Sleep tracking is becoming more and more of a topic of discussion and you read all the time that you’re not getting enough sleep. In fact, the average leader gets around 6.5 hours of sleep according to a study by CMOE . The average amount needed for a typical adult is around 7-9 hours. The 6.5 might be enough, but the sleep tracking devices and apps can help us determine the quality of that sleep.
Pillow.com recently tested several sleep devices and apps to find the best sleep tracking device or app . The Pillows team wore a few devices and then used apps on a couple of phones. The devices they wore were the Fitbit Flex, the Jawone UP, the Pebble watch (this was used in conjunction with the Sleep by Andriod app). The apps they used were the Sleep Cycle iOS app and the Sleepbot Android app.
All of these devices and apps were used for 3 nights. These same three nights were recorded with a camera. Observations were taken from this camera footage and compared to the data from the apps and devices.
The graph shown above is a screenshot of the data from night 2 of the study. The original article shows an interactive graph where you can select which devices you want to compare. The gray dots on the horizontal axis show movement that was observed on the camera. The interactive version shows details when you hover those dots as to what the actual movement was.
Most of the devices and apps are fairly consistent and do a decent job at tracking sleep. The top two are probably the Pebble with the Sleep as Android app and the Sleep Cycle iOS app. These two seem to be the most consistent with the actual observed movement.
If you’re looking for more detailed reports and comparisons, you might want to use the Sleep Cycle iOS app as Pillows.com reports this at having the best reports. The reports include information on sleep quality, time in bed and also activity (steps) and the effect on sleep quality.
However, if you want the most accurate for tracking your movement, you may want to lean toward the Pebble watch paired with the Sleep by Android app. One nice thing about this app is that is allows you to compare multiple nights of sleep graphs to each other to better understand your sleep quality over time. Lastly, this is the only one that reports REM sleep cycles, which is vital when evaluating sleep quality.
Everybody will have their preference and if you’re looking for tracking activity and steps throughout the day, the best fit may be the FitBit. The FitBit seems to be the best overall fitness tracker and it seems to do a good job at tracking sleep, as well, according to this study.
These sleep tracking devices are always evolving and changing and there are several more products out there. One that I’m excited about is the Sense from hello . It seems like it tracks a bit more than the average device/app currently on the market, which adds clarification to what might be affecting your sleep patterns and interupptions.
Whatever the device you choose, be sure to track other variables like what you eat, how much you move throughout the day and what your pre-sleep activities are. The more time you track and develop a history, the more you’ll be able to discover.
Let us know what sleep tracking device you use and recommend in the comments below!
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