My wife has been using a FitBit Charge for several years. It finally bit the dust and I'm looking for a replacement.

If you use a sleep tracker, what kind do you use, and what do you like / not like about that model?

EDIT: Poking around Amazon, I just saw the Motiv Ring.

Does anybody have any experience with these?

I have no idea how accurate it is, but I use an app on my phone called Sleep Cycle. It listens to you sleep and tracks the quality that way. Again, not sure how accurate, but it does change night to night and I find it interesting to track. And it's free.

My Gear Fit watch tracks sleep and parses it pretty finely. I find it really useful.

Bruce

Wife and I are Fitbit Alta HR users here. That model is no longer available but if it dies I’ll buy the replacement. Really like the way Fitbit monitors and classifies the sleep cycles. It was very helpful in identifying ways to improve my sleep on overseas trips.

I wear a Garmin Tactix Charlie watch that does everything. It’s a little pricey, but so far it’s been bulletproof. Tracks sleep better than when I had a Fitbit 2 years ago.

I played with an app for my iPhone and Apple Watch for one night. At first it seemed cool, until I realized they wanted to sign me up for a subscription and upload my info to their servers just to get actually, you know, tracking. I deleted it.

I know when I'm sleeping well and when I'm not, so I didn't see the point.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

I played with an app for my iPhone and Apple Watch for one night. At first it seemed cool, until I realized they wanted to sign me up for a subscription and upload my info to their servers just to get actually, you know, tracking. I deleted it.

I know when I'm sleeping well and when I'm not, so I didn't see the point.

Sleep++ is an Apple Watch / iThing app that gets pretty good ratings. Free. I used it for a while, I don't remember any requirement to upload information to their servers. I sort of petered out on it, much like you, I don't really see a need to track my sleep.

My wife likes to track her sleep though. I suggested this app to her, but she really does not want to wear her Apple Watch at night. She uses it during the day, so it's on the charger at night.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
My wife likes to track her sleep though. I suggested this app to her, but she really does not want to wear her Apple Watch at night. She uses it during the day, so it's on the charger at night.

I used to do the same. Then it occurred to me that if the security system went off in the middle of the night I'd have no way of knowing what caused it w/o going all the way to the other side of the house. Enter Apple Watch

What I found was these watches charge very quickly. If it's under 70% or so before we're ready to call it a night I drop it on the charger before going to bed. Then drop it back on the charger when I get up. I'm retired, now, but I think there would have been enough time in my morning-go-to-work regimen for this to work.

I'm not using a sleep-tracking app, but I do like to do the breathing exercise before drifting off and it's nice to see what my resting heart rate was over night. (47, last night. Not bad for an Old Guy .)

quote:

Originally posted by 1gkek:

Wife and I are Fitbit Alta HR users here. That model is no longer available

It seems that Amazon will be getting a shipment of these, available June 27, 2019. With Prime two-day shipping, it would be delivered on Monday, July 1.

Price varies from around seventy-five bucks to over one hundred twenty, depending on color choice. Fuschia is the least expensive, very good because my wife likes pink / purple stuff, so I'm going to order it for her.

For the guys who don't like fuschia, you could still order it and toss the band; replacement bands are available for ten bucks, or a multi-band pack for less than fourteen bucks, so fuschia with a replacement band would be the least expensive way to go.

What do you do with this info?


(Says the guy who in part bought his fit bit years ago just for this (LOL), with a lifetime of sleep disorders)

But seriously, what do you do with it? So I know I'm sleeping poorly... and?

if you're diagnosed with sleep apnea your unit will take care of business; score, sleep time, mask seal (leaks), events (apneas per hour aka AHI).

quote:

Originally posted by cas:

What do you do with this info? (Says the guy who in part bought his fit bit years ago just for this (LOL), with a lifetime of sleep disorders)

But seriously, what do you do with it? So I know I'm sleeping poorly... and?

I do nothing, because it's not for me, it's for my wife.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what she does with the information other than look at it when it syncs to her iPhone, but she likes having one, so I will get one for her. Just like I like having a few firearms and she doesn't really understand why, or what I do with them, but she doesn't question the fact that I like having them.

I have a Sleep Number I8 bed (discontinued as they went to the 360 models) that tracks sleep.

