Remember when your watch just told the time? Not your heart rate, step count, kilojoules burnt and how many times you entered REM sleep last night and also the last 30 nights and compared it to everyone else in the entire world who slept way better than you? It was a simpler time.

We have so much access to personal health data on our little wrists, it can feel overwhelming. I mean, it can be helpful to know how fast you’re running while you’re exercising, but do you need to know you entered your zone four heart rate while dancing to Charli XCX at Laneway? It’s cool to know that a 3pm coffee affects your sleep quality, but do you ever wake up feeling refreshed until you see your sleep score was “poor” and your day is ruined? Is all this data good for us to have in our brains? Or is it causing us anxiety?

“The majority of people have a really good relationship with their health tracker,” says Dr Jillian Ryan from Painted Dog Research who holds a PhD in psychology and has authored a study on how smart trackers make us feel. She says wearing one can be empowering and help people achieve their goals, but not everyone feels like that.

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“We found that people who already had traits of neuroticism and less openness to experience had a lot of anxiety and stress around the wearable activity tracker.” I can relate. The one time I wore my watch at night, I had the worst night’s sleep in years because I spent the whole time thinking about the stats it’d pick up.

I have been wearing a smartwatch for about two years and in that time I’ve become a slave to it. Aesthetics-wise, this is a challenge. I don’t want to wear it to a wedding because it’s chunky and ugly and will clash with my dress – but on the other hand, my step count won’t be accurate! Did I really dance for three hours if it doesn’t show up in my Garmin app? Dr Ryan says we can become addicted to knowing our personal stats. “It almost becomes part of our identity … and we’re really strongly attached to it.”

We can end up fixated on the numbers and constantly optimising ourselves instead of being in tune with our actual bodies. How annoying is it when you’re unwell and your watch pings and says you’ve only reached three per cent of your daily goal at 2pm? I have influenza A, let me freaking rest!

And smartwatches are only the beginning. “There’s a budding trend to have a continuous glucose monitor,” Dr Ryan says. That’s the small sensor you attach to your arm that sends your blood glucose levels to an app on your phone. You might have seen ads for them in your social media feed. Dr Ryan says they’ve infiltrated public consumption through celebrities and people in the health and fitness industry, but it’s people with diabetes and blood-sugar control problems who actually need that information.

“If you don’t have those health conditions, your body’s probably pretty good at managing its blood-sugar levels,” Dr Ryan says. And it’s a bit of a dilemma because some people with illnesses who require the monitors can’t access them, yet the privileged – who don’t need them – can.

Even if you feel empowered with all your personal health stats, you’re not the only one benefitting. Dr Ryan says the companies that make these devices have some of the world’s biggest and most detailed health databases – and we’re not really sure what these commercial institutions are doing with all the info. “Apart from making these products more appealing so you can spend more money with them,” she says. Her advice is to be really active in that transaction. Think, “What do I want to get out of this?” and recognise when it stops helping you.

If you feel like your health tracker is starting to dominate your life, Dr Ryan has some suggestions for ways to wrestle back control: “If you are finding you’re getting really stressed out or certain numbers aren’t giving you a positive benefit, turn those off and edit out that data from your day.” She acknowledges this requires self-discipline, which is easier said than done.

“Don’t forget, you’re a human being in there. Ask yourself, ‘Is this serving me or is it harming me?’” If it’s the latter, throw your watch into the ocean! Or you know, change the settings.

This story appears in the March 2025 Wellness Issue, which explores how to feel good in 2025.