WP1 Revised: Commodifying Wellness: Our Dystopian Dream Reality
Technological advances in meditation, sleep and fitness patterns have impacted the way people engage in these practices. There have been countless mobile sleep trackers introduced in the past decade, and as of recently, a high-tech, sleek accessory that monitors your sleep habits in a seemingly muted manner. The Oura ring, a piece of unassuming jewelry that is able to send bodily information to an app on your phone, allows for easier-than-ever access into your own sleep and exercise patterns — maybe even too accessible.
The ring represents a desire to live a luxurious life with a higher score — something that is conditioned in all humans. Its simple yet effective design and name-brand collaborations add fuel to the fire, making the ring more desirable than ever, but likely for the wrong reasons. What was once an individualized assessment becomes about the comparison between others: now much less about personal experience, but more about the desire to fit in and conform. This dystopian way of thinking has impacted the way that adults in this day and age engage with their wellness practices since it has become more about competition and hive-mind than truly bettering one’s health.
The Oura attempts to enhance the sleep experience and evoke change when in reality, it is perpetuating the idea that sleep is being overtaken by technological advances that promote hive-mind and competition. At one point, rest was about rejuvenation and one’s personal commitment to a basic human need. This ring has taken something immensely human and digitized it, making it more difficult than ever to commit to a personal practice or goal. It is the human race’s common denominator that has somehow managed to change into something entirely inhuman.
Innovations such as this serve as evidence that sleep, and its purpose, are experiencing a shift. Sleep and rejuvenation have turned into something commercialized and digitzied, leaving traditional sleep habits in the dust. According to Tricia Hersey from The Nap Ministry, rest should act as a tool for society to take time for themselves, away from life’s demands: “Rest pushes back and disrupts a system that views human bodies as a tool for production and labor” (Hersey). There is no longer room for humans to simply be present, and such technology has closed any opportunity for society to revert back to the basic reward of rest. It represents capitalism’s immense control over every aspect of the human experience: it is a “system that is driving the entire globe to exhaustion and a deep disconnection with our bodies and minds today” (Hersey). The Oura ring hides under a veil of attempted reconnection with the body, when in reality, all it is doing is narrowing the gap between wellness and competition. They are using the fact that humans are chronically exhausted, and exploiting such ideas for the sake of a product. Humans who feel a disconnect from their rest and their bodies take to companies such as this one for aid, but are unfortunately left disappointed since what they often receive is an even greater divide.
One of the app’s main features could also be considered its most detrimental. The ring is able to provide the user with three separate scores: Their Readiness Score, their Activity Score, and their Sleep Score. The ring’s infamous “Sleep Score” is able to track, through infrared beams, how long the wearer has spent at each point of their sleep cycle (Team and Lomas Your Oura sleep score). If its user were to wake up in the middle of the night, the app is able to recognize that this has occurred, and will likely send an alert to their phone telling them how much longer they should sleep in order to get their precious eight hours.
Upon research of the app’s famous feature, one of its first results includes, “What is a good sleep score?” (Oura Support Sleep Score). With even surface-level research, it is easy to discover how invested its users are in what qualifies as a solid score. The app gives its consumers the ability to quantify just how much sleep they are getting, and rewards them for it. This “end-all-be-all” number that floats on the app’s home screen is hard to miss, making it almost impossible for the app user to ignore its implications. This number is what is typically shared amongst friends, colleagues, and family members when attempting to gain perspective on their own scores, which feeds into the idea of hive-mind.
The commodified product promotes the idea that being the best at something is the most important thing: sharing what is meant to be a personal measure of achievement with anyone who will listen is evidence of the ring’s toxicity. Whether the consumer is conscious of it or not, they are feeding into the glamorized idea that the ring carries, not its proposed benefits. The score is reminiscent of a high school math test, since everyone who took the test is dying to know everyone’s score, and even more eager to share their own.
