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There are some gadgets that promise to measure stress level (derived from pulse data?)

Most of the devices that offer such stress detection measure the change in the interval between heartbeats — a measure known as heart rate variability. (from a 2015 article)

The Wikipedia article on this measurement method does not reveal much on stress measurement.

How reliable is such indication/measurement, what to expect about false positives/false negatives?

  • I feel stressed, gadget says no: have I thought up stress?
  • I feel not stressed, gadget says yes: I can't notice stress?
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    "There are some gadgets that promise to measure stress level" -- What gadgets do you mean? Have you googled them? What did you find? Your question is vague and shows no effort at prior research.
    – Carey Gregory ♦
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 2:17
  • @CareyGregory I think I have troubles more with understanding the reliability of the measurement method itself.
    – J. Doe
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 3:53
  • This is a good question in one way because it is looking for objective rather than subjective measurement but the kick with it is that there can be different criteria for stress (and levels/types) depending on who you speak to. For example, some might say that you can be stressed but not suffer from anxiety, where others may feel that you can't have stress without anxiety. What definition would you want to refer to?
    – Chris Rogers
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 9:08
  • You also said that the Wikipedia article does not reveal much on stress measurements but the section titled Psychological and social aspects mentions variations in HRV etc. in stressful situations.
    – Chris Rogers
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 9:15
  • @ChrisRogers maybe stress does not cause anxiety but I can't imagine a relaxed anxiety. So measuring stress can't tell you whether there is an anxiety but you do feel the stress anyway. I can't understand the section in the article in terms of putting reliability of the method into context. A good answer would probably elaborate on that?
    – J. Doe
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 9:36

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