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An atmosphere of nervous excitement. Visible is the frosty air coming from my rivals as they execute the "about to run" shuffle on the beginning point.

A quick twitch of the hips.

I'm lined up for my local 5km community parkrun and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I must sort my tracker. The same goes for the guy alongside me.

The person in the line expresses impatience. I won't start until… there! GPS ready, and I'm running.

In the mele, it's hard to spot a wrist without a smartwatch on it. And this isn't only us runners who use them.

It's a thriving, multi-billion pound sector. Brands like Garmin dominate, each with an wide range of various devices to fit a spectrum of lifestyles. Based on how feature-packed the device you go for, prices can range from an affordable sum to a small fortune.

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

"It comforts me… It acts as a companion guiding me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a restless night."

A small sample of the reactions people have shared from other device users when I ask what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on my own device? Currently, irritating. It's reporting I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the overhead branches I'm running below are interfering with my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us fasten these small gadgets onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, apparently unconcerned with the fact they're continuously monitoring us.

A distant memory are the days when we relied on them only to give us an rough count of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, stress levels, glucose levels, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a physical metric they aren't designed to measure.

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we analyse a faithful picture of the truth? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of measurements and cheerleading alerts just add to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

"I become a bit obsessed with mine," one user reveals.

While she loves how her device records her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "daunting" at times - a feeling initially realised during a significant period.

Prior to discovering she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was failing to be productive enough. Now, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a infant, I don't need to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that only too well."

Why doesn't she just remove it?

"I could, perhaps, but I have this push-pull dynamic with it," she continues. "I value it for its fitness insights, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is maybe too much for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own unique way of measuring your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the most use optical sensors on the back of the watch.

They usually project small, green LED lights onto your wrist which can monitor capillary action, recording your BPM. More advanced devices analyse changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

A Fine Balance

A professor says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could potentially save lives, "identifying issues before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that the most advanced wearables can carry out tests like medical-grade monitoring, which regularly monitor how stable the heart is. They can alert if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the future.

But how to make sense of these numbers is complex. The expert worries that as more functions are incorporated, people may struggle to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that having the capacity to monitor so many metrics is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A professor studying cardiology agrees. Her work into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they saw a concerning reading on their watch. They felt anxious. Their pulse went up. They got even more concerned. They looked a second time, and their anxiety increased again.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a vicious cycle."