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There's a nervous excitement. Visible is the chilled vapour exhaled by my competitors as they execute the "pre-race" shuffle on the starting line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local weekly parkrun event and I mean business. Three, two, one...

Hold on. I have to sort my tracker. So does the person alongside me.

The person behind us expresses impatience. I won't start until… done! Connection established, I'm off.

During the scramble, it's hard to spot a wrist without a wearable on it. And this extends beyond us participants who wear them.

This is a thriving, multi-billion dollar market. Brands like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, all offering an wide range of different devices to fit a spectrum of budgets. According to how high tech the model you choose, costs can start from a hundred pounds to a small fortune.

"It makes me crazy, it's impossible to stop checking."

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

"Please don't notify me I've had a restless night."

A small sample of the reactions I've received from fellow tracker enthusiasts when I question what they their opinion is on theirs.

The Data Dilemma

My feelings on mine? At this moment, irritating. It's telling me I'm off pace, making me wonder whether the trees I'm running below are interfering with my satellite signal.

Countless individuals of us fasten these compact gadgets onto our arms and use them 24/7, ostensibly comfortable with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Long past are the days when we relied on them exclusively to give us an idea of our pedometer reading. Now, they can analyse our nightly rest, blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), our VO2 max.

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

But do they do what they say they do? And are the statistics we scrutinise a accurate representation of the truth? Do they boost our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of measurements and constant notifications just contribute to our everyday anxiety?

A Complicated Bond

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

While she values how her device tracks her workouts, she finds some of its other functions "excessive" at times - a feeling that became apparent during a pregnancy.

Until she found out she could adjust the settings, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently productive enough. Later on, the watch keeps telling her she's had a poor sleep score.

"I have a six-month old, there's no point to be told my sleep was poor," she says. "That fact is perfectly well."

Couldn't she just stop wearing it?

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

Inside the Device

Different brands of smartwatch has its own unique way of tracking your vitals and interpreting your data, but the most use sensors on the back of the watch.

They typically emit tiny, coloured LED lights onto your skin which can monitor blood flow, recording your BPM. Higher-end devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that runs through the skin to assess your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that in general for smartwatches, it's a "difficult line" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually save lives, "spotting abnormalities before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "anxious healthy".

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

This does not mean someone is imminently going to suffer a heart attack, but it can give an preliminary indication they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to interpret these figures is complicated. The expert fears that as more functions are added, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I have some doubts that being able to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A health researcher focusing on wearable tech concurs. Her work into the effect of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a significant portion of those who were given devices to monitor their condition experienced greater stress and were "far more likely to use medical services".

She identified a cycle with her patients - they noticed a concerning reading on their watch. They became worried. Their pulse increased. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their heart rate rose further.

"When people are presented with stats about ourselves that we can't properly interpret then, understandably, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we obsess - it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."