Is It Possible I'm Hooked on My Fitness Tracker?

An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Visible is the chilled vapour exhaled by my competitors as they perform the "about to run" wiggle on the beginning point.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local Saturday morning race and I'm serious. Three, two, one...

Wait a second. I need to sort my tracker. So does the person alongside me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! Connection established, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's challenging to spot a arm without a fitness tracker on it. And this isn't only us participants who use them.

We're witnessing a explosive, massive sector. Names like Garmin lead the market, each with an broad selection of different devices to cater to a spectrum of budgets. According to how advanced the watch you choose, prices can range from £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It drives me insane, I can't relax."

"It reassures me… It feels like a supporter encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a restless night."

A small sample of the reactions I've received from like-minded device users when I question what they feel about theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, frustrating. It's reporting my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm passing under are blocking my satellite signal.

Millions of us strap these compact devices onto our arms and use them all day and night, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them exclusively to give us an idea of our step count. Currently, they can analyse our sleep quality, stress levels, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a bodily function they aren't designed to measure.

But can they do what they advertise? And are the numbers we analyse a true reflection of the truth? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the multitude of metrics and constant notifications just increase our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she appreciates how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other features "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a significant period.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently active enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I have a infant, I don't need to be notified my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that all too clearly."

Why doesn't she just stop wearing it?

"I could, I suppose, but I have this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is maybe too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own novel way of monitoring your health metrics and processing your data, but the most use detectors on the back of the watch.

They usually emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can detect pulsation, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the electrical current that passes over the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like electrocardiograms (ECGs), which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an early warning they might be more vulnerable of a heart problem in the future.

But how to understand these readings is complex. The expert concerns that as further capabilities are introduced, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

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

A health researcher studying patient behaviour concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a set of heart condition patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they spotted a worrying figure on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate went up. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their heart rate rose further.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we lack context for then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We check, we check again - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."