You could rate employers on the median cortisol levels of their employees during and after the work day.
At an individual level, those of us that are not very self-aware of our stress levels could monitor it objectively and determine stressors and implement and monitor interventions to reduce stress.
Never a boring day.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/08/smartwatc...
The stress paradigm is probably the most holistic idea in medicine and I think any attempt to break it down to a number is reductivist.
However, I am certain that some really bad days I've had have shown very high stress on the watch across the day.
also relaxing can show low stress during a window (like sleep is low stress)
This is exactly the opposite of what which is written in the quoted wikipedia article:
> Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and patient self-measurement using a home blood pressure monitoring device is being increasingly used to differentiate those with white coat hypertension or experiencing the white coat effect from those with chronic hypertension
Continuous monitoring is a viable workaround wrt. white coat symptoms. It is just a lot more effort and expensive.
Yes, during the transition phase where information becomes available, some people will handle it badly, misinterpret, and generally be worse off.
But that’s a terrible reason to withhold knowledge, especially about peoples’ own bodies.
> This is why continuous monitoring is usually applied as little as reasonably possible
The reason it is applied as little as possible is because it has been prohibitively expensive. For most things there is a benefit to sampling more often, and what sampling rate is adequate is entirely dependent on the maximum frequency that you need to observe. Another way of phrasing that is if it can change quickly, then you need to sample more often.
specifically - measuring x has negative consequences, so don't measure x.
then at some point it becomes, don't bother measuring x ever.
Normally I hear abotu this like tests that can find cancer early, or full body MRIs.
I think these measures might actually be really good to establish a baseline and changes over time, or catch things early.
If the problem is that knowing leads to stress, maybe there could be a solution in the portrayal of the data. Maybe it could be "doctor, don't tell me unless there is a trend"
Doctors frequently give a disclaimer before ordering PSA tests, for example.
And who says information hazards don't exist. Gotta love how anxiety builds on anxiety.
I'm convinced that if we actually looked at the circadian phase of the general population more closely we'd find A LOT of people with wonky clocks [1][2].
I've come to realize in recent months that I'm rocking a ~3h phase advance. Not terrible but it can sometimes make getting enough total sleep time challenging (bright light therapy in evenings really helps).
1. https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/07/16/depre...
2. Circadian Genes, Rhythms, and the Biology of Bipolar Disorder - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSL5hC8bzcU
How did you figure that out? And having a phase advance should just mean that you could shift your bedtime and waking time forward but still get a similar amount of sleep compared to someone with a "neutral" phase, whatever that means.
As for the phase shift, I've always had what I thought was maintenance insomnia but at some point I realized I always waking at exactly 4:30am. Going to bed early resolves the maintenance insomnia (also travelling eastward more than a few hours or so). My father and brother are the same.
I'd love to get a DLMO done to confirm. Thinking about experimenting with tracking core body temperature monitoring soon.
FWIW a 24h ambulatory blood pressure study actually showed a phase advanced nocturnal dip.
Still cool nonetheless.
camillomiller•5mo ago