(Note: They did not have access to my sleep rate data until after they showed me the data from the PSG.)įor the most common measures-sleep stages, quality, and total time-most of the devices were fairly accurate. The Sleeprate scientists are the ones who hooked me up to the PSG. The Sleeprate: A new heart rate chest strap device that purports to be the cutting edge of consumer sleep devices.The Fitbit, Nike Fuelband, and Misfit Shine are its closest competitors. ![]() The Jawbone Up: My all-purpose representative for the list of wrist-based movement trackers.It is the only popular consumer technology to measure both REM (which restores the mind) and deep sleep (which restores the body). The Basis: Represents a wrist device with a resting heart rate monitor.Lab: The polysomnograph, the benchmark for the other three.Here's a key to understand the graph of accuracy: It turned out that for me, most sleep trackers were fairly accurate for both total sleep and the stages of sleep. It took over an hour to hook myself up to the laboratory-grade equipment, which made me look like I’d just auditioned to be the stunt double in a Wolverine flashback scene.īelow are graphs with the most important results. Unlike wrist, waist, and phone apps that estimate sleep from movement, a PSG uses sensors to measure every known aspect of sleep: skull electrodes measure brain waves, eye patches track rapid eye movement, fingertip sensors measure blood oxygen, and limb sensors measure sleep paralysis. ![]() To put these devices to the test, I compared the most popular consumer sleep tracking gadgets to the gold standard in laboratory sleep equipment, a polysomnograph (PSG). But various reports show that sleep trackers and apps can be wildly inaccurate-off by an hour or more. To capitalize on America's desire for more shut-eye, many health trackers have added automatic sleep monitoring to help users gauge length and quality. Not good-sleep deprivation is associated with decreased alertness, cognitive impairment, stress, maintenance of body fat, and a litany of more severe health problems. Less than half of Americans meet the recommended sleep goal of seven or more snoozing hours.
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