I think 8 sleep sometimes tracks my cat sleeping, which is
so funny because there's been times where I've left it on by
accident. Like I had a nap and I turned on
the cooling or whatever and forgot to turn it off.
But then my cats were sleeping on the bed and then it tracked
their sleep. So so funny.
(16:26):
So I think maybe that impacts ita bit.
I'm not entirely sure, that's just my hypothesis, but I do
find Aura to be the most accurate.
Now this is the main reason why I am still using Aura and it is
because of the temperature tracking or it tracks your body
temperature every night and it can detach patterns over time.
(16:47):
Now, the reason that I like thisas a woman especially, is
because the way your body temperature changes throughout
your cycle can help you track your cycle.
Because during the first half ofour cycle, our body temperature
is lower. Along with this, we have higher
HRV, a lower resting heart rate.Things are great in the first
half of our cycle, but then onceyou get into the second half,
(17:09):
your body temperature increases significantly.
Your HRV goes down, your restingheart rate goes up, and you can
use your body temperature to #1 track when you ovulate.
And you can also use it to predict exactly when your period
is going to come. This is so, so handy.
So for me, I know that as soon as my body temperature starts to
(17:30):
increase, exactly 10 days later,my period is going to start.
Yeah. And like I said, this is super,
super handy. Obviously, knowing exactly when
your period is going to start, fantastic.
But also, if you're trying to get pregnant, if you're tracking
your fertility, very, very useful tool.
If you're someone who struggles with PCOS or insulin resistance
and you have a regular cycle, this can help you to get it back
(17:53):
on track. Now, of course, you need to
address the underlying cause, which is insulin resistance, but
this can help you to track your cycle, track your temperature
and monitor progress. Extremely, extremely helpful.
And I've done cycle tracking with like the thermometer that
you use every morning. That is stressful to do because
(18:14):
First off, you need to do it first thing in the morning
before you even start to move, before you even sit up.
You need to remember to pick up that thermometer, take your
temperature and record it right away.
And even if you've been lying inbed for a little bit and your
body temperature has started to go up, then yeah, it's not going
to be accurate. But using Aura, I find it
extremely, extremely accurate. Now, of course, there are things
(18:36):
that impact your body temperature.
Alcohol, you're going to see an increase in your body
temperature the night after you've been drinking.
Again, even just one or two drinks can impact this.
So if you're drinking frequently, this isn't going to
be helpful for you. I pair my Aura ring with Natural
Cycles, the app, and if you markin the app that you were
(18:58):
drinking the day before, it disregards your temperature
altogether because it's not gonna be accurate.
But this is just, I think this is actually a good thing because
it discourages you. So there's that.
The temperature feature can alsobe helpful because it can detect
illness before it starts. Not in every case, but sometimes
I find that the temperature tracking on whoop not as
(19:21):
accurate as Aura. So that's why this is the main
reason why I still use Aura. Is basically to track my
temperature and track my cycle. And this is I guess the other
reason why I'm still using Aura.I think with the release of Gen
3, they introduced a subscription model.
I believe it's six U.S. dollars per month now.
(19:42):
This has become more and more common.
I started using Aura when there was no subscription model and
because of that, I'm a legacy member, so I don't have to pay
for it at all. If I was having to pay the $6
monthly, which would be probablylike $8 Australian, then no, I
don't think I would still be using Aura because like I said,
(20:02):
I don't. Where during the day I mainly
use it for the temperature tracking, and now I've been
using it a little bit more for sleep because I've stopped using
Whoop. Although I'm not putting as much
weight into the readiness score as I used to.
So because I'm a legacy member, that's another reason that I use
(20:22):
Aura. Here's what I don't like about
the Aura ring. I think that the activity
tracking is terrible. When I first heard of Aura, I
was so excited because I thought, OK, I'm not going to
have to wear this Garmin watch on my wrist.
I'm going to have this sort of cool looking device that's going
to be able to track my activities.
Like I said with the steps, it'snot accurate.
(20:44):
Heart rate and calorie tracking and that sort of thing during
activity, not accurate. Calories with any wearable
device aren't going to be accurate.
So you should never be looking at those to begin with.
But yeah, applies to Aura as well.
If you're doing any sort of weight lifting, of course,
because it's a ring, you're not going to want to wear it.
It's sort of like pinches your finger.
(21:04):
I used to wear it back in the day, but yeah, not worth it.
So if you're looking for an activity, a fitness tracker,
this is not for you. I would recommend Whoop if
that's what you're after. Now I also feel like the battery
life isn't that great. I think at this point I can
probably get three nights of sleep on one charge before I
(21:26):
have to recharge it, which isn'tterrible because like I said,
I've been using it since 2021, so like 3 in a bit years.
Three nights pretty good. I'm not sure what it would be
like if I was wearing it throughout the day as well.
And obviously another downside is the subscription model, which
isn't something that I personally have to deal with,
but yeah, it would dissuade me from signing up and using Aura
(21:51):
now. So in conclusion, I do think
Aura is a great device if you are someone who is wanting to
track their sleep, who is new tosleep tracking, who has no idea
what helps and hurts their sleep, if you're struggling to
sleep, that sort of thing, I would recommend Aura.
If you are someone who is an athlete who is looking for
fitness tracking, this isn't a replacement for other wearable
(22:14):
fitness trackers. Don't use this to track your
workouts. If you're just a casual
exerciser and you aren't too concerned with like metrics, if
you're not using it for like runs and for pace and that sort
of thing, then yeah, it might befine.
And if you're someone who is looking to track their cycle,
then I can't recommend Aura enough.
(22:35):
And the way that it syncs with Natural Cycle is just fantastic.
It makes it so easy. On that note, I really like the
Natural Cycles app as well, so I'm going to link to that in the
description box down below as well if you guys want to check
that. But anyways, that is going to
conclude today's episode. I hope you guys found this
helpful. If you are considering buying
Aura or if you've used Aura in the past, let me know in the
(22:56):
comments what your experience has been.
Have you used Whoop? Have you used 8 Sleep?
I love hearing from you guys, solet me know and see you guys
next time. Bye.
Host
Kait Malthaner
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