Kate Greer of Oura Ring: "Sleep is the Next Horizon for Wearables"

If you think wearables are just about counting steps, wait until you meet my guest today. Kate Greer is the Chief Evangelist at Oura Ring, a wellness computer disguised as a ring designed to help you sleep and perform better.

An up-close look at the Mirror Black & Arctic White versions of the Oura Ring. Oura retails for $279 USD. A look inside the Oura Ring, a ring-sized wellness computer meant to be worn continuously to track sleep.

In a market suddenly saturated with wrist-based wearables, Oura Ring stands out. First, because it doesn’t announce itself as wearable tech. The bold design, made of ceramic zirconia, looks like a ring you could buy at a jewelry store or boutique. Unlike other smart rings on the market, which are focused on delivering notifications—messages sent from your smart phone—Oura rings helps you take a look inside, giving you a better picture of your physiology through the lens of sleep.

Oura pairs with an app, which visualizes sleep and activity information. The ring can store data for up to three weeks without being synced with your phone.

We all innately know that we could be sleeping more, but unless you’ve been to a sleep clinic, you may not consider how the length and quality of your rest impacts your daily mood and performance. Insight into our sleep patterns can be a window for examining not only our exercise patterns, but also our diet and lifestyle.

Oura charges its rings box. The charge can last for up to 36 hours.

Wearables that count our steps are becoming ubiquitous, but Greer believes sleep is the next horizon. Soon, consumer wearables won’t just track our run, but also track our REM.