Ruth CleggHealth and wellbeing reporter
Kristian Johnson/BBC
Running, walking, sleeping, you name it, I track myself 24/7
There’s a feeling of anticipation. I can see the cold breath coming from my competitors as they do the “about to run” wiggle on the start line.
A quick flick of the hips.
I’m at my local 5km community parkrun event on a Saturday morning and I mean business. Three, two, one…
Oh, hang on. I need to sort my Garmin. As does the guy next to me.
The person behind us tuts. I’m not moving until… yes! GPS ready, I’m off.
In the melee, it’s hard to see a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And it’s not just us runners who use them.
It’s a booming, multi-billion pound industry. Names like Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy, Garmin, Huawei Watch and Google’s Fitbit dominate, each with an extensive selection of different models to suit a range of lifestyles. Depending on how high tech the model you go for, prices can range from £100 to thousands of pounds.
“It drives me insane, I can’t switch off.”
“It comforts me… It’s like a friend supporting me.”
“Stop telling me I’ve had a bad night’s sleep.”
Just some of the comments I’ve had from fellow smartwatch wearers when I ask what they think of theirs.
Kristian Johnson/BBC
Ruth wonders whether the stats on her watch are actually accurate
My thoughts on mine? Right now, annoying. It’s telling me I’m off pace, making me wonder whether the trees I’m running below are blocking my GPS connection.
Millions of us strap these little monitors onto our wrists and wear them 24/7, seemingly at ease with the fact they’re constantly tracking us.
Gone are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an idea of our step count. Now, they can measure our sleep patterns, blood pressure, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), our oxygen, our glucose levels, our VO2 max.
It’s tricky to find a bodily function they don’t track.
But do they do what they say they do? And are the statistics we analyse a reflection of reality? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of measurements and motivational messages just add to our daily stresses?
Rachael says some of the functions on her smartwatch are “overwhelming”
“I do get a bit obsessed with mine,” Rachael Fairclough from St Helens on Merseyside, tells me.
While she loves how her Apple Watch tracks her runs, she finds some of its other functions “overwhelming” at times – as she first discovered when she became pregnant.
Before she realised she could put it into pregnancy mode, Rachael’s smartwatch kept telling her she was not being productive enough. Now she’s had her baby, the watch keeps telling her she’s had a bad night’s sleep.
“I’ve got a six-month old, I don’t need to be told I’ve not slept,” Rachael says. “I know that only too well.”
Couldn’t she just take it off?
“I could, I suppose
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