Missed Part 1? Check it out here.
What Does The Stress Management Score Measure?
Because the experience of stress can be sparked by a combination of various physiological and psychological changes, Fitbit’s Stress Management function casts a wide net in collecting data. There are a dozen different metrics and factors that go into making up your daily score, which displays a scale of 1 to 100, with a higher score indicating that your body is showing balance and healthy physiological indicators of stress.
Those 12 measurements can be broken up into three categories: Exertion Balance, Sleep Patterns and Responsiveness.
- Exertion Balance takes into account your recent physical activity like steps and accounts for both overexertion or lack of exercise.
- Sleep Patterns include measurements of deep sleep from the previous night and whether your sleep was fitful or fragmented. It also tracks your “sleep reservoir” based on the amount and quality of sleep you’ve managed over the previous week.
- Responsiveness monitors your sympathetic nervous system, aka your fight or flight response, by monitoring your heart rate and heart rate variability.
A proprietary algorithm weights the 12 different metrics and creates a stress score that an individual can track overtime.
Because no technology can read your mind, the user can also manually log their perceived stress on a scale from “very stressed” to “very calm.” Using this “reflections” tool, an individual can compare their perception to the Stress Management Score that aggregates the data the watch collects automatically.
Does a Low Stress Management Score Always Mean I’m Feeling Bad?
Interestingly, early testing of the Stress Management Score among several thousand Fitbit community member-volunteers suggested that it isn’t unusual for a person’s reported mood sometimes to be quite different from what one might expect from their Stress Score. For example, in the morning after running your first half-marathon, your Stress Score might be lower than your baseline based on changes in your heart rate variability and other signals showing that you pushed your body to its limits. You might not perceive any of that as “stress” because you feel positively ebullient after accomplishing one of your long term goals.
“There are some people whose physiological signals suggest a lot of stress in their life. Their heart rate might be racing all the time, but they just don’t perceive it as stress,” says Conor Heneghan, Lead Research Scientist at Fitbit. “And conversely, there’s people whose physiological responses are fine. But their psychological construct is, ‘I’m feeling very stressed all the time.'”
One reason for this disconnect is that stress doesn’t always feel bad and has many useful functions. Indeed, if we tried to avoid stress all the time, we wouldn’t take on difficult challenges either physically or mentally. Taking risks and stepping outside of our comfort zone requires that we feel stress. There is even a little-used word to describe that positive type of stress. It’s called “eustress.” Although having the same physiological markers as negative forms of stress, eustress helps us stay motivated, rise to the occasion, and take on challenges.
“We can overcome all sorts of demands that the environment places on us when we feel like we have the resources, energy, and the skills,” says Abdel-Ghaffar. “In those situations, our stress responses are going to be positive. What defines a positive stress response is that it feels good and is beneficial to us.”
Chronic stress is perhaps even more concerning as it can sneak up on you over an extended period and yet remain outside of your awareness. Chronic stress can weaken your immune system and increase your risk of obesity, heart disease, depression, and gastrointestinal problems.
“Often we are not tuned in to what we’re feeling inside of our bodies and we can go a long time without recognizing that we’re really in this state of stress until things start breaking down,” says Abdel-Ghaffar. “Just because you do not consciously perceive stress doesn’t mean that it’s not there. In this case, out of sight may mean out of mind, but not out of body.”
Learn how to use the Stress Management Score to create a life in balance in the concluding part of the 3-part Stress Management Score guide.
Have questions about your Stress Management Score or about staying mindful in general? Let us know here!
The Fitbit Community Team
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or condition. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, altering your sleep habits, taking supplements, or starting a new fitness routine.
