Growing up as an athlete and using fitness as a method of stress relief, for decades I found myself in a gym, on a court or field for 1-2 hours a day, often 5-7 days a week. I had the built in mindset and habit that if I wasn't putting in that much time in each of my workouts, that quite simply they weren't good enough nor worth it. But as I hit my late 40s this mindset began to work against me.
I wasn't feeling refreshed or invigorated after my workouts. I felt more tired throughout the day. I woke the next day often feeling worse. I was losing interest in anything fitness related. I felt guilty and lazy if I didn't grind it out. I began to put on, what I call inflammatory weight, specifically around my abdomen (about 10 lbs); which felt so counterintuitive considering my dedication to the gym and that I was still fueling my body with the right nutrition most of the time.
Then, I was introduced to the Oura Ring by a good physio friend of mine. She herself had one and talked about how it tracks your sleep and recovery. Why is this important?
The objective and scientific data collected simply through our sleep patterns is so valuable on multiple fronts. Especially for women in their perimenopause and post menopause years. I'll note here that I am not affiliated with Oura, nor do I receive any compensation from them. This is simply my sharing of a great tool I love.
Let's dive into the details of the data it provides and why it's important in these transformational decades of our lives.
Sleep type and duration - we all know how we feel when we don't get a good sleep. We're tired, moody, lethargic, angry, crave sugar and carbs, we have brain fog and zero patience. Those topics will be for another blog. For the purpose of this blog, it's a 101 on the Oura ring and why I use it during this perimenopause (and eventually post menopause) stage of my life. We know that declining progesterone during perimenopause and post menopause contributes directly to difficulty falling and/or staying asleep. In this app you'll see your sleep broken down into light sleep, REM sleep, deep sleep, restfulness, latency and timing. You'll also see your own personal trending with best time to go to sleep based on your circadian rhythm (I'm an early to bed early to rise woman). For some women this type of information might perpetuate anxiety, especially if sleep is an issue; but for others the data is beneficial in creating and supporting healthier sleep hygiene. I like to use this data to create and validate my love for sleep but also to remind me of how important sleep is in our day to day functioning. Your sleep score will give you an indication of where you're at, and how it translates to your readiness to take on that next day. Sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes it isn't. For some, this type of data provides reassurance or indication of progress being made if you're focusing on creating a better sleep routine.
Heart Rate - always good to know where your heart rate and cardiovascular health are at. It's an indicator of overall health, and also gives you insight into how your body is managing stress or illness.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) - one of my favourite features of this app because HRV is a great indicator or your body's ability to manage the stressors it is experiencing. A low HRV indicates your body is undergoing more stress than it's used or or can handle. So having this data can be a good cue for you to assess what's happening in your life at that moment and prioritize recovery or dealing with the stressor. My highest HRV (which is a good indicator of stress resilience and recovery) was when I was on vacation in St. Lucia! I say this is good evidence for vacationing if I ever saw it. Some of my lowest HRV scores were after a full day of beach volleyball and when I was in the middle of moving homes (both were highly stressful physically and emotionally). HRV is especially important in our perimenopause and post menopause years as we rely on our adrenals to produce our estrogen, progesterone and testosterone; so if that adrenal system is under high duress (low HRV), it can't support our sex hormones and can lead to more distressing symptoms. Bottom line...focus on supporting a healthy and resilient stress response. Sleep, recovery and stress management trump all.
Body Temperature - we will each have our own trend in body temperature. It's useful for tracking ovulation prediction, but is also an indicator of illness. Being able to see the natural rise and fall of your own personal body temperature regulation, and when it's fighting illness, can be a useful piece of information. If you're using the tag feature, you can also begin to correlate body temperature with things like alcohol, illness, or even vaccines.
Period Tracking - many women looking to get pregnant use the period tracking feature to track their ovulation (temperature based) and best timing for hopeful pregnancy. For me, and many perimenopausal women, I use it to track my cycles for 2 reasons. One, I'm not on the birth control pill (never have been), so my cycles have always varied in length. Secondly, as it applies to perimenopause, I'm using it to track the duration and quality of my cycles. We know in perimenopause that hormone changes and fluctuations will result in different symptoms including longer or shorter periods; heavier or lighter flows; but I can also use it to help gauge any other symptoms I might be experiencing. For example, is my rise in body temperature associated with hot flashes or night sweats? Am I able to make any links between symptoms and where I am in my cycle? And if so, can I use strategies like nutrition, or supplements, or exercise/movement to shift the experience to a more positive one.
Tags - within the app you can add a tag to better characterize your day or activity. Using tags allows you to again make correlations to the quality of sleep and recovery you had, but also for perimenopause symptoms. My personal experience with this has been tagging alcohol. I was pretty quickly able to see not only the effects of alcohol on my heart rate and heart rate variability during sleep, but it also coincided with night sweats for me. The combination of the uncomfortable and distressing night sweats and the objective data of heart rate and reduced heart rate variability staring me right in the face, made it a pretty easy decision to not drink that red wine for the foreseeable future. The other aha moment for me was my late night snacking. Late night snacking had a direct effect on my sleep quality because rather than my body being able to go into a sleep cycle, it was inhibited by needing to spend time and different hormones and energy into digesting food. Plus, late night eating can lead to sugar spikes in the night, which can then trigger a cortisol spike and an unwanted wake up or night sweat. So, needless to say, the late night snacking also came to an end.
Readiness and Activity Level - based on your sleep score you get a readiness score and a recommended activity level. You can track your steps, heart rate, calories burned etc. It also gives options for meditations and when to start winding down for your best sleep success.
What I love about this, is that I discovered I was in fact overtraining. My fatigue, lack of enthusiasm around training, and my extra weight was my body telling me it needed different activity, more sleep and attention to recovery. The data it gives me around my sleep quality and how my body was responding gave me the permission and validation I needed to slow down, prioritize sleep, and change my focus to stress management and building stress resilience in this chapter of my life. It allowed me to shift my thinking and behaviour from grinding it out in the gym, to incorporating more slow nature walks and yoga or stretching. Seeing the direct effects of alcohol or late night eating on my body's heart rate and heart rate variability was not just humbling; it was empowering. Knowing how making small tweaks to my lifestyle habits has improved my energy and love for life.
This tool puts a lot of control back into my own hands. Getting more sleep might be an obvious answer but until you see the data, often times we just ignore the intuition. The other benefit to having an Oura ring is that you can share that data with your health care providers if needed.
Here are a few screenshots of how my sleep affected my 'readiness' for the next day.
Questions? Reach out and I'd love to help answer them if I can.
Anna Olchowecki is a Registered Nurse Case Manager turned Women's Health Coach and Speaker with over 20 years of experience.
She helps women in their 40s & 50s who are feeling frustrated by the weight gain, brain fog and hot flashes associated with perimenopause/menopause learn to work with their changing hormones so they can thrive in their roles as mothers, caregivers and working professionals while also feeling completely free to step into living the life they crave and deserve.
She serves women locally in Guelph, Fergus, Elora, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge AND virtually worldwide.
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