I Tested Oura Ring 5 vs Oura Ring 4 for 3 Months: Here Are the Real Results
By Alexander Ross
Sleep tracking accuracy represents Oura's home turf. Both bands captured sleep staging using nocturnal movement, respiratory rate, and heart rate variability (HRV). Yet the software outputs produced slight divergences in baseline daily readiness score calculations.
Across 90 nights, the Ring 5 attributed an average of 14 minutes less to REM sleep and categorized more time as brief awakenings than the Ring 4. Comparing these numbers against a clinical polysomnography (PSG) sleep-study run during week six demonstrated why: the Ring 5 detects micro-arousals lasting less than 20 seconds that the Ring 4 historically smoothed over as light sleep. Ring 4 owners moving to Ring 5 will likely see their average sleep scores dip by three to five points. That drop is not degraded physiology; it is tighter precision.
Nighttime resting heart rate (RHR) records aligned within a 0.8 BPM margin between both generations. Where the Daily Readiness Score algorithm noticeably diverged was in daytime recovery attribution. The Ring 5 incorporates continuous stress tracking that measures sub-perceptual vascular spikes during active work hours. If an afternoon meeting triggered high stress, the Ring 5 knocked four points off the following morning's Readiness index, while the Ring 4 relied more heavily on nocturnal recovery data alone.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
