Wearable tech user habits revealed – the year in review

We pick out the highlights from Whoop, Oura and Polar trends
Whoop Whoop 4.0
Wareable is reader-powered. If you click through using links on the site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

It’s the end of the year, and we’re inundated with wrap-ups and summaries of all our wearables subscription services – for better or for worse.

And we’ve also been inundated with the highlights from some of the big wearables companies – and all of their data trends for 2022.

We’ve picked out some of the highlights – read on below.

Sleep and readiness

7251 wearable tech news wearable tech user trends revealed wrapping the 2022 wrap ups image2 bo0yqvqxcs.jpg

The Oura Ring wrapped had a few interesting stats and tidbits. Data from the smart ring giant revealed that January yielded the best Readiness scores from its user base, which it attributed to people keeping a low profile after the turn of the year.

Whoop also reported that January was its best month for sleep, in its Year In Review. It also revealed that users got the most rest on Saturday nights – perhaps revealing its more committed user base.

Oura differed in that respect – it said the best night for sleep was 9 March – and that March in general was the best month for sleep quality. It credited March’s mix of longer days and cool weather as a recipe for great rest.

Alcohol is the recovery killer

7251 wearable tech news wearable tech user trends revealed wrapping the 2022 wrap ups image3 qaavb0c1xr.jpg

Whoop’s journal feature also yielded some excellent insights for its annual wrap-up, particularly into what hurt or helped recovery.

Alcohol was the biggest killer of recovery scores, with users seeing an average of a 12% reduction after drinking.

Late-night eating and sleeping at altitude were also negative factors – but there were some surprises. Whoop credited drinking caffeine and sharing a bed with improving nightly rest.

Mondays were the day most people were likely to score the best recovery, after busy weekends.

Running and exercise

7251 wearable tech news wearable tech user trends revealed wrapping the 2022 wrap ups image4 ozwvdmclts.jpg

Polar also treated us to an annual review of its user data.

Running was the most popular activity logged, and the average distance of a run in 2022 was 7.7km (4.78 miles).

It also revealed that Polar users exercise 5 hours 24 minutes every week on average and that Tuesday was the most popular day for getting sweaty.

Whoop’s review also revealed that running had marginally increased in 2022 (+4%) - while functional fitness was way down (-10%.) Spin and HIIT were also around 50% YOY in each case, which is likely to be people getting back to the gym after the pandemic.

Reality check

We don't think that we've been as personally eviscerated by an annual wrap-up as Whoop's, which was a personal dressing down.

We finished in the bottom 10% for sleep performance, and recovery scores – perhaps showing the prosumer user base, and showing us that we need to follow its guidance a lot more closely.

Better luck next year!

TAGGED Wearables

How we test



James Stables

By

James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.

He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.

James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.


Related stories