Is your wearable device’s stress detection accurate?

 Is your wearable device’s stress detection accurate?

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In the never-ending race to put a doctor on your arm, Garmin, Samsung, Fitbit, and Oura each purport to offer stress-tracking based on physiological signals, like heart rate variability and sleep. That all sounds great, but in practice, these features aren’t necessarily reliable, and all this health monitoring can actually make you feel more anxious. A recent study on Garmin’s stress-tracking found that wearables can often cry wolf: A quarter of participants were told they were stressed or not stressed when they actually felt the opposite. Stress scores didn’t significantly increase for any participants when they did feel stressed. The study’s author noted that his own Garmin has mistaken heart-rate-raising activities, like exercise or excitedly talking to a friend, for stress. To stress-tracking’s credit, some hardware junkies say their wearable devices have helped them regulate their nerves, but drawing conclusions from biometrics can also backfire. If you’re already an anxious person, for example, getting frequent notifications of stress, possible hypertension, or an irregular heartbeat could worsen your anxiety.