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A sense of nervous excitement. Visible is the chilled vapour coming from my rivals as they perform the "starting line" shuffle on the beginning point.

A swift movement of the hips.

I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I'm focused. It's almost time...

Oh, hang on. I have to adjust my device. The same goes for the runner alongside me.

The person waiting tuts. I won't start until… done! GPS ready, away I go.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to find a wrist without a wearable on it. And it's not just us participants who use them.

It's a booming, multi-billion dollar industry. Brands like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, each with an broad array of various devices to fit a variety of budgets. Based on how advanced the watch you select, prices can vary between £100 to thousands of pounds.

"I find it infuriating, I can't relax."

"It reassures me… It's like a companion encouraging me."

"Please don't notify me I've experienced a bad night's sleep."

A handful of the reactions I've had from fellow smartwatch wearers when I question what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My feelings on my own device? At this moment, frustrating. It's telling me I'm not hitting my target, making me wonder whether the trees along my route are blocking my satellite signal.

A vast number of us attach these small devices onto our arms and keep them on all day and night, ostensibly unconcerned with the fact they're constantly recording us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them solely to give us an rough count of our step count. Now, they can track our sleep patterns, stress levels, heart rate variability (HRV), our recovery score.

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

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the numbers we scrutinise a true reflection of the truth? Do they boost our overall health, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

Addiction or Aid?

"I find myself getting a quite preoccupied with mine," an individual admits.

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

Before she realised she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch repeatedly informed her she was being insufficiently active enough. Later on, the watch frequently reports her she's had a restless night.

"I've got a infant, it's unnecessary for me to be told I'm tired," she says. "That fact is only too well."

Is it not possible to just stop wearing it?

"I could, I suppose, but I've got this push-pull dynamic with it," she explains. "I love it for its exercise data, I just wonder whether the additional features it can now do is possibly excessive for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your health metrics and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use sensors on the back of the watch.

They typically project tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can observe pulsation, identifying your pulse rate. Sophisticated devices analyse changes in the bioimpedance that passes over the skin to get an idea of your stress levels.

Expert Perspectives

A data scientist says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the rapidly advancing tech could actually prevent illness, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how stable the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing an irregular rhythm, where there is abnormal signals in the heart causing an irregular heartbeat.

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a cardiac event, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a stroke in the long term.

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

"I have some doubts that the ability to monitor so much data is such a positive development," he says.

A professor studying wearable tech agrees. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a specific group of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their cardiac function experienced heightened worry and were "had a higher tendency to use doctor's time".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they spotted a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate went up. They got increasingly anxious. They checked again, and their reading increased again.

"Upon viewing stats about ourselves that we don't really understand then, understandably, we are going to want to know more," the psychologist says. "We look, we obsess - it becomes a feedback loop."