What is smartwatch heart rate anxiety, and why does constantly checking heart rate and sleep data fuel worry? Read how to build a healthier habit.
On Father's Day your children gave you a smartwatch. Counting your steps was fun for the first week. Then one evening, sitting on the sofa, you saw on the screen on your wrist that your heart rate had gone above a hundred. You didn't feel anything, but now you started to. From that night on, you looked at the watch more and more often: the sleep score when you got up in the morning, your heart rate after lunch, your oxygen level after climbing the stairs, the day's "stress score" before going to bed. The watch gives you more information about your health, but you feel more uneasy than ever. Smartwatch heart rate anxiety is a new form of anxiety that we hear about more and more often in therapy rooms as wearable technology becomes widespread. In this article I explain how this anxiety develops, why it grows the more you measure, and ways of building a healthier relationship with your device.
What Is Smartwatch Heart Rate Anxiety?
Smartwatch heart rate anxiety is not a medical diagnosis; it is an expression describing the state of constantly checking the heart rate, heart rhythm, sleep, blood oxygen and stress data offered by wearable devices, and experiencing intense worry over this data. This anxiety is often the digital face of health anxiety. The person who used to put a finger on their wrist to count their pulse, use the blood pressure monitor frequently or search online for symptoms now does these things with a device that is always within reach.
The smartwatch itself is not a problem. For many people it is a useful tool that encourages movement, draws attention to sleep patterns and, in some cases, even gives a meaningful warning to see a doctor. The problem begins at the point where the device turns from a tool of curiosity or motivation into a tool of reassurance and control. This transformation usually happens without being noticed. One day the person forgets their watch at home and realises they feel exposed and unprotected, and they travel half an hour back from work to fetch it. The watch is no longer perceived as an accessory but as a guard constantly watching over the body. The presence of this guard may seem reassuring, but the unease that appears in its absence shows how much we lean on it.
Sleep score obsession
A particularly common type of this anxiety relates to sleep data. Some researchers have used the concept of "orthosomnia" to describe the anxiety created by excessive focus on sleep tracking data. When the person gets up in the morning, they look not at how they feel but at the score the watch gives. If the score is low, even if they feel fine, they start the day with the thought "I slept badly". At night they go to bed anxious about whether "my deep sleep will be enough tonight", and this anxiety makes it harder to fall asleep.
Why Do We Worry More the More We Measure?
The more often you measure something, the more fluctuation you see. Heart rate changes constantly throughout the day: when you drink coffee, when you read a message, when you stand up, when you get excited, during digestion, even when you take a deep breath. These fluctuations are the normal signs of a healthy body. But when they are constantly monitored, each of them can become a question mark.
The anxiety cycle usually works like this:
- Trigger: An unexpected value appears on the screen or a notification arrives.
- Interpretation: "This isn't normal, there's something wrong with my heart."
- Emotion and body: Anxiety rises, the heart really does speed up.
- Checking: The person measures again; because of the anxiety, the heart rate comes out even higher.
- Reassurance-seeking: An online search is done, forums are read, the screen is shown to a partner.
- Brief relief and back to the start: When the value falls there is relief, but at the next rise the cycle starts again.
Here the smartwatch has a feature that particularly strengthens the cycle: it is accessible at every moment. Looking at your wrist takes a second. Such an easy checking behaviour can very quickly become a habit.
The limits of the devices
Smartwatch measurements can be affected by various conditions: how tightly the watch sits on the wrist, movement, sweat, skin characteristics, a cold environment and the device model are just some of them. That is why a single value seen on the screen may not always fully reflect what is happening in your body. It is especially important to know that data such as oxygen measurements and sleep stages are not as precise as those of medical devices. This information is not meant to make you ignore the device altogether, but to stop you giving it more meaning than it deserves.
Who Is More Prone to Smartwatch Heart Rate Anxiety?
This anxiety can occur in anyone, but some people are more prone to it:
- People who have previously experienced health anxiety or panic attacks
- People with a family history of early heart disease or sudden loss
- People with a high need for control who find it hard to tolerate uncertainty
- People with perfectionist tendencies who want to "do everything right"
- People who have recently come through a health problem or lost a loved one
If you are curious about the wider picture of health anxiety, you can read the article on health anxiety.
Smartwatches and Reassurance Cycles Within the Family in Turkey
Smartwatches and fitness bands have become very widespread in Turkey in recent years. With the increase in affordable models, they have become a popular gift for birthdays, retirement or Mother's Day. This means the device is also finding its way onto the wrists of middle-aged and older people who are already worried about their health.
An interesting dynamic can also emerge within the family. For example, a mother posts a screenshot of her heart rate to the family WhatsApp group in the evenings, the children reply "that's normal, Mum", and the next day a new value is shared. Or one partner asks about and comments on the other's sleep score every night. These well-meant interactions unwittingly spread the reassurance cycle across the family and turn the anxiety into a shared agenda.
Imagine you are a thirty-one-year-old architect with a demanding workload. You have just got a sleep-tracking watch, and for the first two weeks your "deep sleep" time came out low. You began struggling to fall asleep before bed at night, looking at the graphs as soon as you got up in the morning, and thinking during the day, "I slept badly yesterday, I'll be unproductive today." You never had a sleep problem before, but now sleeping feels like an exam. This picture shows a situation in which the data has overtaken the experience.
