OURA RING CHRONOTYPE type feature makes me fall asleep (in a great way)

If you can’t figure out why you’re exhausted when you wake up or want to track how your body handles stress in your daily life, the smart ring will provide the answer. And my favorite smart ring, the famous Ula ring, started to provide answers quickly. Almost the second second I slipped on the ring, I got data on my heart rate, skin temperature and blood oxygen levels. Within a few days, the OURA app collected and reported trends in my health biometrics technology. But for some data, users must be patient.

The OURA application has three tabs: Today, Vitality and My Health. Today and Health provide data you can access immediately – a quick snapshot of your real-time health data. But “my health” is the basis of data and it takes some time to calculate. It’s not just a week or two to process; a calculation takes months of patience.

“My Health” has three reports: resilience, heart health, and sleep health. After about 28 days, the data are filled in both resilience and heart health, but sleep health takes longer. I had to wait three months to calculate my sleep time. So, after 90 days of daily use, I finally got the timing model, which is worth waiting for.

What is a phenotype?

The terms “early bird” and “night owl” are more than just an idiom. They refer to the timing type, which is your natural sleep cycle. Chronotypes is popularized by Dr. Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist specializing in sleep medicine. Dr. Bruce describes the sleeper as a lion, bear, wolf, or dolphin, adding several animals to the traditional sleep cycle.

OURA breaks down users into six timing types: early morning, early morning, evening, evening, evening and evening. With each time type, a recommended sleep and wake time will appear that can be used with your natural circadian rhythm to help you get the best sleep quality. Plus, it helps you realize when you are most productive, so you can stop scheduling early morning meetings, anyway when you are most concentrated and productive in the afternoon or evening.

How does OURA calculate phenotype?

Are there other “evening types” in the crowd?
Credits: Samantha Mangino/Mashable

Oura Rings tracks impressive biometrics to calculate your phenotype (and therefore a few months of waiting). Through sleep tracking, activity tracking, and body temperature, OURA aggregates data to conclude which timing types you belong to. OURA is more than just picking up data snapshots. In a three-month data collection, it can be more comprehensive than the habits you get after just 28 days, which may contain a week or two or two and swing data.

Why is timing important?

If you want to follow your doctor’s orders and recommend seven to eight hours of sleep per night, it’s crucial to choose the right sleep and wake up time. If you work backwards, plan your sleep time when you need to wake up and you may find that your bedtime still feels incorrect. If you have a hard time falling asleep or waking up before an alarm, you may not embrace the natural circadian rhythm.

Your phenotype allows you to understand when your body wants to wake up and rest, and when it is productive. While most people don’t have the luxury of creating work hours around their sleep schedules, you still have useful data to optimize your life.

Why I like Oura’s Chronotype feature

According to OURA, the evening type is innovative (don’t brag).
Credits: Samantha Mangino/Mashable

Credits: Samantha Mangino/Mashable

My sleep schedule has been a problem since I was a kid. I would stay up late to bedtime and get overhauled in early school hours. Although I once viewed it as a matter of discipline, the irresponsibility of the youth prompted me to stay up late, I learned that it was just my natural rhythm of sleep. It’s no surprise that I flourished when I worked in a restaurant after graduation.

Now, I’m working 9 to 5, working from home, those late nights need to be shortened. There was a time when I tried to sleep with my partner, who went to bed early, woke up at dawn, and I ended up falling and turning around and lying in the bed, frustrated, and I couldn’t fall asleep.

After wearing it for three months, I finally got some answers. OURA assigned me the “evening” timing model. Although I’m not an extreme night owl, my schedule does tilt backwards. When oura offers a suggestion of bedtime of 12:30 AM at 8:30 AM, I realize that’s what my body wants. I’m fighting the moon shape when I try to be a morning. Since then, I’ve adjusted the schedule to accept this routine and found it easier for me to fall asleep and get a full break.

OURA is not the only fitness tracker that provides such data. Hoop also does a great job of suggesting sleep and wake-up time. However, Hoop does not provide Chronotype configuration files.

You can get a lot of important information from the OURA ring, but Chronotype is my favorite feature. It gives me tangible information that can really improve my sleep quality.

I know that European rings are an expensive investment, and if you are going to splurge, make sure you receive data that is actually useful.

Who can access the timing model?

You can access the Chronotype feature using the newer ORA Ring 4 and the older Oura Ring Gen3, but you need OIRA membership. OURA App Membership costs $5.99 per month or $69.99 per year.