🔗 Share this article Could I Be Addicted to My Smartwatch? Numerous athletes find themselves checking their watches numerous times in the middle of a competition. An atmosphere of nervous excitement. I can see the chilled vapour emanating from my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" shuffle on the starting line. A quick flick of the hips. I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I'm focused. Three, two, one... Wait a second. I must start my device. As does the person beside me. The person behind us expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! Connection established, and I'm running. Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to find a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us athletes who use them. It's a explosive, multi-billion pound sector. Names like Garmin lead the market, each with an broad selection of different versions to suit a spectrum of needs. According to how advanced the model you select, prices can vary between £100 to a significant investment. "It drives me insane, I can't switch off." "It comforts me… It's like a supporter supporting me." "Stop telling me I've had a restless night." A small sample of the responses I've had from like-minded tracker enthusiasts when I inquire what they feel about theirs. Frequent wearers are left wondering whether the metrics on their watch is reliable. A Sea of Statistics My current opinion on mine? Right now, annoying. It's reporting my speed is wrong, causing me to question whether the trees I'm running below are blocking my location tracking. Millions of us attach these compact gadgets onto our arms and keep them on constantly, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're constantly tracking us. Long past are the days when we used them only to give us an rough count of our step count. Currently, they can track our nightly rest, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max. It's difficult to find a health indicator they aren't designed to measure. But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the numbers we analyse a accurate representation of our actual health? Do they improve our overall health, or do the avalanche of readings and motivational messages just contribute to our daily stresses? Some users find the abundance of functions on their smartwatches to be "overwhelming" at times. A Love-Hate Relationship "I find myself getting a quite preoccupied with mine," one user admits. While she loves how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other features "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a significant period. Prior to discovering she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night. "I've got a infant, there's no point to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that all too clearly." Why doesn't she just remove it? "I could, I suppose, but I'm in this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, but I'm unsure whether all the other things it can now do is perhaps overkill for me." The Technology Behind the Tracking Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your vitals and interpreting your data, but the most use detectors on the reverse of the watch. They commonly shine small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can detect blood flow, identifying your heartbeat. More advanced devices measure changes in the electrical current that flows through the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity. Expert Perspectives One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually save lives, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "anxious healthy". He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat. This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a heart problem in the future. But how to make sense of these numbers is complex. The expert worries that as additional features are incorporated, people may find it hard to fully comprehend their data. "I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says. A health researcher specialising in cardiology agrees. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "far more likely to use healthcare resources". She identified a cycle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their BPM increased. They got even more concerned. They checked again, and their heart rate rose further. "If we see data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."