When giving a watch to elderly parents
More and more adult children are buying smartwatches for their parents so that they can keep an eye on their health from a distance. Features such as fall detection or emergency calling can be genuinely useful. However, for a mother or father who already tends to fret about their health, constantly visible heart rate values can turn into a new source of worry. Before giving the device, talking together about which features will be switched on, removing unnecessary data from the main screen and making an agreement such as "if a value worries you, let's ask your doctor first rather than me" can stop this well-meant gift from making anxiety grow. Likewise, if you are constantly monitoring your parents' data from your own phone, it is worth looking at how this monitoring affects your own anxiety.
What Can You Do to Build a Healthy Relationship with Your Device?
Ask yourself about your measuring habit
For one day, note how many times you look at your watch for health data. Seeing the number surprises most people. Then aim to reduce this number step by step. When the urge to look comes, try waiting a few minutes.
Review notifications and constantly visible data
If your heart rate or stress score is constantly visible on your watch's main screen, replace it with a neutral screen such as the time and date. Unless your doctor has specifically asked for them, you may consider limiting the notifications that constantly interrupt you during the day. If you have been advised to keep certain alerts on for a medical reason, do not depart from that advice.
Set a time to look at the data
Assessing the data weekly rather than moment by moment is more meaningful. Looking at general trends once a week at a set time, and not going into detail on the days in between, reduces the anxiety created by fluctuations.
First, check how you feel
When you get up in the morning, before looking at the watch, ask yourself, "How do I feel?" Listening to what your body tells you protects you from becoming dependent on the device's score. If you feel rested, that experience is valid whatever the score.
Create times when you can take the watch off
Leaving the watch on the bedside table at night or taking it off for a few hours at weekends puts some distance between you and the urge to check. Anxiety may rise during the first attempts; this is to be expected and it usually decreases over time.
Stop sharing screenshots
Taking screenshots of values and sending them to your partner, children or friends is the digital form of reassurance-seeking. When you notice this, instead of sharing, leave the screenshot as a note for your weekly review day. You can also talk to your loved ones about this and ask them, instead of telling you "it's normal", to say "save that for your weekly look".
Use the device for motivation, not diagnosis
Features such as step counts, movement reminders and exercise goals support behaviour. Trying to draw a diagnosis from the values on the screen, however, feeds anxiety. If you think something is worrying, leave the interpretation to your doctor.
When Should You Seek Professional Support?
First, the medical side: if your device repeatedly gives irregular rhythm alerts or if you feel unwell, see a doctor. In the case of symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting or feeling faint, or difficulty speaking, call 112 (emergency services) without looking at the watch's data. If you have a known heart condition, follow your doctor's advice on how to use the device.
If you recognise the following even though your medical assessments are clear, you may consider getting support from a mental health professional:
- If you look at your watch for health data very often during the day,
- If your anxiety lasts for hours after seeing a value,
- If you have difficulty falling asleep because of your sleep score,
- If even thinking about taking the watch off makes you uneasy,
- If the fear that you will have a heart attack or that you have a serious illness occupies your day.
If you have intense fears about your heart, the article on fear of having a heart attack may also guide you.
How Is Smartwatch Heart Rate Anxiety Addressed in Therapy?
Cognitive behavioural therapy is a frequently used approach when working with this anxiety. The first step is to map your relationship with the device and your anxiety cycle together: Which data, at what times, trigger which thoughts, and what do you do afterwards?
Then thoughts such as "If my heart rate is high, there's something wrong with my heart" and "If my sleep score is low, my health is deteriorating" are examined. Information is given about the body's normal fluctuations and the limits of the devices. Reassurance behaviours such as checking, sharing screenshots and searching online are gradually reduced. Sometimes, by taking the watch off for set periods or turning off notifications, the person experiences anxiety rising on its own and then falling. This experience strengthens the capacity to live with uncertainty.
The numbers on your wrist show only a small slice of your body; what tells you how to live is not those numbers, but your values.
In some people, behind this anxiety lies a wider need for control or a loss experienced in the past. These layers are also taken into account in therapy. You can find more information about individual work on anxiety on the anxiety and panic page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I give up my smartwatch completely?
It is not always necessary. Many people can strike a healthy balance by limiting notifications, reducing how often they look at the data and using the device for motivation. However, if your anxiety is very intense, taking a break for a while can also be a useful experiment.
Is a smartwatch's heart rate measurement reliable?
Smartwatches can be useful for tracking general trends, but their measurements can be affected by factors such as movement, the position of the watch on the wrist and the device model. It is important not to draw conclusions from a single measurement and to consult a doctor in worrying situations.
When my sleep score is low I feel bad all day. Why?
Seeing that your sleep score is low can create an expectation such as "I slept badly, I'll be unproductive today", and this expectation can affect how you feel during the day. Checking your own feeling first in the morning and evaluating the score through weekly trends can reduce this effect.
Will this anxiety go away with therapy?
Many people learn through therapy to reduce checking behaviours and to build a more comfortable relationship with bodily fluctuations. The process differs from person to person, and no definite time frame can be given for the outcome. If the device on your wrist has started to rob you of your peace of mind, you can get support to reshape this relationship.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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