Comparing 2 Oura Rings for 2 Weeks

Quantified Self Sleep
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Hello Fellow QSers!

First post!

Anywho…I was given an extra Oura ring to wear for two weeks so wanted to see how they differed between hands. Same ring size and model worn on the same index fingers of my right and left hand for 2 weeks.

Findings: sleep stages were all over the place but detecting how long I was in bed sleeping/awake, HR, HRV, temperature deviation, and respiratory rate were less than, on average, ~3% off.

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Heres the google sheet with all the data and summarizes.

Let me know what you think!

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Nice! Yes, I have also encountered discrepancies in sleep stage detection (deep to light, and light to REM) and think it’s largely due to the accelerometer (movement in one arm vs. the other).

I think the most consistent metrics (HRV, HRV, temperature) are due to relying primarily on the heart rate and body temperature sensors (same on both fingers) whereas sleep stage detection also factors in the accelerometer (movement in one arm vs. the other). That being said, the accelerometer is also used to more accurately identify when you fall asleep/wake up as movement suddenly starts/stops.

Good stuff :+1:

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Makes sense! Thanks Bob!

Also love your Breathing app!

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Excellent work! Confirms my findings between the Oura and the QS Emfit that sleep stage detection is pretty much bunk.

Now let’s go tell that to the Oura fanpeople :slight_smile:

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Thanks Dan! Now I just need to control myself and not give too much emphasis on those sleep stages, especially deep sleep.

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Dan, can I ask if you are left-handed and tend to sleep on your side?

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Hi Dean!
Ask away! I am a righty and usually sleep on my stomach although sometimes rarely ill be on my side (~10%).

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Well, there goes my theory!

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Interesting comparison, Dan. I have reached very similar conclusions when comparing different wrist-worn sleep trackers (Fitbit Blaze, Basis B1), and the Oura Ring. Sleep duration, RHR, and temperature are strongly correlated across the different devices, but the sleep stages are all over the place.

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Thanks Jakob! Just listened to your great talk! Sad the devices are just correlated and not reporting equal values. But nonetheless relative movement in RHR is insightful. Ugh cant wait for the next wave of trackable devices

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Super interesting. Great to know about sleep. Probably best to keep that data “with a grain of salt”

Just want to ask, were there any “calibration” or settings to change for the different hands/fingers?

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Thanks, Dan. About the devices not reporting the same absolute values I would say yes and no. Part of the reason is that they apply different methods to acquire the RHR measurements. To the best of my knowledge Basis did the measurement 10 minutes before wake up time, whereas Oura report the lowest value obtain during sleep and the average during sleep. In my experience these measurements do not result in the same absolute values across devices, but are strongly correlated.

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Hi Chris
No Calibration. I just put on both rings right before going to bed, on the same finger and in the same position on each finger every night for two weeks.

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Got it. Not familiar with Aura’s settings, wasn’t sure if they had the calibration settings such as “off hand”. I guess they must treat it all the same. I’m guessing they are using sleep staging from movement, which explains in ‘unreliability’

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Its not clear how they compute sleep stages but my guess is that most of that info comes from the gyroscope/accelerometer

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Here’s a blogger reviewing how she compared two identical Oura rings worn on the same finger of opposite hands over 3 weeks:

Measurements that matched: HRV, heart rate, respiratory rate, total sleep time, light sleep
Large discrepancies: REM sleep, sleep latency, temperature
Significant discrepancies: deep sleep, calories burned (~200/day)

Oura ring REM sleep detection is a crapshoot
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