Overtime, members of Generation X have voiced their opinions on sleep, and have often taken to different outlets seeking any solution to their insomnia. Constantly searching for new ways to improve their sleep quality, members of the upper class are given the opportunity to put their money into something that gives them peace of mind, and a goal to focus on. The ring is not marketed at a cheap price point: depending on your finish preference, the ring ranges from just under 300 dollars to upwards of 500 dollars (Oura Help Accurate health information accessible to everyone), with its website providing a luxury feeling similar to buying an Apple product.
The ring is customizable, and recently even name brands such as Gucci have begun to sell their own version of the ring (Colston). This glamorizes the product even more — if the idea of learning about your own sleep and fitness habits wasn’t attractive enough, the ability to sport a luxury brand whilst advertising that you are mindful of your sleep should do the trick. Its original model has even been described as feeling, “light, compact, and stylish” (Redman). What was intended to be subtle and streamlined is now overshadowed by the ring’s fast-gaining popularity, making its once undetectable design incredibly obvious and commodified. It represents the need to fit in and adapt to the upper class — whether it be the Gucci collaboration ring or the simple sleek black, the ring is extremely recognizable. Rather than this being a recognition of one’s commitment to their sleep cycle, it becomes a coveted symbol of status and access more than any form of wellness.
The Oura ring advertises only 79% accuracy in reading elements like wake, light, deep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (Team and Lomas Oura’s new sleep staging algorithm). This puts into question if the Sleep Scores mean anything — the accuracy percentage is not wildly close to the 100 percent mark, challenging the idea that one’s scores hold any significance. Something that has a relatively low accuracy rate should not be qualified as a reliable and popular item like the ring currently is. Without the measurement of brain waves and more specific, targeted research, the ring can only interpret so much.
Wellness has become a luxury: owning the Oura ring is a statement of class in itself, and on the surface says nothing about one’s commitment to rest. Name-brand collaborations glorify the ring’s appeal, but even before their introduction, the product’s tools drew in the consumer. Whether the adults using the ring are aware or not, the majority of them are no longer purchasing the ring to better themselves. If they see their friend sporting one at lunch, news travels and soon enough they have one of their own.
Something that was once completely human and provided real health benefits has become commodified, therefore taking the meaning out of wellness practices. The app’s dedication to its user’s habits is not accurate enough to be worth the consequences of its toxic features. Instead of contributing to a healthier relationship with wellness, this unassuming piece of jewelry subtly promotes a hive-mind mentality instead of a commitment to bettering one’s health.
Work Cited
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“Accurate Health Information Accessible to Everyone.” Oura Ring,
ouraring.com/product/rings/heritage. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Colston, Penelope. “Gucci Adds Luxury to a Body Monitoring Ring.” The New York Times,
29 Aug. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/fashion/jewelry-gucci-ring-health-technology.html. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Hersey, Tricia. / The Nap. The Nap Ministry, 20 Mar. 2022,
thenapministry.wordpress.com/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Redman, Justin. “The Oura Ring Is a $300 Sleep Tracker That Provides Tons of Data. but
Is It Worth It?” The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/oura-ring-sleep-tracker/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Sleep Score — Oura Help,
support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025445574-Sleep-Score. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Team, Oura, and Emilina Lomas. “Oura’s New Sleep Staging Algorithm: More Accurate
than Ever Before.” The Pulse Blog, 12 Apr. 2023, ouraring.com/blog/new-sleep-staging-algorithm/?irclickid=woyUXYQ44xyNUfPz3fRb41G3UkFU3tWzSRAY3o0&ir_campaignid=16760&ir_adid=1408413&ir_partnerid=10078&irgwc=1&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=10078&utm_campaign=press&utm_term=Skimbit+Ltd. Accessed 12 Sept. 2023.
Team, Oura, and Emilina Lomas. “Your Oura Sleep Score.” The Pulse Blog, 27 June 2023,
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