The Oura Ring: A Tiny Tech Companion

Part jewellery, part data scientist — but for many women who are neurodivergent or living with chronic illness, it’s quietly revolutionary.

If you’ve ever been unsure whether you’re tired, in pain, premenstrual, or simply experiencing a philosophical crisis disguised as fatigue, the Oura Ring might just become your new best friend. At first glance, it’s a sleek and unassuming piece of wearable tech — part jewellery, part data scientist — but for many women who are neurodivergent or living with chronic illness, it’s quietly revolutionary.

In a world that constantly demands productivity, resilience, and perky morning routines (with bonus points if you film them for TikTok), many of us simply need something that says, “Hey, maybe you’re not lazy. Maybe your body’s having a rough day, and that’s valid.”

Enter—the Oura Ring.

What Is the Oura Ring?

For the uninitiated, the Oura Ring is a smart ring worn on your finger — a sort of Fitbit’s cooler, more introverted cousin. It tracks sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), body temperature, activity, and readiness levels. It's like wearing a very polite, data-driven nurse who checks in quietly rather than prodding you with a clipboard.

Unlike most fitness trackers, it doesn’t try to push you towards 10,000 steps a day or punish you with red rings and sad beeps. Instead, it aims for balance — assessing whether your body is rested enough for a workout or quietly begging for a nap and a hot water bottle.

Why It’s Useful for Neurodivergent Women

Neurodivergent women — those with ADHD, autism, and other differently wired brains — often experience interoception challenges. That’s a fancy way of saying we’re not always brilliant at recognising what our bodies are trying to tell us. Are we hungry or anxious? Tired or bored? In need of movement or in the midst of an executive function crash? Hard to say. We’d love a memo.

The Oura Ring delivers that memo in bite-sized chunks, with charts, trends, and colour-coded feedback. It offers an objective look at what’s happening internally — which, frankly, can feel like black magic when your body’s signals often arrive garbled or hours late.

For instance, if your Readiness Score drops and your resting heart rate rises, you’ll get a notification suggesting rest. That can feel validating when your brain is screaming, “Get up and do things!” but your limbs say, “Absolutely not.” It backs up what you feel but can’t always justify.

Even more powerfully, it helps you track patterns. You might notice your HRV drops and sleep quality tanks every time your menstrual cycle hits the luteal phase. Or that your body temperature shifts slightly when your sensory overwhelm is high. The ring won't diagnose you, but it provides a breadcrumb trail that helps you make sense of your own unique rhythms.

A Lifeline for Women With Chronic Illness

Now let’s talk chronic illness. Whether you’re navigating fibromyalgia, hEDS, long COVID, endometriosis, or another shape-shifting health condition, one of the cruelest parts of it is the unpredictability. You wake up never quite knowing if you’ll be able to function or flop. The Oura Ring can’t cure that — it’s not a miracle worker — but it can give you clues.

By tracking trends in your sleep, body temperature, HRV, and heart rate, it can act as a gentle early warning system. A spike in temperature? That might mean a flare-up is brewing. Resting heart rate creeping up? Perhaps today’s not the day to clean the kitchen cupboards. (Or ever, honestly. Cupboards are overrated.)

It empowers you to spot when your body is sliding towards burnout before you crash. That’s crucial when pacing is the name of the game — and when “pacing” often sounds suspiciously like “doing less,” which can be psychologically painful in a society that equates value with output.

For those of us living in survival mode, trying to find the sweet spot between doing nothing and doing too much, the Oura Ring becomes a decision-making ally.

Hormones, Sleep, and Not Losing Your Mind

The Oura Ring also tracks menstrual cycles and predicts periods based on temperature shifts — a godsend for women who’ve lost count of how many apps they’ve tried that told them their cycle should arrive on the 14th like clockwork (it never does). When you live with chronic illness or neurodivergence, hormonal shifts can wreak havoc on your mental and physical wellbeing — from crippling fatigue and migraines to emotional dysregulation and sensory sensitivity.

Getting that heads-up — even just a day or two in advance — can make a real difference. You can plan rest, prep easy meals, cancel non-urgent Zooms, or stock up on chocolate and tissues as needed.

And the sleep data? A revelation. It doesn’t just tell you how long you slept but how restful that sleep was. If you wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus, the ring might confirm that you had minimal deep sleep and restless REM — again, giving you permission to slow down, rest, and not gaslight yourself.

Real-Life Validation in a World That Gaslights You

Perhaps the most powerful thing the Oura Ring offers is validation. For many women — particularly those who’ve spent years being misdiagnosed or dismissed — there’s something radical about seeing your experience reflected in cold, hard data.

No, you’re not “just tired.” You’re in recovery mode after a week of broken sleep and elevated stress responses.

No, you’re not imagining the exhaustion. Your HRV is low, your temperature’s up, and your body is doing something behind the scenes — even if you’re not sure what.

That external data can help with self-trust. It supports pacing. It helps advocate for yourself — to doctors, employers, even family members — when you need to explain why you can’t push through today.

But… It’s Not All Perfect

Now, let’s be honest. The Oura Ring is not a magic ring forged in the fires of Mount Doom to solve all your problems. It won’t do the laundry. It won’t stop your nervous system from overreacting to a loud sneeze. And it won’t give you a massage, despite its hefty price tag.

There’s also a learning curve. The ring spits out data, but it’s up to you to interpret and apply it.

And, of course, it’s not cheap. Depending on the model and your subscription, you’re looking at an investment — one that not everyone can justify. But for those who can, and who find value in data-driven self-understanding, it may be one of the more empowering tech tools out there.

My ring cost £200 and my subscription is £5.99 a month. This was an investment and completely out of desperation of needing help with pacing.

The Oura Ring wasn’t made specifically for neurodivergent women or those with chronic illness. It’s part of the broader “biohacking” trend, beloved by tech bros (and gals) who run ultramarathons and drink butter coffee.

But if we reclaim it — if we use it not to optimise for performance but to tune in to our bodies and honour their needs — it becomes something else entirely.

It becomes a tool for compassion.

A daily check-in.

A tiny, titanium witness that sees what others often miss.

And in a world that constantly tells us to do more, be more, push harder — having a small, quiet voice that says “slow down” can be the most radical act of all.

Follow my journey with my Oura ring on YouTube.