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A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the cold breath coming from my fellow runners as they perform the "about to run" jiggle on the beginning point.

A swift twitch of the hips.

I'm participating in my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Oh, hang on. I must start my watch. So does the guy beside me.

The person behind us sighs. I won't start until… there! Connection established, and I'm running.

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

It's a thriving, multi-billion pound market. Brands like Apple Watch lead the market, all offering an broad array of diverse devices to cater to a variety of budgets. Based on how high tech the device you go for, price tags can vary between £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It makes me crazy, it's impossible to switch off."

"It reassures me… It feels like a supporter encouraging me."

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

Just some of the comments I've had from other device users when I ask what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on mine? Currently, annoying. It's reporting my speed is wrong, leading me to doubt whether the foliage I'm running below are disrupting my satellite signal.

A vast number of us fasten these little gadgets onto our wrists and keep them on 24/7, seemingly unconcerned with the fact they're perpetually tracking us.

Long past are the days when we depended on them solely to give us an estimation of our daily steps. Now, they can analyse our sleep patterns, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, our recovery score.

It's difficult to find a bodily function they don't track.

But are they able to do what they advertise? And are the data points we obsess over a accurate representation of reality? Do they improve our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the avalanche of readings and cheerleading alerts just add to our daily stresses?

A Love-Hate Relationship

"I become a bit preoccupied with mine," an individual admits.

While she appreciates how her device records her runs, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a major life event.

Prior to discovering she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch kept telling her she was being insufficiently energetic enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I've got a infant, there's no point to be told I'm tired," she says. "I'm acutely aware only too well."

Couldn't she just take it off?

"I could, I suppose, but I'm in this complicated dynamic with it," she says. "I value it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether the myriad other functions it can now do is maybe overkill for me."

The Technology Behind the Tracking

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of monitoring your vitals and analysing your data, but the vast bulk use detectors on the back of the watch.

They commonly emit minute LED lights onto your arm which can detect blood flow, recording your heartbeat. Higher-end devices measure changes in the skin conductance that runs through the skin to gauge your stress levels.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the continuously improving tech could potentially prevent illness, "identifying issues before we notice anything", it could also turn us watch wearers into the "concerned but fine".

He points out that newer wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how normal the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is erratic electrical activity in the heart causing an uneven pulse.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more vulnerable of a stroke in the years to come.

But how to make sense of these numbers is not straightforward. The expert worries that as additional features are incorporated, people may struggle to fully comprehend their data.

"I'm not entirely convinced that being able to monitor so many things is such a beneficial thing," he says.

A clinical psychologist studying wearable tech echoes this sentiment. A study into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "more inclined to use doctor's time".

She identified a pattern with her patients - they saw a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got even more concerned. They re-examined the data, and their heart rate went up again.

"If we see data about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, of course, we are going to become concerned," the psychologist says. "We look, we check again - it becomes a feedback loop."