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A sense of nervous excitement. Apparent is the cold breath coming from my rivals as they perform the "starting line" jiggle on the start line.

A rapid twitch of the hips.

I'm at my local 5km community parkrun and I mean business. The countdown begins...

Oh, hang on. I need to start my watch. As does the guy alongside me.

The person in the line tuts. I won't start until… there! Signal acquired, and I'm running.

Amidst the crowd, it's difficult to spot a wrist without a wearable on it. And this isn't only us runners who wear them.

It's a explosive, multi-billion pound sector. Names like Samsung Galaxy are prevalent, featuring an wide array of different devices to cater to a spectrum of budgets. According to how high tech the device you select, price tags can range from £100 to thousands of pounds.

"It makes me crazy, I'm unable to switch off."

"It comforts me… It feels like a supporter supporting me."

"Please don't notify me about a restless night."

A small sample of the responses people have shared from other smartwatch wearers when I ask what they think of theirs.

The Monitoring Conundrum

My current opinion on my own device? Currently, frustrating. It's telling me I'm off pace, causing me to question whether the trees along my route are blocking my GPS connection.

A vast number of us attach these small gadgets onto our wrists and keep them on 24/7, seemingly comfortable with the fact they're constantly tracking us.

Gone are the days when we used them only to give us an idea of our daily steps. Currently, they can analyse our nightly rest, heart rate, oxygen saturation, our body battery.

It's tricky to find a physical metric they aren't designed to measure.

But do they do what they claim to do? And are the numbers we scrutinise a true reflection of reality? Do they enhance our mental and physical wellbeing, or do the plethora of readings and constant notifications just contribute to our sense of overwhelm?

Addiction or Aid?

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

While she appreciates how her device monitors her exercise, she finds some of its other features "overwhelming" at times - a feeling first discovered during a major life event.

Until she found out she could put it into a specific mode, her smartwatch constantly alerted her she was being insufficiently active enough. Later on, the watch insists her she's had a restless night.

"I am caring for a young baby, it's unnecessary for me to be informed my sleep was poor," she says. "I know that only too well."

Couldn't she just remove it?

"It's possible, perhaps, but I've got this love-hate relationship with it," she continues. "I value it for its exercise data, I sometimes question whether the additional features it can now do is maybe too much for me."

How Do They Work?

Every device of smartwatch has its own novel way of tracking your health metrics and analysing your data, but the most use sensors on the underside of the watch.

They usually project small, green LED lights onto your arm which can monitor pulsation, identifying your BPM. Sophisticated devices detect changes in the bioimpedance that flows through the skin to get an idea of your recovery state.

The Professional Viewpoint

One expert says that for most people for smartwatches, it's a "delicate equilibrium" - while the ever-evolving tech could actually prevent illness, "identifying issues before we feel unwell", it could also turn us device users into the "worried well".

He points out that some of the latest wearables can conduct tests like heart rhythm analysis, which constantly monitor how healthy the heart is. They can flag if someone is experiencing a heart arrhythmia, where there is irregular impulses in the heart causing an arrhythmia.

This does not necessarily indicate someone is on the verge of a cardiac event, but it can give an early warning they might be more at risk of a blood clot in the long term.

But how to make sense of these numbers is complex. The expert worries that as more functions are introduced, people may not be able to fully contextualise their data.

"I remain sceptical that the ability to monitor so many things is such a good idea," he says.

A professor studying patient behaviour concurs. Research into the impact of wearable tech on a cohort of cardiovascular patients suggested a minority of those who were given devices to monitor their heart health experienced increased anxiety and were "had a higher tendency to use healthcare resources".

She noted a pattern with her patients - they noticed a worrying figure on their watch. They grew concerned. Their heart rate rose. They got increasingly anxious. They looked a second time, and their anxiety rose further.

"When people are presented with data about ourselves that we don't really understand then, naturally, we are going to seek clarification," the psychologist says. "We monitor, we check again - it becomes a feedback loop."