What Happens When I Connected Saalo to Oura

Twelve weeks of putting my phone down, next to twelve weeks of Oura data.

I built Saalo because I wanted to spend less time on my phone. Like a lot of people, I'd started to feel like it was getting in the way of feeling my best, mentally and physically. Saalo is an app (and soon, a small box you can set your phone in) that tracks the time you spend away from your phone. Each stretch of time away is a saalo. You set a daily intention, and the app shows you how you're doing.

I also happen to wear an Oura ring, which logs things like sleep, stress, activity, and a whole lot more. So as I was building Saalo, I was excited to connect Oura to the app. I wanted to see how the two fit together. When I put my phone down, what happens to the numbers my ring is collecting?

Oura's data inside Saalo. The little sprouts mark what's improving with more saalo.

At the outset, I really thought that putting my phone away intentionally would help with two things: sleep and stress. After 12 weeks, I want to share what changed and what didn't.

One caveat: I'm one person with one ring and a few months of data. This isn't a study. It's just what I've seen.

Sleep

Over the last two weeks, my sleep looked better after days with more saalo. On nights after I met my intention, I fell asleep in about 20 minutes. After days with no saalo, it took 38.

Deep sleep moved the same way: 57 minutes after days I met my intention, 47 after days with none.

Time to fall asleep and deep sleep, last two weeks. The bars are my saalo, the line is my sleep that night.

Over the full twelve weeks, the gap is smaller, and the app calls it about the same. So I'm holding this one loosely.

So what do I think is happening here? Maybe on days when I'm more intentional, I just have less of a racing mind at the end of the day. That could mean falling asleep faster and getting more deep sleep. Maybe. I'm not a scientist, and I don't have enough data to say for sure. But it's been cool to watch, and I'm curious to see where it goes.

Stress

On this one, my initial hypothesis turned out to be way wrong. In my five weeks with the most saalo, I averaged 57 minutes a day of high stress. In my five lightest weeks, 25.

Stress over twelve weeks. More saalo, more stress.

So what do I think is going on here? It turns out that when your stress isn't caused by your phone, but by something bigger, like life, work, or parenthood, daytime stress can still just be daytime stress. A crazy few weeks at work, or a weekend traveling with kids, is going to be stressful no matter where my phone is.

Steps

This is the one I thought was cool, because I didn't see it coming. Over the last two weeks, I walked about 9,300 steps on days I met my intention, and about 5,400 on days with no saalo.

And unlike sleep, this one holds up over twelve weeks too. In my five weeks with the most saalo (about 42 minutes a day), I averaged 8,677 steps. In my five lightest weeks (about 7 minutes a day), 6,159. That's about 2,500 more steps a day.

Steps, last two weeks (left) and last twelve weeks (right).

So what do I think is happening here? I don't often say "I'm going to put the phone down and go for a walk." But I think the act of prioritizing how I spend my time, and being intentional aobut the things that matter most to me, tends to get me moving around. I walk around, take more steps, work out. It's the intentionality that I think is key.

Find out for yourself

If you want to find out for yourself, you can download Saalo for free on the App Store and see what feels different. And if you have an Oura ring, you can connect it and watch your own numbers.

I also just kicked off a 30-day challenge in the app: 30 phone-free hours in 30 days, which works out to an hour a day. You're welcome to join me.

I'd be super curious to hear how you spend your time away from your phone, and what changed for you and what didn't. Let me know in the comments.