I’ve at all times most well-liked to put on my Oura ring on my ring finger. The corporate says that “for optimum efficiency and accuracy,” it’s greatest to put on it in your index finger, however that any finger can work. And if you happen to ask longtime Oura customers, you’ll get quite a lot of opinions. Does it actually matter which finger you utilize? I noticed I’ve the proper option to check this—I’ve two gen 3 rings that match my index and my ring fingers. I wore each for practically two weeks to match their readings and reply the query as soon as and for all. 

How I arrange my experiment

As I defined in my four-year retrospective, I’ve worn fairly just a few Oura rings over time. My present unit is a gen 3 ring (the marginally older mannequin) that I put on on my ring finger. I additionally had a gen 3 that match my index finger, so I might put on each to mattress for just a few days and evaluate their readings. 

I really wore three rings, however left certainly one of them off my outcomes as a result of it turned out to be redundant. This one was a reproduction of the one I had on my ring finger, so I wore it then again’s ring finger. It was a nearly-dead one which I had changed when its battery wore out. It nonetheless had simply sufficient juice to make it by every night time’s sleep as long as I charged it the following day. The readings had been just about the identical as my different ring finger, although, so I left this knowledge off my outcomes chart for readability’s sake. 

For this experiment, I wanted to pair every ring to a unique account on a unique telephone. The issues I do for you, pricey readers. For the reason that accounts had been all working from completely different (or nonexistent) baseline knowledge, I prevented any scores that the app calculates primarily based in your private historical past. I caught with readings like resting coronary heart charge, coronary heart charge variability, and sleep time. The one rating I saved was sleep effectivity, since that mixes a number of measurements from the identical night time.

My outcomes

Credit score: Beth Skwarecki

I’ve at all times felt like my ring finger readings are nearly as good as my index finger readings, however now I’ve knowledge to show it. Have a look at these charts! The readings are sometimes equivalent, and at all times shut. There was at some point the place the 2 readings differed—it is the final day, with completely different respiratory charges and sleep effectivity. On that day, my second ring-finger ring (knowledge not proven) matched the opposite ring-finger ring, suggesting that it is the index finger that was the outlier.

Total, the completely different fingers give readings which are a lot nearer to one another than the completely different units from this comparability (for that experiment, I wore Oura, Garmin, Whoop, Apple, and Fitbit units on the identical time).

Any of the three placements I used can be completely good for day by day put on. So why does Oura say your index finger is greatest? I reached out to the corporate for extra info.

What Oura says 

The gen 3 and 4 Oura rings work on any finger, an Oura spokesperson instructed me by e mail, as long as the ring suits “tightly and securely” across the base of the finger. So why the desire for the index finger? It seems that’s the finger the place most individuals have the simplest time getting a very good match. 

Particularly: “We propose avoiding fingers with massive knuckles the place the bottom is considerably narrower, which might have an effect on match and sensor contact. This is the reason we usually advocate the index finger. If that’s not snug or most well-liked, the center or ring finger are additionally good options. All three fingers have bigger blood vessels, which assist optimize PPG pulse monitoring.” (PPG refers to photoplethysmography, the optical sensor system that picks up your pulse out of your finger.)

So in case your ring finger has a giant bony knuckle, you’ll want a bigger dimension ring to recover from the knuckle, and that ring received’t be capable to sit snugly towards the bottom of your finger. I’ve no downside getting a safe match on my ring finger, however I can see that my thumb has a big sufficient knuckle it most likely wouldn’t work effectively with the ring. 

One other problem with sizing is that the Oura ring doesn’t are available half sizes, so you might not be capable to discover the proper dimension on your most well-liked finger. That mentioned, the gen 3 rings really feel a couple of half-size smaller than the gen 4 rings on the identical numbered dimension, so enjoying round with each sizing kits could assist you to seek out the proper match if you happen to’re not choosy about which model of the ring you find yourself with.