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Originally Posted by tvp2003
I’m intrigued about the sleep tracking benefits. Once you establish your “baseline” are there specific and/or customized ways to improve your overall level or quality of sleep?
It hasn’t been an issue per se but happy to look at options that might help (thanks to CP I ended up getting a better pillow which has been well worth it IMO).
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At first, the benefits of sleep tracking is really just determining if you can quantify why you had a crappy day.
After a while, you mainly use it to determine when you went to sleep/woke up and whether you should sleep earlier.
Then later on, you determine whether minor tweaks to your sleep (pillows, blankets, temperature etc.) actually benefited sleep quality.
I've tried around a dozen activity trackers ranging from random brands to Apple Watches and Sports ones like Suunto. What annoys me to no end is that many are larger and clunkier, constantly flicker/make you check it at night, questionable accuracy and are expensive.
The best overall sleep tracking I used to have was with the Jawbone 3 (discontinued). It's so small and light with no interface and not as clunky as most other activity trackers and I only had to charge it once a week or two. I also liked that it had a vibrating alarm. Unfortunately the bluetooth kept failing on it until it wasn't really usable, but it lasted like 3 years.
The next best sleep tracker was my phone. I installed sleep cycle (not sure the price and add on costs now) and just positioned the phone nearby. It tracks sleep either via motion (if on your mattress) or sound (less accurate). I found with this app on, I was far less likely to use my phone at night. Two other bonuses was that I could pair it up with a Hue light as a gentle light alarm as well as intelligent snooze/wake up which meant that I was less likely to be groggy when I woke up.
https://www.sleepcycle.com/how-sleep-cycle-works/
The Fitbit sleep tracker attributes aren't bad and some benefits providers like Manulife are willing to offer discounts for you to acquire one. IMO one of the best balance between value, accuracy and unobtrusive at night at the moment.