How to Track Your Stress Level With Fitbit
We all know Fitbit smartwatches keep track of your daily physical activity, but now it can also help you track your stress levels. Fitbit recently announced the introduction of Fitbit Sense stress tracking for the Fitbit Versa 3, Versa 2, Luxe, Charge 4 and Inspire 2.
These Fitbit devices will now calculate a daily stress management “score” based on a variety of factors, including heart rate, physical activity level, and sleep data. Fitbit Sense also monitors Electrodermal Activity (EDA) to test your fight-or-flight response.
Anyone using one of the supported Fitbit devices can check their daily stress score on the Fitbit app’s dashboard page. The score ranges from 1 to 100, but note that this number is not a measure of how “stressed” you are on your own. Rather, a higher score means you’re doing more to reduce your daily stress – like getting enough (but not too much) daily physical activity, getting enough quality sleep every night, and using Fitbit premium exercise for mindfulness.
Free users will see their total daily scores, and Fitbit premium subscribers will get a more detailed breakdown of each metric monitored, which will tell you if you need more sleep or more time at the gym to get these stress-reducing hormones.
Note that a high score does not necessarily mean that you are not feeling stressed or anxious. It simply means that your body is showing fewer signs of physical stress and therefore less likely to experience stress-inducing reactions.
However, there is also a check-in option in the stress management menu in the Fitbit app that you can use to jot down some notes of how you felt that day. Here’s how to use it:
- In the Fitbit app, tap Stress Management.
- Scroll down and tap “How do you feel?” For more information, see the Reflections section.
- Choose the mood that best suits how you felt that day.
- Click Log Reflection to save your selection.
These checks are optional and do not count towards your daily stress management assessment. There are only five options – ranging from very stressful to very calm – so there isn’t much room for subtle feedback. However, recording your feelings will help match your subjective experience with the data that Fitbit collects. Hopefully having all this information at your fingertips will give you peace of mind and not just make you freak out when trying to play another app to improve your scores.
[ Wareable ]