This is why your smart watch is giving you anxiety and what you can do about it

Every time I wear one smart watchI notice that my anxiety is increasing – especially my health anxiety. Also known as hypochondriasis or illness anxiety disorder, this type of anxiety makes me worry about being or becoming sick even when I am healthy.

The ironic thing is that part of my job involves testing wearable health monitoring devices, including fitness trackers And smart rings. Although I love exploring this technology and think it can help you learn more about your body, I have to be careful how I use it so that my anxiety isn’t triggered.

“Healthy adults and people with pre-existing health conditions are increasingly using these devices to manage their health. It’s really unclear whether 24/7 access to health information from a wearable device actually helps or can harm people,” says Dr. Lindsey Rosman, assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology and co-director of the Cardiovascular Devices and Data Science Laboratory at the University of Carolina School of Medicine from the North.

When you add the ability to look up your symptoms online or ask an AI chatbot In your mobile app, with every anxiety-induced health question that comes to mind, it becomes even more difficult to discern between what is helpful and what is harmful.

To help me and others with health anxiety navigate the world of wearable devices so we can benefit from using them or know when it’s time to stop, I sought advice from experts.

1. Turn off health-related alerts

Rosman has clinically observed that it can be beneficial to reduce or turn off features that make you anxious. This can be especially helpful for people with previously treated pre-existing conditions, such as atrial fibrillation (AF, an irregular heart rhythm), because notifications of irregular heart rhythms from your cell phone will only make you anxious and may prompt you to see your doctor when it’s not medically necessary.

Additionally, some medications can affect the accuracy of wearable sensors, causing false alarms.

“We published a case report on a patient who performed over 900 ECGs [electrocardiograms or ECGs, which measure the heart’s electrical activity] on her smartwatch in a single year,” says Rosman. While most ECGs were normal, inconclusive alerts fueled her anxiety, leading to multiple emergency room visits, marital strife, and the need for therapy to return to daily life. The patient had no psychiatric history before getting a smartwatch.

Dr. Karen Cassiday, author of Freedom from health anxiety and owner and CEO of the Anxiety Treatment Center of Greater Chicago, says even patients who don’t suffer from health anxiety can find wearable devices intrusive when they receive too many alerts. “They find that they want to be less aware of every moment of how their body is working,” she says.

Fortunately, most wearable health features can be completely disabled or customized.

For example, Shyamal Patel, senior vice president of science at Oura, creator of the Oura ringshares that the device’s custom activity goals allow you to choose to show steps instead of calories, adjust your daily activity goal, or hide calories altogether, which may be necessary for anyone who finds counting calories triggering or too rigid.

2. Avoid constantly checking your device

Pointing to a 2024 study she worked on that examined the impact of wearable devices on the psychological well-being of patients with atrial fibrillation, Rosman says that about half of the participants checked their heart rate every day out of habit, not because they were experiencing symptoms.

Cassidy explains that while people with health anxiety may initially find wearable devices helpful, compulsively checking that their vital signs are normal can accidentally become a form of negative reinforcement that further propels anxiety.

“Often when working with people with anxiety, we try to reduce or eliminate the need to compulsively check their insurance on their wearable devices, as well as their ChapGPT or other digital “doctors,” Cassiday says.

When people refrain from compulsive checking, wearable devices can provide useful information that counters the false belief that something terrible is going to happen to their health.

If you’re worried about checking your health metrics, try reducing how often you check them on your device or in its app. Setting an alert to check every week, at a minimum, could help, especially since it will give you a broader picture, making you less likely to focus on a single data point that seems wrong.

You should also avoid checking your cell phone’s health information right after you wake up or before bed, as this can set the tone for an anxious day or make it harder to fall asleep.

If having a screen on your wrist keeps you from stopping to check, a screenless smart ring or fitness tracker such as the Oops 5.0 may be a better option, as they rely on apps rather than screens.

“You choose how much or little you interact with the app, giving those who might be concerned about their health the opportunity to limit the time they spend with their data,” says Patel.

3. Focus on trends, not one-off metrics

When I asked Patel and Dr. Jacqueline Shreibati, clinical lead for platforms and devices at Google, how people who wear their devices can reduce health anxiety, they emphasized the importance of tracking trends, not individual metrics.

