Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
I have pretty chronic sleep problems. Several in fact :-/. I wanted to get a sense form the tech-aware community what sleep trackers do people use? How accurate are they? Can you sleep comfortably with them? One challenge I have is I need to track my leg movements given restless legs...
(Yes I’ve had sleep studies and know home sleep tracking is imperfect...)
182 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 259 ms ] threadWhen I don't want to track snoring solely, I use Sleep Cycle, which tracks the agitation of your sleep, and uses that to wake you up. The tracking info is quite good as you can see the amount of rem sleep and where in the night that happened. It is also good to perceive trends through time in terms of sleep quality.
Not having to set anything up or say I'm going to sleep is perfect for us, and the results seem to generally be in line with reality. I don't believe it tracks restless legs. It's really comfortable with the sport loop band.
From the limited research I did a few months ago it seemed as if the additional accuracy derived from a dedicated device was outweighed by the faff of setting it up + the additional utility of a multifunctional Apple Watch / Fitbit-type device. It felt like a single-digit % gain in accuracy over Apple Watch, which had a huge % gain in utility.
Example: on Sunday, I woke up, drove 20 minutes to a trailhead, proceeded to strenuously hike for an hour, drove 20 minutes back. When I checked the sleep log later that day, the watch had automatically assumed I had been sleeping through the entire hike.
I like most other things about this watch, but sleep tracking is not one of them.
But the sleep tracking has been awful. A lot of days I'll get up, sit in a chair, and will surf the web for several minutes, say 45 minutes, and the watch inevitably records this time as also sleep. It's quite ridiculous and the software doesn't allow you to edit the log with the correct time. You can only delete entries, not edit them.
They used to use movement but now use ambient audio to determine sleepiness. It a suggestion worth looking at maybe not "powerful" enough but certainly easy to use.
The band is not uncomfortable (after a couple of nights, it's very strange at first) and it will give you lots of insights other solutions can't.
You do have to put it on before bed and take it off and charge in the morning though. And it's expensive.
* https://dreem.com/en
I did significant research into the sleep trackers before deciding and the bottom line I found out is that anything on your wrist/fingers etc. Just can't accurately tell which sleep phases you're actually in and the offsets are huge, check the user reviews and research, they were comparing all the trackers against a proper sleep lab.
So I decided for dreem2 and have been extremely happy, especially with the deep sleep stimulation functionality, since I didn't buy it because I'd have any sort of sleep issues.
Apart from detecting sleep stages, it has other features (e.g. smart alarm) which I have not used yet. I really wanted to use sleep simulation which they claim to enhance your deep sleep. But unfortunately this feature in not available in the headband sold in USA.
When correlating the data with SnoreLab, I consistently see the snoring occurring only while sleeping on my back, and almost never when sleeping on my side.
Useful to know if you are trying to resolve snoring problems.
> Anonymous Data Collection
> AutoSleep does not collect any information.
That's pretty much the whole thing. Apparently they do everything on-device.
http://autosleep.tantsissa.com/privacy
https://gadgetbridge.org/
I don't think it will directly track leg movement, but it tracks sounds, so if you're shuffling the sheets it could possibly pick that up. It's a very highly rated app and I've used it successfully myself.
https://docs.sleep.urbandroid.org/devices/wearables.html
$75 off - http://ouraring.com/partners/rohannatraj - doesn't benefit me, just a coupon I received myself.
Here's a project my spouse is working on to see whether it's possible to warn you when you're getting sick using the combination of resting heart rate (from Fitbit), temperature (from Oura) and sleep data:
https://quantifiedflu.org/
I usually use AutoSleep with the Apple watch.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6095823/
Study conclusions: "Multi-sensor sleep trackers, such as the ŌURA ringhave the potential for detecting outcomes beyond binary sleep/wake using sources of informationin additionto motion. While these first results could be viewed as promising, future development and validation is needed."
First time it happened, I let it slide and gave it another chance. Then it needed another chance, and another... and the I gave up. I ultimately lost all trust in what it was reporting.
It's still a beautiful piece of engineering, it just doesn't do what it claims to be doing :-/
Not saying it's the most accurate thing because it likely isn't, but it's still far better than other trackers IMO
I was about to close the tab but then I saw they have developer tools where you can get an API key to access your own data -- very cool
Am I the only one who likes sleeping on these things before committing to a purchase?
The way this really plays out is my wife says, "Do you want this stuff in the cart?" and then I go and remove most of it.
Social media is either making money via ads, or their making money via sales of $SOMETHING. This is marketing at work.
The data is surprisingly accurate, and sleeping with a watch on doesn't bother me one bit. (I use a silicon watch band, the dressier watch bands would probably bother me.)
How do you know?
I don't know how accurate it is in terms of tracking restless legs unless the movement of your legs causes movement of your upper body that would impact watch acceleration sensors and gyroscope?
Quality sleep seems to have a cascading impact on the rest of life so this app has been hands down the most useful purchase I've ever made in the software category.
As well I can relate to changing habits because of measuring sleep. I used it as a controlling device for experiment with dropping alcohol & coffee, for instance, and results were clear as day.
I charge it in the evening, when I'm relaxing reading or watching TV. I can usually get it to 100% before I go to bed. If not, I'll put it on the first time I wake up to urinate that night.
By the time it gets to the next evening, it is usually at 55-65%.
If I forget to charge it in the evening (e.g, I fall asleep while reading or watching TV), it would probably make it fine to the next evening. In those cases, though, I'll stick it on the charger while I shower and have breakfast. That's more than enough to ensure no problem getting to the evening.
* It automatically calculates what time you need to go to bed if you're running a sleep deficit. (And it calculates how much of a sleep deficit or surplus you have.)
* Most useful of all, it gives me at least 1-2 days of early warning that I might be running a fever or flu - as I see my heart rate, which is usually quite consistent from night to night, leap 5 or 6 BPM over consecutive days.
This is especially important to know during the current outbreak. I can then do whatever I need to do early to shorten the length of whatever illness I might have (take vitamins/extra rest/fluids/etc.)
It also records a history, so you have a record of roughly when the fever starts and ends based on your heart rate, which you can then share with your doctor if necessary.
Basically the main things were:
- Avoiding alcohol at night entirely (and no more than 1 if it was a social event I felt like drinking at) - Running for at least 3 miles at about 70-80% max heart rate (or shorter distances with higher intensity) guarantees a night of at least 2.5 hours of deep sleep and up to 3.5 according to the app. Otherwise I average around 1 hour of deep sleep on a normal day. - I'm a type 1 diabetic so sleeping with my blood sugar at around 80 mg/dL means I get a full night of restful sleep. When I'm above 120 mg/dL I start losing quality sleep, and above 200 mg/dL I get no deep sleep and low amounts of quality sleep with a higher heart rate.
All these things before the app I had a gut feeling they were minor impacts on my sleep, but turns out they were incredibly impactful. Looking back at my time in college makes me wonder sometimes how much knowledge I didn't retain or learn due to poor sleep and health habits. Hindsight is 20/20 though.
You don't have to charge it, nor wear anything, which is why I got it vs. any of the wearables.
[0]: https://www.withings.com/mx/en/sleep
I used https://www.sleepcycle.com/ for a number of years while suffering sleepless nights.
It seemed accurate...but I had no way of verifying the quality of my sleep. I have heard this is difficult to do.
Eventually I got sick of paying the subscription and agonizing over my sleep data.
I spent probably six months practicing sleep hygiene (consistent schedule, limiting screen time, working out, etc) and removing myself from stressful environments. I was eventually was able to return to a decent schedule.
I also found speaking with a psychologist to be helpful here.
Hope your sleep improves.