I also use a Garmin Vivoactive 3 that tracks my sleep. The bed tracks what it thinks is restful and unrestful sleep while the Garmin breaks my sleep down in to REM, light, and deep sleep.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
I have no idea how accurate it is, but I use an app on my phone called Sleep Cycle. It listens to you sleep and tracks the quality that way. Again, not sure how accurate, but it does change night to night and I find it interesting to track. And it's free.

I use it too. I’m not sure if the sleep quality number it assesses is accurate, but I do notice the alarm function tends to wake me up much more gently.

My wife and I use the Pillow app on our Apple Watches and it seems to be pretty accurate. It tracks Rem, Light and Deep sleep and heart rate during the night. It was recommended by her cardiologist.

Garmin Vivoactive 3 music here- and a cpap. The watch does just as good a job as the machine which specializes in it, I’ve compared the printout from the cpap to my watch readings.

Since she has the apple watch, she could just use that and charge it while having breakfast or lunch perhaps.

I know this thread is a bit old but been doing research on sleep and here we are.

I recently got a Polar Grit-X for Christmas like P220 and his thread .

I find the sleep data pretty accurate.
My wife's Fitbit doesn't have near the data the Polar does.

In my short week plus use I have been comparing the sleep to how active, how I feel and my ave Heart Rate for the period following the sleep period.
Trying to improve my sleep is improving my day.
I have noted (not that you need a device to know this) that going to bed earlier, having some prior exercise that day day an less alcohol or caffeine (particularly later in the day) can make for better sleep.
I also learned that the quality not the quantity is more important.

The Polar give you a "score" of your sleep and it seems pretty accurate.

Something I saw one night that rather interesting.
One night was going well sleep wise ~ the whole period HR was in very low 60's the wham it hit a spike to 138 for a minute or two then back down to the 60's.
Never happened before or after.
It was during a REM cycle when you dream and my guess it was in a dream and I do recall being in a gun battle in a dream sequence, and I must have been watching something on TV similar earlier to trigger this.
I must have survived but thought that was interesting.
Of course it may be related to something else too... just a guess.

Anyway the use of my new Polar is what prompted me to update on this thread.

Anyone else study their sleep?

I've got an outdated Fitbit Blaze. It frequently for whatever reason doesn't gather detailed data. Fitbit also charges extra for some features such as viewing your heart rate while sleeping.

In addition to that, the notification feature is frequently glitchy, when it works at all, and is clunky to clear when many notifications have built up.

Given those deficiencies, I don't think I'll go with a Fitbit product when it's time for replacement.

Ok, I read the whole thread. Best question asked and he received no answer. Let’s say you get a wonderful printout of your sleep. It compiles daily, weekly, monthly. In color. What the fuck do you guys do with this information. Information with no real purpose is trivia. Do you just like to tell the significant other how much REM you crushed the other day?

If you actually have sleep disorders then go to a doctor.

I’ve never understood this fixation on sleep tracking. Of course I think tracking your steps is retarded as fuck as well. I literally watched a guy at work bumping his Fitbit thingy. “Whatchoo doing”. “Getting in my steps”. Fml

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Ok, I read the whole thread. Best question asked and he received no answer. Let’s say you get a wonderful printout of your sleep. It compiles daily, weekly, monthly. In color. What the fuck do you guys do with this information. Information with no real purpose is trivia. Do you just like to tell the significant other how much REM you crushed the other day?

If you actually have sleep disorders then go to a doctor.

I’ve never understood this fixation on sleep tracking. Of course I think tracking your steps is retarded as fuck as well. I literally watched a guy at work bumping his Fitbit thingy. “Whatchoo doing”. “Getting in my steps”. Fml

Presumably, you won't necessarily know if you have sleep disorders, so tracking your sleep can get you an idea if you have minor issues you can and should work on by yourself, like adjusting when you go to sleep, lowering the afternoon caffeine intake, etc., or if it looks like you've got bigger problems going on and it's time to bring the issues to your doctor.

I don't have sleep issues, but I do pay attention to the overall trend and do make adjustments based on what the trends indicate.

As for tracking steps, different people find different value in that knowledge. I work mainly in an office, so it's a good reminder to me to get out of the office and walk around more. The device I have tracks heart rate, average pace, and a few other parameters which are helpful to optimize the exercise I do manage to get.

Clearly when used in the manner of the person you referenced, the step count is worthless. It's just a tool you can choose to use or choose not to use, and it's only useful if you don't cheat while using said tool.