“We focus on long-term trends (rather than isolated metrics) to help users maintain a balanced relationship with their data,” says Shreibati. “What it means to be healthy differs for everyone, and we encourage users to consult their doctor if they have any concerns. »

Patel highlights the Tags and Trending features of the Oura app. Tags allow you to score lifestyle factors like travel, alcohol, meditation, or late meals, which you can then look at in Trends to see how your behavior is affecting your recovery and sleep over weeks, rather than looking at a single score that may one day seem abnormal.

4. Remember that your smartwatch cannot replace a doctor

“Most consumer wearable devices were originally developed as personal wellness devices, which are not required to demonstrate safety and effectiveness like traditional medical devices (e.g., a blood pressure cuff or pacemaker),” Rosman explains.

Yet we’ve started using these wearable devices to monitor our health, using metrics like heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen, stress, sleep, and physical activity. Now, some of these devices feature medical-grade sensors, software and algorithms approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to detect irregular heart rhythms, hypertension And sleep apnea.

Despite FDA approval, wearable devices simply aren’t doctors and can’t provide medical diagnosis or treatment. This is why it is essential to understand what your device actually measures.

The ECG function found on many smartwatches is just one example. Also cleared by the FDA, a single-lead ECG that uses a single electrode to record the electrical activity of your heart from your wrist is not the same as the hospital-grade 12-lead ECG that a cardiologist would use.

Although your cellphone EKG may reveal a potential symptom worth investigating with your doctor, it cannot replace a professional or their medical-grade equipment.

The gap is even wider for traits such as stress and sleep scores, which have not been clinically validated because there is no single gold standard to validate. These numerical scores are calculated from body signals like heart rate, temperature, movement, and heart rate variability, which tend to correlate with your stress and sleep state. But translating a raw signal into “your stress score is 74” is more of an educated guess.

“What you see is a rough indicator of how your nervous system is functioning, not a medical diagnosis,” Rosman emphasizes.

Patel adds that not all physiological stress is inherently negative. “Some forms of short-term physiological stress can be healthy and adaptive,” he says. “That’s why we aim to combine data with context and information from the app, so members can better understand what they’re seeing rather than receiving that information in a vacuum.”

Still, when you’re not sure what your cell phone is measuring, a “bad” stress or sleep score can seem scary when it’s not necessarily cause for alarm, but rather a sign that you may want to have a more in-depth conversation with your doctor.

5. Get your doctor’s opinion

Just as you should talk to your doctor before starting a new medication or diet, you should ask your doctor if you might benefit from using a wearable device.

“Education is probably the most underutilized tool we have,” Rosman says.

When you don’t know what a healthy heart rate or ECG looks like, a seemingly atypical reading can cause you to panic. This is why it is It’s essential to talk with your doctor to understand your own baseline and whether a wearable device makes sense for your current health condition.

As a guide, Rosman suggests the following questions you can ask your doctor:

• What type of laptop should I use?
• How often should I check this data?
• What are healthy numbers for me?
• What should I do when I receive an alert?
• When should I call the clinic or seek emergency care rather than waiting?

“A rapid heart rate after climbing stairs is not the same thing as a dangerous arrhythmia, but without that context, a notification can seem terrifying,” adds Rosman. “A lot of the anxiety around wearable devices comes not from the data itself, but from not knowing what to do with it.”

6. Know when it’s time to remove your device and get help

When asked when someone should consider giving up their cell phone or seeking professional help due to health anxiety, Cassiday says it’s similar to what many notice when they keep checking their smartphone for the next text, TikTok, or other digital data.

“If you interrupt enjoyable activities or free time to check, or feel anxious about not checking, you have a problem,” says Cassiday.

For example, if you stop thinking you’ll have a heart attack when you check your cell phone and see your resting heart rate. Or, put simply, if you only feel at peace after someone or something, like a cell phone, reassures you that you’re healthy, it’s time to get professional support.

To find help, Cassiday recommends using resources provided by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America or the International OCD Foundation, as health anxiety can be linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

7. Consider cognitive behavioral therapy

When you suffer from health anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy is the gold standard of care. It involves being exposed to health-related worries without any form of reassurance and learning to accept the uncertainty that comes with not knowing. regarding our future state of health, manner of death or time of death.

“People need to learn that all the vague symptoms that trigger their health anxiety are just normal variations of normal body function and aging,” says Cassiday. “They need to reframe the symptoms they notice as nothing to look at, discuss or manage and instead trust the facts of their other evidence of good health.”

