Tracking Sleep: Is It Worth It?

Due to the growing awareness of the importance of sleep, sleep tracking devices have surged in popularity. There are now so many different types of devices and technologies on the market for monitoring your sleep. And all come with the promise of improving your rest time and general wellbeing.

But do they really work? Read on to learn about different types of sleep trackers and what information they can provide.

Types of sleep tracking devices

 There are three main technologies available:

1. Wearables

Wearables are, as the name would suggest, wearable. Typically, you wear them around your finger or around your wrist like a watch. They collect data about your movement, heart rate (collected via your pulse) and breathing. These days, many of the wearable smartwatches also allow you to track other things like your diet and exercise. 

2. Bedside devices

Bedside devices sit next to your bed and can collect data like movement and breathing. They can also collect information about the room, such as temperature, humidity, noise and light.

3. Bed sensors

These devices are placed under your sheets or mattress. They collect information about your movement and heart rate, as well as data about the environment, such as humidity and temperature. Many “smart beds” now come with these types of sensors built in. 

What can sleep tracking record?

1. Heart rate

Heart rate tracking measures when you’re asleep or awake, and what stage of sleep you're in, by measuring changes in your heart rate. 

When you fall asleep, your heart rate slows down. However, when you're in REM sleep, your heart rate increases.

Wearable devices use personal heart rate monitors to measure your heart rate, while devices that don’t touch the skin, such as bed sensors, use a technology called ballistocardiography, which measures your heart rate by monitoring your movement. 

2. Movement

Wearable sleep trackers measure movement through actography, while bedside sensors can measure movement through accelerometer or other motion sensors. 

Body movement is a good indicator of sleep, because while we may move positions during our sleep, we generally move much less than when we’re awake. By measuring movement, sleep trackers can determine how restful or restless your night was. 

3. Sleep stages

Using the two technologies above, sleep trackers can track when, and for how long, you’re in each sleep stage. Using this data, sleep trackers can schedule your alarm to go off when you're in a light stage of sleep, so you don’t wake up feeling groggy. 

4. Temperature

The ideal temperature for restful sleep is about 18 degrees celsius. Many sleep trackers include a thermostat to monitor your bedroom temperature, so you can make adjustments for a more comfortable sleep environment. 

5. Noise

Some sleep trackers include a microphone to capture noise, including ambient noise that might be interfering with your sleep, and the noise of breathing and snoring. This can be a good way to bring awareness to disorders like sleep apnea. 

Blood oxygen & sleep apnea

Some of the more sophisticated trackers can now even collect data about your blood oxygen levels. Many smartwatches now include pulse oximeters that use red and infrared lights sensors to measure the volume of oxygen in your blood, based on the way the light passes through your skin!

A dip in oxygen levels during sleep can be a sign of sleep apnea, so this information can be helpful for recognising a potential problem.

Do sleep trackers work?

The great thing about sleep trackers is that they provide helpful information about your sleep habits and the activities associated with your sleep routine. For example, sleep trackers can help you identify the optimal time to hit the hay, or the best bedroom temperature for getting a good night’s rest.

However, sleep trackers do not measure sleep directly. They can only measure the activities, such as movement and heart rate, that indicate patterns in sleep. And therefore, are merely estimates. For a direct measure of sleep, you’d need to conduct a medical sleep study to measure your brain waves.  

It’s important to remember that sleep trackers are a developing technology, so take any information they provide with a grain of salt. And if you’re finding that sleep tracking is merely making you more anxious about your sleep (or lack of it), then it’s probably not right for you.

If you’re experiencing persistent disruptions to your sleep, consult with a pharmacist or trusted medical professional to discuss possible solutions.

Any advice provided in this content is of a general nature and does not take into account your objectives, health or needs. The information in this post is not intended to substitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be exclusively relied on to diagnose or manage a medical condition. You need to consider the appropriateness of any information or general advice we give you, having regard to your personal situation, before acting on our advice or purchasing any over-the-counter sleep product.