How tracking tech is revolutionising rest
Michael Irving
STACK Writer
Sleep is a vital part of your health, and new tech can track your sleep patterns to help you develop healthier habits. It’ll make sleep analysis so easy you can do it… well, in your sleep!
At a glance
Why sleep is crucial to good health
Types of sleep trackers
Calculating a 'Sleep Score'
How to improve your sleep score
Other sleep solutions
Sleep well
Sleep is crucial for our overall health – not just for keeping us alert during the day, but it’s when your brain solidifies memories, your body heals and grows, and your immune system works harder. Sleeping poorly, especially long-term, can raise your risk of all kinds of health problems.
Sleep on it
The most familiar option for sleep tracking tech is the smartwatch, but other emerging wearable sleep trackers include earbuds and rings.
If you prefer not to wear anything to bed, some devices slide under your pillow or mattress and monitor your sleep from there.
Scoring in your sleep
Sleep trackers generally work by monitoring your heart rate overnight, and using motion sensors to check how much you’re moving around. Some track more advanced metrics like body temperature, respiration, and blood oxygen levels.
This data lets trackers figure out how long you take to fall asleep, how often you wake up, and how long you spend in different stages, like light or deep sleep. You’ll usually be given a “Sleep Score” that ranks how restful your night was on a scale of 1-100.
With long-term use, trends become clearer, giving a more complete picture of your sleep health – and what aspects might need work.
Some trackers can also pick up signs of disorders such as sleep apnea. That alone shouldn’t be taken as a formal diagnosis of course, so discuss promptly with your doctor.
Better bedtimes
Sleep Score needs improvement? Stick to a routine – try to go to sleep and get up around the same time every day, even on weekends. Avoid caffeine too late in the day, and don’t forget to fit some physical activity in too.
Night watch
Sleep tracking is becoming a standard feature of new smartwatches, providing detailed analytics on the quality of your kip and progress reports via companion apps.
Watches monitor sleep cycles using accelerometers to detect motion, and heart rate, skin temperature and respiration data is also tracked to determine overall sleep quality.
Analyse this
A mattress-based sleep analyser is a good alternative if you don't fancy wearing a watch in bed. This discreet device uses sensors for advanced sleep tracking and can generate a shareable sleep health report.
Suitable for most mattress types and thicknesses, you'll forget it's even there.
Sleep right
If you have trouble falling asleep or regularly experience restless nights, there are a range of sleep products that use sound and ambience to help send you into the land of nod for the most restful and uninterrupted slumber.
These gentle sound devices mask (or block) any disruptive noise that may be disturbing your sleep and could be a game-changer for restless sleepers.
Another option are hearing protection earplugs that use two-stage acoustic filters to reduce high and low frequency sound – similar to noise-cancelling earbuds, which are also an alternative to help you nod off.
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