Today’s health-conscious consumer has many options for tracking the quantity and quality of their sleep. Unfortunately, approximately one-third of Americans don’t get enough sleep or consistent, high-quality sleep. Not only does sleep deprivation lead to grogginess and difficulty concentrating the next day, but it can also cause severe or chronic health issues. Some of the most common ones include cancer, diabetes, depression, heart disease, and hormone imbalance.
Tracking Sleep Patterns Helps People Get to the Root of the Problem
Although much of the conventional sleep advice such as going to bed earlier, sleeping in a dark room, and eliminating stimulants and screen time before bed is helpful, it doesn’t go far enough for people with truly problematic sleep patterns. Before they can fix the problem, they need to know what’s wrong. Sleep trackers can provide numerous helpful details such as total hours slept, whether sleep was restful or fitful, number of times awake during the night, and much more.
Fitbit Versa
Fitbit is a well-known name in the activity and sleep tracking industry. Versa, its newest release, offers several improvements over its previous versions. Worn on the wrist like a watch, the Fitbit Versa offers these benefits:
- Shows a breakdown of all sleep stages and the time spent in each, including awake time, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep
- Ability to compare to user’s 30-day average and averages for people of the same age and gender
- Set goal insights before going to sleep
- Vibrating reminders can help people improve their sleep pattern
Known drawbacks of this model include occasional slow syncing and inaccurate sleep cycle information.
Oura Ring
As one of the most expensive sleep trackers with a price range between $300 and $1,000, the Oura Ring offers Android and iOS capability. Although it doubles as an activity tracker, its sleep-related features include:
- Tracking of a deep sleep, REM sleep, and total sleep
- Measures sleep tranquility and efficiency
- Measures the amount of time it takes to fall asleep from the moment the user’s head hits his or her pillow
- Measures body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate
It can take some time for users to understand how to use these functions correctly. The cost, which comes mostly from wanting to decorate the device, can also add up in a hurry.
Beddr Sleep Tuner
The Beddr Sleep Tuner is a newer, feature-rich device that people can use as a wearable device or an iOS app. Although its price is comparable or lower than other sleep trackers, the Beddr Sleep Tuner is the only one to be FDA-registered. Some of the other features of this sleep tool include:
- Creates graphs showing the user’s oxygen levels
- Tracking the number of times the user stops breathing per hour
- Tracks sleep duration, position, and heart rate
- Focused only on sleep tracking to help preserve battery life
Some early reports indicate that users struggle with data connectivity issues and lost data. A quick call to customer service should help to resolve that issue.
These are just three of the many sleep trackers on the market today. Reading online reviews and asking for recommendations from friends and family members can help people choose which one is right for them.
Leave a Reply