CBT can help you live in the present instead of falling into the anxiety-inducing spiral of “What if?” » of the future.

Who should and shouldn’t use wearable devices

Wearable devices can be perfect for people who like to track their fitness to motivate them to achieve their goals, or for patients and their care teams when medically necessary. Although they typically cost hundreds of dollars, wearable devices can be less expensive than medical tests. Some are even HSA or FSA eligible.

“In the case of atrial fibrillation in particular, being able to correlate your symptoms with real rhythm data can be really empowering,” says Rosman. She observed that patients who thrive with wearable devices are those who use data as information (not as something to fear) and those who do not participate in 24/7 monitoring.

In Rosman’s 2024 study, two-thirds of atrial fibrillation patients said their wearable device made them feel safer and more in control. Even so, the risk of unintended consequences remains.

Just as doctors would never prescribe a medication without knowing its potential benefits, risks, and how to manage them, wearable devices should be no different. “Technology has evolved much faster than science, and we need scientific evidence from clinical trials to catch up,” says Rosman.

Since the evidence isn’t there yet, Rosman is hesitant to say that anyone should categorically avoid wearable devices.

Despite this, people who are very concerned about their hearts or prone to obsessive monitoring of symptoms should approach with caution. The same goes for people with unpredictable and abrupt symptoms, such as paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and POTS, because the uncertainty of not knowing when the next episode will occur is stressful enough and constant monitoring can make the situation worse.

A note on science (or lack thereof)

Rosman has conducted research on the link between wearable devices and anxiety, including a 2025 review describing the psychological effects of wearable devices on patients with cardiovascular disease and a 2024 study examining their impact on the psychological well-being of patients with atrial fibrillation.

The 2025 review found that while wearable devices can help promote healthy behaviors and provide data for diagnosis and treatment, they also pose risks, such as adverse psychological reactions.

In the 2024 study, it was concluded that wearable devices were linked to higher rates of patients worrying about their symptoms, worrying about their treatments, and using formal and informal healthcare resources.

On the other hand, a 2021 study analyzing the National Health Information Trends Survey conducted in the United States in 2019 and 2020 found that using wearable devices for self-tracking can indirectly reduce psychological distress. Yet misinterpreting wearable data can cause unnecessary panic and anxiety.

A 2020 qualitative study of patients with chronic heart disease also found that while data from wearable devices can be a resource for self-care, it can create uncertainty, fear, and anxiety.

Ultimately, further studies are needed.

“Honestly, we don’t have good scientific evidence in this area yet,” Rosman says. “Despite widespread use, to my knowledge, no clinical trials have been conducted that have examined the potential health benefits and risks of specific wearable health features.”

Rosman’s team plans to be the first to study this phenomenon in patients with pre-existing heart conditions.

Impact of wearables on our healthcare system

When wearable devices cause health anxiety, they can cause healthy people to schedule unnecessary doctor appointments. This places a burden on our healthcare system, which is already experiencing shortagesmaking it difficult for people who truly need medical care to access care.

Rosman’s 2024 study found that those who used a wearable device sent nearly twice as many patient portal messages to their doctors. Responding to these messages from patients takes time, is not reimbursed by insurance and can contribute to burnout.

As a result, Rosman believes we need better systems to manage wearable data in clinical settings before expanding it further: “Wearable devices are changing the way we deliver care in ways we weren’t fully prepared for.

Wearable devices may further increase health care inequities due to their cost.

“These devices are expensive, they were primarily designed and tested on young, healthy people, and they are marketed to higher-income consumers,” Rosman says. “If we don’t think about access, wearable devices could actually widen health disparities instead of reducing them. That’s the opposite of what we want.”

The essentials

While wearable devices have benefits, they also have risks to consider, especially given the limited amount of research on the topic.

If you purchase a wearable device and it triggers health anxiety, you don’t have to use all of the available features, wear it constantly, or continue to wear it at all. Even before purchasing this device, you can arm yourself with knowledge about reducing anxiety by getting an expert opinion from your doctor.

However, if health anxiety continues to take over your life, it may be time to put down your phone and seek professional help.

As for me, writing this article was a necessary reminder that while there are many things we can’t control in life, the power is in our hands (or on our wrists or fingers) when it comes to the technology we put on our bodies or invite into our homes. Just like an itchy sweater or a lumpy chair, we can pack away technology that doesn’t serve us.