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A sense of feeling of anticipation. Apparent is the cold breath exhaled by my fellow runners as they do the "starting line" shuffle on the beginning point.

A swift twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local 5km community parkrun and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I have to adjust my device. As does the guy alongside me.

The person waiting sighs. I refuse to go until… there! GPS ready, I'm off.

Amidst the crowd, it's hard to find a arm without a wearable on it. And it's not just us athletes who wear them.

We're witnessing a thriving, multi-billion pound market. Names like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, featuring an extensive range of various versions to fit a range of budgets. Based on how feature-packed the device you choose, costs can vary between £100 to a significant investment.

"It makes me crazy, I can't relax."

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

"Stop telling me I've had a poor sleep."

A small sample of the reactions I've had from other device users when I question what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? Right now, irritating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, causing me to question whether the trees along my route are blocking my GPS connection.

Countless individuals of us attach these compact monitors onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, apparently at ease with the fact they're continuously recording us.

A distant memory are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an estimation of our step count. Today, they can track our sleep patterns, stress levels, glucose levels, our body battery.

It's a challenge to find a health indicator they fail to monitor.

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the statistics we analyse a true reflection of reality? Do they enhance our overall health, or do the multitude of readings and constant notifications just increase our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I do get a a little preoccupied with mine," a wearer admits.

While she values how her device monitors her runs, she finds some of its other features "daunting" at times - a feeling first discovered during a significant period.

Until she found out she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently active enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a restless night.

"I am caring for a young baby, I don't need to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I'm acutely aware only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I could, theoretically, but I have this love-hate relationship with it," she explains. "I love it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly overkill for me."

Inside the Device

Each model of smartwatch has its own novel way of measuring your health metrics and interpreting your data, but the majority use detectors on the back of the watch.

They usually emit minute LED lights onto your skin which can detect pulsation, recording your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to assess your recovery state.

A Fine Balance

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the rapidly advancing tech could realistically prevent illness, "detecting disease before we feel unwell", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "anxious healthy".

He points out that newer wearables can perform tests like medical-grade monitoring, which continuously monitor how normal the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is irregular electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more susceptible of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to interpret these readings is not straightforward. The expert fears that as additional features are introduced, people may struggle to fully understand their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist specialising in wearable tech concurs. A study into the influence of wearable tech on a cohort of individuals with health issues suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use healthcare resources".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they noticed a alarming metric on their watch. They grew concerned. Their pulse rose. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their anxiety increased again.

"Upon viewing data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a feedback loop."