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Title: Smartwatches Offer Little Insight Into Stress Levels, Researchers Find

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/08/2...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: They are supposed to
monitor you throughout the working day and help make sure that life is not
getting on top of you. But a study has concluded that smartwatches cannot
accurately measure your stress levels -- and may think you are overworked
when really you are just excited. Researchers found almost no relationship
between the stress levels reported by the smartwatch and the levels that
participants said they experienced. However, recorded fatigue levels had a
very slight association with the smartwatch data, while sleep had a stronger
correlation. Eiko Fried, an author of the study, said the correlation between
the smartwatch and self-reported stress scores was "basically zero." He
added: "This is no surprise to us given that the watch measures heart rate
and heart rate doesn't have that much to do with the emotion you're
experiencing -- it also goes up for sexual arousal or joyful experiences." He
noted that his Garmin had previously told him he was stressed when he was
working out in the gym and when excitedly talking to a friend he had not seen
for a while at a wedding. "The findings raise important questions about what
wearable data can or can't tell us about mental states," said Fried. "Be
careful and don't live by your smartwatch -- these are consumer devices, not
medical devices." The research has been published in the Journal of
Psychopathology and Clinical Science.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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