Oura Ring 4 Review

I don’t remember the last time I woke up and didn’t feel groggy. Let me explain: I have Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a chronic condition that affects my autonomic nervous system, which is in charge of involuntary actions like heart rate and blood pressure. While the symptoms—like lightheadedness, fatigue, frequent heart rate spikes and even fainting for some—manifest differently in different people, my days are often clouded in fatigue.

So when a Pilates instructor friend of mine told me about the Oura Ring’s energy- and sleep-tracking abilities, I was immediately intrigued. The brand was nice enough to send me the newest generation, the Oura Ring 4 (released in October 2024), which I’ve been wearing daily for the past month. My takeaway? I feel more in control of my sleep and resting habits than ever before.

Oura Ring 4

Every morning, I wake up and check the Oura app on my phone, where all of my stats appear. The first thing I look at is my sleep score, a number that reflects how much total sleep I got, how much REM sleep and deep sleep I got and how restful I was, among other data. It also detects your sleep “latency,” or how long it took you to fall asleep. (Apparently, I fall asleep a lot faster than I previously thought.) 

After you’ve been wearing the ring for two weeks and it’s learned your body better, it recommends an ideal time window for you to fall asleep. Being the night owl I am, the ring detected that I should fall asleep between 11:00 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. to wake up well-rested, and it’s right: When I get in bed before that window, I toss and turn for hours, but if I fall asleep after it, I’m particularly groggy the next day. I’ll admit, these reminders have helped me stay accountable for my bedtime—they convince me to put down my phone rather than staying up too late scrolling, and my POTS symptoms thank me for it. 

You can also add a wide variety of “tags” to your daily timeline, marking things like a late-night meal, a glass of wine before bed, joint pain, a hot bath, nightmares, PMS or exercise. Using these insights, it’s easy for me to look back and notice what factors are consistently affecting my sleep so I can make a lifestyle change. It’s easy for me to forget about lifestyle factors after a few days, so it’s been really helpful to track my symptoms—and potential causes of them—in the Oura app.  

Beyond my sleep, I’ve been on a mission to improve my stamina as another way to combat my fatigue. Working alongside my physical therapist, I’ve been slowly increasing my daily exercise at a pace that’s safe for me. The key to this is being able to track my heart rate when I walk or run, which I can do by opening the Oura app. In it, I can check my heart rate at that exact time and track how it’s spiked or fallen over the course of my workout (and the entire day). While the ring does sometimes detect your activity (walking, dancing, running, etc.), I usually have to input that manually; if you want a device solely for tracking exercise and fitness, this might not be your best choice.

It sounds cliche, but over the past four years of living with a diagnosed chronic condition, I’ve learned that knowledge really is power, and that’s what my Oura ring gives me. Having easily accessible data about my health is the best way to assuage my anxiety. In particular, tracking my heart rate and energy (Oura calls this “readiness”) has been crucial to my peace of mind. With the Oura ring, I can confirm what my doctors have always told me to expect: When I go from sitting to standing (or still to moving), my heart rate will spike to the mid-to-high 100s, which is okay. Now that I can check my heart rate at any given moment, I can see the same patterns repeat day after day, ultimately causing me less worry.

Other cool features include the ring’s titanium recessed sensors, which are an upgrade from the previous generation. The new sensors lie flat, so I don’t feel them against my finger, and, compared to the Oura Ring Gen3, they allow the ring to rotate more throughout my daily movement without compromising the signal. The size range has also been extended: You can now buy it in sizes 4 through 15. To determine my size, I wore several of the brand’s plastic sizers for a couple of days to make sure I picked the best fit. (Note: My Oura ring size ended up being larger than my standard ring size, so I recommend getting the $10 sizing kit or borrowing from a friend.)

The Oura Ring 4 comes in six colors: silver and black go for $349, brushed silver and “stealth” gray are $399 and gold and rose gold are $499. It’s certainly an investment, but in my mind, the personalized, data-driven insights and resulting peace of mind make it worth it. (My improved sleep habits are priceless to me.) There are no magic cures for chronic conditions like POTS; rather, it comes down to symptom management and lifestyle changes, so I’ll gladly take all the tools I can get. 

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