I took a break from my Oura ring

This actually surprised me!

For the past few weeks, my Oura ring battery has been driving me nuts. I even packed the separate little charging cable for my trip to London because I HAD to see how my data read with international travel 🤓

Now I already have charged emotions about my Oura ring, to be completely honest. Like many things, I was an early adopter, and since 2020 this is probably my 5th ring?? At least.

Earlier iterations were a bit more clunky, questionably accurate, but wildly habit-forming in daily data reads, nonetheless. And in their early years, their customer service was notoriously BAD. Warranty issues were like pulling teeth, and it often took literally weeks to even get a response. Ugh.

I worked through those feelings over the years I suppose, and continued to pledge to them a few hundred bucks each time another one would bite the dust. I even splurged on the gold and then rose gold editions— neither of them are even a pinch of real gold, mind you.

I have even tried other competing products here and there, and found them to be even worse in dependability. Not naming any names, but they were sadly bad.

Now, back to my most recent ring (which is the cheapest basic silver, in case you’re wondering). I bought this one just over a year ago. Suddenly the battery life decided to go out the window, even after a full charge— would just quit in my sleep— so annoying! I’d already reached out to support a couple months back— they told me my battery life was within range.

Last week, I took a moment to contact their support team again. I was pleasantly surprised when they answered right away and offered a replacement after verifying that there was indeed an issue. I did have to dig up a few details including my purchase order number, size, model, etc. but they quickly informed me that a replacement would be on the way, and that I should expect to receive it in 1-3 weeks.

That was it— an (albeit, forced) effort to disconnect from the daily data.

Because in full transparency, it is absolutely the first thing I do every day.

I wake up without alarm, go to the bathroom, take out my retainers, and chug electrolytes while I peruse my sleep and readiness scores.

Now some might call this neurotic, and argue that “they can tell how they feel without data” and find themselves obsessing about it, spiraling about recovery or whatever else comes up.

But me? Not so much. I am occasionally guilty of posting a snapshot to IG stories, but try not to be an asshole about it. (My scores are typically pretty enviable, tbh) 😅

I go about my day and do it again the next.

However, it does occur to me that I’ve been doing this for 5 years now, and maybe it’s no longer serving me? I decided to see how it feels to forget about it. At least for the next 1-3 weeks, since the old one was caput anyway.

Another pleasant surprise greeted me the very next day— when my replacement ring showed up at my doorstep! WHAT? Was this the same brand that was such an eye-roll in the past, with their overnight replacement?! Hmm! I’ll take it!

I should also note that in replacements past, I’d received what appeared to be a refurbished ring, in a meager little envelope mailer— no box, no charging cable, nothing. But this time, I got the whole package. Nicely done, OURA!

And what’s a girl to do with new jewelry but to charge that sucker up and give it a whirl!? So I did. After a one-night break! Ha.

I enjoyed my one day of a scratch-free ring, knowing that the feeling is fleeting, and eagerly went to bed with anticipation of my scores the next day with the new ring.

That was yesterday— and when I woke up, there it was: MAJOR SIGNS.

The dreaded biometric indicator that my body is spiked with stress. UGH.

Oura detects things that we can’t, in a nutshell, like oxygen levels and heart rate, in addition to sleep cycles. So while I wouldn’t have reported anything noteworthy out of the ordinary — I AM doing a detox protocol now, and I DID work all weekend (rare, don’t judge).

So instead of pushing through to do my boxing workout as planned, I took a rest day.

I titrated down / off part of my detox protocol (more to share on this very soon), and went to bed a bit early.

Today? MINOR SIGNS. But improved.

So there you have it. Perhaps my OURA ring did actually help me to see that I needed to slow down. Perhaps I’m not breaking up with her, yet. And perhaps I’m even a bit impressed this round with their customer service.

Want to twin with me and compare scores? Snag yours for 10% off (good for 10 redemptions)

Do you use an OURA ring or other tracker? Pros/Cons— give me your thoughts!