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A sense of feeling of anticipation. Apparent is the frosty air exhaled by my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" wiggle on the start line.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm focused. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I have to adjust my tracker. As does the guy alongside me.

The person behind us tuts. I won't start until… yes! Connection established, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's challenging to find a person without a wearable on it. And it's not just us runners who rely on them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion pound sector. Brands like Garmin lead the market, all offering an extensive range of diverse versions to cater to a variety of needs. Based on how high tech the device you go for, prices can range from an affordable sum to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to relax."

"It provides solace… It's like a companion supporting me."

"Please don't notify me I've had a bad night's sleep."

Just some of the comments I've had from like-minded device users when I question what they think of theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My feelings on my own device? At this moment, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, leading me to doubt whether the overhead branches I'm passing under are blocking my location tracking.

Countless individuals of us fasten these small devices onto our arms and use them all day and night, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Gone are the days when we used them exclusively to give us an idea of our step count. Today, they can measure our sleep patterns, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they fail to monitor.

But are they able to do what they say they do? And are the data points we obsess over a accurate representation of reality? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of measurements and motivational messages just increase our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a quite preoccupied with mine," a wearer admits.

While she loves how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other functions "overwhelming" at times - a feeling initially realised during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was not being energetic enough. In a new phase, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that only too well."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I could, theoretically, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its workout tracking, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of monitoring your vitals and processing your data, but the most use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They commonly shine tiny, coloured LED lights onto your arm which can detect capillary action, identifying your heartbeat. Higher-end devices measure changes in the skin conductance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your nervous system activity.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could potentially aid early diagnosis, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us the tracked into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like medical-grade monitoring, which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the future.

But how to understand these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as more functions are introduced, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so much data is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher specialising in cardiology echoes this sentiment. Research into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced greater stress and were "more inclined to use medical services".

She observed a cycle with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse went up. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their anxiety increased again.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."