Who: Trisha P., 29, New York, works in finance
Helpful Oura tip: Now that Oura is FSA and HSA eligible, Trisha used her FSA funds to purchase her Oura Ring — a tip shared with her TikTok audience.
What led you to Oura?
I had been on hormonal birth control, but with the guidance of my OB-GYN, I switched to using Natural Cycles. My doctor wrote me a prescription for it, so my insurance paid for it, and I started using it straight away.*
When I heard about the Oura and Natural Cycles integration, I looked into Oura and discovered that it’s FSA/HSA eligible, so I used my funds to get my Oura Ring.
READ MORE: Oura Ring Is Now FSA And HSA Eligible
Oura for Reproductive Health
I’m getting married next year, and starting to plan for pregnancy. Since getting off the pill, my cycles have not been regular. It has been reassuring to see daily data points on Oura that give me an insight into how my body is doing. I track my symptoms on Natural Cycles, and this, combined with the Oura data points, helps me feel in control of my reproductive health.
The only real education women get about their bodies is from health class in high school, or things that you search on Google. Since using Oura and Natural Cycles, I have learned a lot more about my body. It’s nice to have an informative resource to know what is going on in my body on a day-to-day basis.
Oura for Overall Health
Every morning, the first thing I do is check my Sleep Score and contributors. To some extent, you can feel in your body how well-rested you are. But it has been useful to have solid data to compare this to.
Using Oura, I’ve also been able to attribute certain habits with better or worse sleep quality. For example, I’ve discovered that magnesium helps me sleep better, and alcohol (even just one drink!), causes my Sleep Score to nosedive. This has led to me cutting out weekday alcohol and made me more mindful of my habits overall, like my caffeine consumption.
Using Oura, I’ve also been able to attribute certain habits with better or worse sleep quality.
Last month I got the flu and my Oura was able to track it a few days before I started feeling it. I got insights that I should prioritize rest, that my temperature was elevated, and then notified to activate Rest Mode to support recovery. I didn’t listen and continued on with my busy schedule and then suddenly, after a HIIT workout, my HRV was in the 20s, and I felt horrible with a high fever.
While I was recovering from the flu, I learned my lesson! Now I look more closely at my Oura scores before deciding whether I should workout that day. If Oura tells me to rest, I rest!
Additionally, I love checking my Oura step count throughout the day to see how active I’ve been. I work in finance in an office, and have done for seven years, so it’s easy to be sedentary if you’re not careful. I aim for 10,000 steps a day – if I haven’t hit this by the time I’m done with work, I will go for an evening walk. It keeps me accountable!
READ MORE: How Oura Can Help Monitor Illness
Oura for Stress Management
I work full-time in finance, own a jewelry business, and am a content creator, so if I’m not on top of my habits, I can easily succumb to stress and burnout. I love the Daytime Stress feature, it has really helped me tune into my body. In some cases, I’m aware that I’m stressed. But in other situations, my body could be stressed but I’m not consciously aware of it. Seeing it reflected on my Daytime Stress graph has given me a deeper understanding of what stress means.
After the pandemic, my company started putting more of a focus on mental health, offering weekly meditations and seminars. Finance can be stressful, and stressful employees aren’t productive.
Many of my co-workers use Oura, and it’s a great conversation starter! Now that people are aware of how important sleep and wellness are for work productivity, it makes sense that there’s a huge crossover.
Using Oura has made me more mindful of my habits and my mental health. In a stressful job, awareness is key to managing stress. I know that one of my triggers for stress and anxiety is a bad night’s sleep. That’s why tracking my sleep has helped me preempt stress.
*Certain insurance providers require a prescription from an in-network doctor for reimbursement. Please call the number on the back of your insurance card to confirm if one is required by your provider.
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