The Oura Ring chronotype feature put me to sleep (in a good way)

If you can't figure out why you're dead exhausted upon waking or want to track how your body handles the stress of daily life, a smart ring will deliver answers. And my favorite smart ring, the famous Oura ring, starts providing answers quickly. Almost the second I slipped on the ring, I got data on my heart rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen levels. And within days, the Oura app was collecting and reporting trends on my health biometrics. But for some data, users have to be patient.

The Oura app has three tabs: Today, Vitals, and My Health. 'Today' and 'Vitals' provide data you can immediately access — quick snapshots of your real-time health data. But 'My Health' is a home base for data that takes some time to calculate. And this isn't just one or two weeks of processing; one calculation requires months of patience.

'My Health' has three reports: Resilience, Heart Health, and Sleep Health. After about 28 days, data populates in both Resilience and Heart Health, but Sleep Health takes longer. I had to wait three months for my sleep chronotype to calculate. So, after 90 days of daily use, I finally got my chronotype, and it was well worth the wait.

What is a chronotype?

The terms early bird and night owl are more than just an idiom. They refer to chronotypes, aka your natural sleep cycle. Chronotypes were popularized by Dr. Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist specializing in sleep medicine. Dr. Breus described sleepers as either a lion, bear, wolf, or dolphin, adding a couple more animals to the traditional sleep cycle menagerie.

Oura breaks down users into six chronotypes: early morning, morning, late morning, early evening, evening, and late evening. With each chronotype comes a suggested sleep and wake time that works with your natural circadian rhythm, helping you get the best quality of sleep. Plus, it helps you realize when you're most productive so you can stop scheduling early morning meetings when you're most focused and productive in the afternoon or evening anyway.

How does Oura calculate chronotype?

Oura rings track an impressive amount of biometrics to calculate your chronotype (hence the months-long wait). Through sleep tracking, activity tracking, and body temperature, Oura coalesces the data to conclude what chronotype category you fall into. And Oura isn't just taking a snapshot of data. Through three months of data collection, it can paint a fuller picture of your habits than you'd get after just 28 days, which might contain an off week or two and sway the data.

Why does Chronotype matter?

If you're trying to follow doctor's orders and get those recommended seven to eight hours of sleep a night, choosing the right sleep and wake times is crucial. If you're working backward, planning your sleep time around when you need to be awake, you may find that your bedtime still doesn't feel right. If you're having a hard time falling asleep or waking up way before your alarm, you might not be embracing your natural circadian rhythm.

Your chronotype gives you the insight to know when your body wants to wake and rest, as well as when it's most productive. While most people don't have the luxury to create their work hours around their sleep schedule, you can still get useful data for optimizing your life.

Why I love Oura's Chronotype feature

My sleep schedule has been a problem since I was a kid. I'd stay up past my bedtime and oversleep early wake times for school. While I once saw this as a discipline problem, the irresponsibility of youth prompting me to stay up late, I've since learned this is just my natural sleep cadence. It's no surprise that I thrived while working restaurant hours post-grad.

Now that I'm working a 9-to-5, working from home, those late nights need to be cut short. For a while, I tried going to sleep at the same time as my partner, who goes to bed early and wakes at dawn, I just ended up tossing and turning in bed, frustrated that I couldn't fall asleep.

After wearing my Oura ring for three months, I finally got some answers. Oura assigned me the chronotype of 'early evening'. While I'm not an extreme night owl, my schedule does stray toward the later side. When Oura provided the suggested bedtime of 12:30 a.m. with an 8:30 a.m. wake time, I realized that was what my body wanted. When I was trying to be an early riser, I was fighting against my chronotype. I've since adjusted my schedule to embrace this routine and found that I fall asleep more easily and wake fully rested.

Oura isn't the only fitness tracker to provide this type of data. Whoop also does a good job at suggesting sleep and wake times; however, Whoop doesn't offer chronotype profiles.

There's a lot of vital information you can get from your Oura ring, but chronotype is my favorite feature. It's given me tangible info that genuinely improved my quality of sleep.

I know that an Oura ring is an expensive investment, and if you're going to splurge, it's reassuring to know you'll receive data that's actually useful.

Who can access chronotypes?

You can access the chronotype feature with the newer Oura Ring 4 and the older Oura Ring Gen3, but you'll need an Oura membership. The Oura app membership costs $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year.