This is day one of testing a wearable stress-measuring and monitoring device linked to an app developed by Linkura – a company that has recently gone from start-up to scale-up status.
The idea behind the product is to use real data from our bodies to proactively prevent stress-related illness which can lead to sick leave, which can lead to burn-out, which can lead to withdrawing from almost everything in your life because you can’t cope anymore.
So this has been my experience so far:
Last night when I first put on the device, I had some low level mental stress while working on a planning application so that we can get permission to build a wall between our property and our neighbour’s property. Interesting.
Linkura staff say themselves that it’s not so comfortable to sleep in and I agree. But I’m doing the first three days almost full-time (except for showering) which gives me a good chunk of data to talk through with a Linkura coach. The app shows when I was in deep sleep and when I was in REM sleep.
I’m finding the graphs fascinating. From today I can see when I was speed-walking to get somewhere which the app has logged as physical exercise. I had two catch-ups with friends today and I can see high relaxation levels at these times. Lovely!
Funnily enough, the most stressful time of day for me was the school pick-up. My kids take ages to disengage from an enjoyable activity with friends and are not particularly keen on something so boring as coming home with their mother. So just picture me trying hard not to outwardly express my inner frustration and trying to move them along. And repeating the same thing over and over again. And maybe possibly then resorting to threats (with guilt) i.e. I’m leaving now and you’re going to end up sleeping here if you don’t come with me. (Said in a gentle sing-song voice to hide growing irritation and to not be judged by other parents and teachers.)
Another stressful moment was trying to get to an event at Lund Ideon Science Park this morning and apparently struggling with 1. an unfamiliar area, 2. road works, 3. where to park and 4. how to find the right building and not be late for the presentation. Very interesting to see how my body reacted to this situation. I don’t think I look particularly stressed out from the outside. And internally I was aware of a sort-of sense of ‘Hurry up and get there’ but I would not have considered it a highly stressful event myself.
Now I will say good night and monitor my sleep pattern. I’ll post another update at the end of day 2.
Let me know if you have specific questions or wonderings in the comments or by sending a message.
