You can find many IoT devices in the market that can monitor your heart rate, sleep, sugar levels, calories burned, how much you move, and how much you don’t. These devices have been built by electronic product development companies, and these technologies can help you experience wellness, however, there are many aspects to consider to guarantee this works in your life. Let’s talk about some aspects of wellness IoT.
Wellness definition
Wellness is not a state that you achieve after a series of steps, it is a constant journey where your choices and decisions are focused on improving your health in a holistic approach. This means several dimensions must be balanced in your life.
You may wonder how many dimensions of wellness are there. Some people talk about 6 dimensions, while others mention up to 12. There are some of the wellness dimensions: Social, Physical, Nutrition, Sleep, Mindfulness, Emotional, Spiritual, Environmental.
Wellness and health
Considering the amount of workload that a lot of people are having nowadays, it is not surprising that they are more stressed than normal and get sick with ease.
IoT is important, and IoT devices can be a great ally for people who are experiencing health problems. They are mostly used for checking data such as calories burned and sleep patterns, but with the right approach, these “cool and popular wearables” may turn into wellness devices.
Wellness is not only related to being healthy. As we mentioned before, it is a combination of different dimensions.
Why wellness is important
Wellness is now more necessary than ever because the work conditions are stressing and affecting people’s health.
According to the American Institute of Stress, “83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress, with 25% saying their job is the number one stressor in their lives”, and “About one million Americans miss work each day because of stress”.
Can you imagine the great amount of money that companies are losing because of stress? Companies need to care about the workload they are putting on their employees. Also, it is crucial to integrate IoT devices into the offices to help people be more aware of their health and other aspects.
This approach may seem invasive since the companies could access any personal information from their employees to monitor their vitals and health. However, if this is accepted by the employees and they are willing to receive help from the company, it could be a new way to achieve wellness by using wearables for stress reduction.
IoT Wellness
Many companies and startups are understanding the increasing importance of including technology in different aspects of life. Each day, they care more about industrial design as a way to contribute to wellness. Let’s see how wearables and IoT technologies can combine to do that:
Physical:
Smartwatches and other types of wearables can remind the user to work out during the day, or simply to stand up and walk for around 5 to 10 minutes to give some movement to the body.
This can be integrated with apps that suggest different exercises according to the age and health condition of the user.
How does this contribute to wellness?
People usually get absorbed by the workload. Imagine being in the same position for 6 or 7 hours. That’s not healthy, eventually, there could be back pain or other illnesses associated with lack of movement. With the help of alarms, people will be aware of the necessity to move and the benefits it carries.
Nutrition:
Many people count the calories they eat or the calories they burn. However, this is not something that only works for fitness. Being at work and having to do a lot of tasks also requires a big amount of energy, if your body isn’t receiving the proper vitamins and nutrients, it will get sick with ease.
IoT devices along with apps could suggest meal plans according to the job every person has, characteristics, gender, and age.
How does nutrition contribute to wellness?
People can rely on their devices to create healthy habits. Drinking water, eating vegetables, and reducing sugary foods. When nutrition improves, productivity increases.
Sleep:
Sleep is a vital part of the recovery process after a long day of work. Have you felt tired during a meeting because you didn’t sleep well?
Monitoring your sleep patterns with wearables will help you to establish better routines at night before going to bed.
How does sleep contribute to wellness?
Your IoT device reminds you of an important meeting the next day. Therefore, it can suggest that you sleep earlier.
Social:
There have been products in the market that allow people to analyze how they speak and the message they are communicating. Wellness also needs social interaction, humans grow because they establish meaningful connections.
Your wellness device can provide you with the right information to know when it is necessary to change your voice tone or call or text a friend because it is his birthday.
How does this area contribute to wellness?
Meaningful connections help to reduce stress. We can talk about our problems, look for solutions, or just have a good conversation about any topic.
Mindfulness:
When you use apps that monitor your heart rate and oxygen levels, you are confident that everything is working well. Maybe there aren’t IoT products that can monitor our brains in real time. But it is necessary to analyze how your mind is.
Wellness involves the mind. A good way to foster mindfulness is to separate short periods where you can relax or redirect your mind.
How does mindfulness contribute to wellness?
You can program your IoT device or app to show you different messages or questions throughout the day. This exercise will help you to think about something other than work. As humans, we need to relax and quiet our minds from busy schedules.
A relaxed mind is a healthy mind. If we turn this into a habit, the stress levels may be reduced considerably. That’s why these types of products turn into IoT wellness devices.
If you have any questions, we invite you to comment below. On the other hand, if you have any idea to build a wellness IoT device, you can get IoT product development services with us, or schedule a free consultation by clicking below.
