In one sentence
One number, 0 to 10, for the total physical discomfort you are in from any cause: training soreness, joint stiffness, a headache, a sore throat, an injury.
Why it matters
Discomfort moves the overnight readings. Pain and soreness raise the heart rate and lower HRV through the night and break sleep up, so a body that is sore from a hard leg session can look, to a sensor, much like a body that is under strain for another reason. VT asks for the discomfort so that it does not have to guess which, and so that the overnight comparison can give the affected readings less weight. The question is deliberately about the total, not the cause: the sensor does not know the difference either.
What moves it
Training, with a one- to two-day lag for soreness; injury; a cold; sleeping badly; sitting badly; the weather, for some joints. It is the one daily question whose answer you know with certainty.
How to answer it well
In the evening, for the day as a whole, on a scale where 0 is none and 10 is severe pain. Put the cause in the day's notes if it matters to you; the number is what VT uses.
How Vitality Tracker uses it
Symptom Radar takes high discomfort the evening before into account: it gives that night's deep sleep less weight before the morning's result is given. Yesterday's discomfort is also a small input to Capacity's recovery side. It does not enter the sleep scores or the Vitality Score, and VT never reads it as a sign of anything on its own.
How far to trust the number
Self-reported, and reliable for what it is: a 7 today and a 2 yesterday is a real difference in your experience, and that is all VT asks of it.
Sources
- Vitality Tracker, How it works: Symptom Radar (what it takes into account)
- Vitality Tracker, What VT measures (catalogue of 15 October 2026).