Stress Gauge: Understand Your Stress Response
The Stress Gauge tracks how your body responds to both physical activity and stress —whether mental (psychological, such as pre-presentation anxiety) or physical (physiological, such as an illness).
By showing when and where stress occurs, it enables you to spot patterns, identify triggers, and notice days when you’re more or less sensitive to stress.
It also gives insight into how well your body recovers from stress afterward.
Currently, the Stress Gauge is based on a robust analysis of your heart rate and movement patterns. We intentionally exclude daily Heart Rate Variability (HRV) from its calibration, as it is not suitable for continuous monitoring in daily life. Our commitment is to provide only precise and reliable health metrics.
Key terms
Calm Zone (homeostasis): Your body’s natural state of equilibrium when you’re calmly engaged in regular activities, like working, chatting, or reading, without noticeable physical changes.
Reactive: Any physical response to specific situations, whether from internal (like emotions) or external factors (like exercise). The Stress Gauge monitors and differentiates these reactions, including changes in heart rate, sweating, or other signs of stress.
Sympathetic Nervous System (fight-or-flight): Increases reactivity preparing you to meet threats that require immediate action. Your heart beats faster, breathing quickens, palms may get sweaty, and decision-making becomes more impulsive.
Parasympathetic Nervous System (rest-and-digest): Decreases reactivity to focus on background processes such cell renewal, recovery, and digestion. Your heart rate slows, breathing deepens, digestive activity increases, and the body shifts resources toward maintenance and restoring.
How to read the Stress Gauge
The Stress Gauge chart shows a line which reflects your reactivity. It also uses colours to indicate different types of mental states:
Purple: Higher reactivity- often linked to emotional responses like stress or excitement.
Blue: You might be in a calm state, or you could be physically active—like during exercise or movement. Another possible state is physically recovering, which typically happens in the minutes following a physical activity. Even if you're no longer in the Calm zone due to activity, the colour may stay blue, as this doesn't mean you're stressed, just physically engaged.
Green: Low reactivity—typically seen during restful states like sleep.
When the Stress Gauge shows reactivity above the Calm Zone, it means your body is actively responding to a situation—whether it's stress (purple) or physical activity (blue). Recognizing these moments can help you identify your triggers and manage them more effectively.
On the other hand, spending long periods below the Calm Zone may signal fatigue or low energy, suggesting you might be more vulnerable to getting sick or still in recovery.
Keep reading to learn more about four common patterns you might notice in your Stress Gauge readings—and what they can tell you about your body.
Four common patterns in your Stress Gauge readings
Resilient System
When you're Stress Gauge often shows in the Calm Zone (also known as homeostasis), it’s a sign that your body is healthy and thriving. You move through daily life with ease and focus. You might occasionally leave this zone—like during a workout or challenging situations —but you naturally bounce back to calm soon after.
Delayed Recovery
If you notice your Stress Gauge stays high for a while after stress, you’re likely spending extended time in the “fight-or-flight” mode. This means it’s taking longer than usual to recover. Over time, this can wear you down and use up your energy reserves.
Heightened Sensitivity
If your Stress Gauge is often spiking, even with small triggers, your system may be extra sensitive right now. That means your body is working hard or reacting to everyday stimuli—sometimes unnecessarily—which can lead to feeling drained, even when situations may not be as stressful as you see them.
Depleted Resources
When your Stress Gauge stays below the Calm Zone most of the day, it may mean your body’s low on resources. This can happen when you're exhausted, getting sick, or still recovering. You might also feel unmotivated or less interested in things you normally enjoy. That’s your body prioritizing rest and recovery over everything else.
When to expect your Stress Gauge data
Your initial Stress Gauge should appear within 5 days, as long as you're collecting at least 6 hours of data each day.
Calibration will continue to adjust and update over the following 60 days.