Could I Be Dependent on My Smartwatch?

There's a feeling of anticipation. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" jiggle on the start line.

A quick movement of the hips.

I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. It's almost time...

Hold on. I need to start my device. As does the guy alongside me.

The person behind us tuts. I refuse to go until… there! Signal acquired, away I go.

During the scramble, it's difficult to spot a arm without a smartwatch on it. And this extends beyond us runners who use them.

We're witnessing a thriving, massive industry. Brands like Garmin dominate, each with an extensive selection of various versions to cater to a variety of budgets. Depending on how advanced the model you select, prices can start from an affordable sum to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I can't switch off."

"It reassures me… It acts as a companion encouraging me."

"Stop telling me about a poor sleep."

Just some of the reactions people have shared from fellow smartwatch wearers when I ask what they think of theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My feelings on mine? At this moment, irritating. It's reporting I'm off pace, leading me to doubt whether the trees I'm passing under are interfering with my satellite signal.

Millions of us attach these compact gadgets onto our wrists and use them all day and night, apparently comfortable with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Gone are the days when we used them solely to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Today, they can track our sleep quality, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they aren't designed to measure.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the data points we analyse a true reflection of the truth? Do they enhance our daily wellness, or do the multitude of metrics and motivational messages just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

"I do get a quite preoccupied with mine," one user reveals.

While she loves how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Prior to discovering she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was failing to be productive enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."

Is it not possible to just remove it?

"It's possible, perhaps, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she says. "I love it for its exercise data, but I'm unsure whether the myriad other functions it can now do is possibly too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your bodily functions and interpreting your data, but the majority use optical sensors on the reverse of the watch.

They usually shine small, green LED lights onto your skin which can observe capillary action, detecting your BPM. Higher-end devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

A professor says that overall for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually prevent illness, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF), where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not automatically signal someone is about to have a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a heart problem in the years to come.

But how to interpret these figures is not straightforward. The expert worries that as more functions are added, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that having the capacity to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in cardiology agrees. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a set of individuals with health issues suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced greater stress and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They became worried. Their BPM went up. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their heart rate increased again.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."