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A sense of feeling of anticipation. Apparent is the frosty air emanating from my fellow runners as they do the "about to run" jiggle on the beginning point.

A swift flick of the hips.

I'm participating in my local weekly parkrun event and I'm serious. The countdown begins...

Wait a second. I need to sort my device. The same goes for the runner next to me.

The person in the line sighs. I refuse to go until… done! Connection established, away I go.

In the mele, it's challenging to spot a arm without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us athletes who rely on them.

It's a booming, multi-billion dollar sector. Brands like Samsung Galaxy lead the market, each with an wide selection of different versions to fit a variety of budgets. Depending on how advanced the watch you select, costs can range from a hundred pounds to thousands of pounds.

"It drives me insane, it's impossible to switch off."

"It provides solace… It feels like a companion supporting me."

"I wish it wouldn't say I've experienced a restless night."

A small sample of the comments I've received from fellow device users when I question what they feel about theirs.

A Sea of Statistics

My thoughts on my own device? At this moment, annoying. It's indicating my speed is wrong, making me wonder whether the overhead branches I'm running below are interfering with my GPS connection.

Millions of us strap these small devices onto our arms and wear them all day and night, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Gone are the days when we relied on them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

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

But can they do what they advertise? And are the statistics we analyse a true reflection of our actual health? Do they enhance our overall health, or do the avalanche of measurements and motivational messages just increase our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I find myself getting a bit preoccupied with mine," an individual confesses.

While she values how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other capabilities "excessive" at times - a feeling initially realised during a major life event.

Prior to discovering she could change its configuration, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was not being active enough. Now, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a infant, there's no point to be notified I've not slept," she says. "That fact is all too clearly."

Couldn't she just stop wearing it?

"I suppose I could, I suppose, but I'm in this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I appreciate it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is perhaps overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Each model of smartwatch has its own proprietary way of measuring your bodily functions and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They commonly project minute LED lights onto your arm which can observe blood flow, detecting your BPM. Higher-end devices measure changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to gauge your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

A data scientist says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "fine balance" - while the continuously improving tech could realistically prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we show symptoms", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that newer wearables can carry out tests like heart rhythm analysis, which continuously monitor how healthy the heart is. They can notify if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is erratic impulses in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not automatically signal someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a blood clot in the future.

But how to make sense of these figures is complicated. The expert worries that as further capabilities are added, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

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

A clinical psychologist studying patient behaviour echoes this sentiment. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a specific group of heart condition patients suggested a noticeable percentage of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She observed a vicious circle with her patients - they spotted a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their heart rate went up. They got more worried. They re-examined the data, and their reading went up again.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we re-check - it becomes a vicious cycle."