New Oura Ring Data Shows How Stressed We Were on Election Day

Americans have been stressed this week, and now we have the smart ring data to prove it. Oura, maker of the popular Oura Ring, took a closer look at our fingers on Election Day and found that Oura users had more signs of physiological stress than usual.  

Specifically, between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 5, Oura users had a 2.3% increase in "stressed minutes," according to anonymized data shared by the company. They also had a 19.5% decrease in "restorative" time, which is a reflection of the body at its most relaxed. 

An example of what Daytime stress data looks like in the Oura app. As Oura says in its data explanation, stress is "not inherently bad," but it can reflect feelings of anxiety.

Stress is tracked during the day and logged in the Oura app based on data including motion, body temperature, heart rate and heart rate variability. HRV measures variations in time between your heartbeats and is considered an especially good indicator of autonomic nervous system function. (Think the balance of "fight or flight" with a relaxed state.) 

At night, Oura ring wearers had an increased heart rate on average -- 2.8 bpm, which is 3.7% higher than a comparable night, according to the company's blog post. 

Oura said the data it collected is deidentified, meaning the company can't see individual users' stress data.

For those with election anxiety or those who stayed up late to watch the results of the election, the fact that many in the US were more stressed than normal, or didn't sleep as well as they stayed up to see state results, is not a ground-breaking revelation. There is also no data to show stress levels according to which candidate you voted for or who you hoped would win; Oura reported similar data from 2020 showing poorer sleep and increased stress.

However, the smart ring information is an interesting reminder of how our mental state affects our physical health and, as Oura put it in its blog post, a "shared reaction to a significant societal event."