Sleep tracker advice (such as Fitbit or Samsung watch)

[SleepMelb]

Hi there, 

Are there any good sleep tracker such as Fitbit or Samsung watch

Any personal experience?  

Thanks

[GuppyDRV]

I use the Oura ring. Of all the ones I’ve tried it most accurately reflects how I feel. It also tracks HRV, body temp and others. The dashboard is their week point as it lacks user functionality such as the ability to correlate events like Alcohol intake, travel, late night etc.... with your sleep data. They claim upgrades to their app and dashboard are in the works. 

I found the Fitbit to be less accurate and bulky but from a price standpoint a good device for entry level bio hacking.

GuppyDRV

[spirilis]

I got the Fitbit Charge 3 last weekend. So far it seems decent but I don't have a polysomnogram to compare against or whatnot. (That would be super cool to do)

It did show that I suffer from persistent lack of deep sleep, which might explain why I feel tired even with APAP therapy. I am working that angle now to see what improves it at least by the fitbit measure.

I like the water resistance of the charge 3 and the gorilla glass touchscreen. I wear it all day long maybe taking it off to charge when I shower.

[WhyMe]

I use the Fitbit charge 3 also.  It likely isn’t all that accurate regarding sleep stage - I doubt any of these devices that don’t Use EEG can be - but I do find it very useful for matching against the OSCAR charts to help determine if events are sleep/wake/junk or real apnea events.

[spirilis]

Anecdotally I have lined up the fitbit charge 3's transition out of deep sleep with what looks like a large breath (followed by several smaller breaths) on OSCAR. It was within 1 minute or so of matching.

[mesenteria]

I use the Gear 3 Sport from Samsung.  It seems to do a good job matching sleep onset and ejection from sleep with the timeline shown in OSCAR.  It shows 'restless', 'light', and 'motionless' as the three categories, or 'qualities', of sleep, and even shows 'actual hours' of sleep separate from the time I don my gear, turn out the lights, and lie still to fall asleep.

The Gear series of watches are paired with S-Health, the phone app that Samsung uses to manage watch functions.  That app was pretty thin on design and function two years ago, but they've improved it drastically since.

[foss]

I purchased an Apple iWatch 4 just after they became available last year. I had been using a Fitbit that I used in an Army fitness program. Prior to the Fitbit, I used a Polar watch and a Polar chest strap heart rate monitor (HRM). The chest strap monitor was very accurate as verified by my regular doctor. It traced my heart rate well and I used it while doing workouts on machines that could sync with the chest HRM.

The Fitbit Blaze wrist HRM did not track exercise heart rate as well as the chest HRM. It was only marginally tracking exercise heart rate. The iWatch 4 is very accurate and tracks with the chest HRM well.

An app on my iPhone that synced to the Fitbit measured sleep quality based on the Fitbit wrist HRM. It did not track well with my actual sleep experience nor the data from my Resmed A10.

The iWatch 4 synced to the Apple AutoSleep iPhone app seems to be very accurate and provides several graphical displays of heart rate and times in each of the sleep cycles.

It is worth consideration.

Thank you,
v/r
Jeff

[Cpapian]

I got a fitbit charge 2 about 14 months ago, for free, on points. I enjoyed using it for about 3 months and then got bored with it.

What I liked about it was learning a bit more about my sleep. At that time I was battling an insomnia problem and wanted to see if it could provide any answers. My sleep stages were better than average.

I liked that it tracked my exercise activities too.

What I didnt like was the strap was bulky and I got blisters on my wrist from the band.

It could have tracked my food intake, but I wasn't interested in that feature.

Also, I felt it was geared to young ins.

I consider it a toy for adults. I am glad I didn't pay anything for it.

[mesenteria]

...
What I didnt like was the strap was bulky and I got blisters on my wrist from the band.

It could have tracked my food intake, but I wasn't interested in that feature.

Also, I felt it was geared to young ins.

I consider it a toy for adults. I am glad I didn't pay anything for it.

I would guess that the heavy majority of us underutilize these devices, and I would be numbered among those dilettantes.  I'll be darned if'n I'm going to input every glass of water, juice, coffee, or calorie. 

My Samsung Gear has a very nice band, good quality...but...for one problem.  There's a slippery spot in one area that will cause me to develop a hot spot on my skin if I don't take the item into the shower with me and use an old toothbrush to clean the ridges and to get rid of sweat acids, skin cells, grunge, and schmutz (I am active and also garden).  I think the mix went bad on the batch of polymer that was used to make my strap, hence the 'slippery' spot unlike the rest of the band.  I think people forget that all things next-to-skin must be thoroughly cleaned periodically.

And yes, we older geezers do struggle a bit with newfangled things and ideas.  We need to fight the tendency to just let others do the 'heavy lifting', especially the younger in our familial circles.  I won't say it makes life easier 'cuz it don't, not with our diminishing capacities of all kinds, but some kind of resistance isn't going to be futile. 

I found the device to be useful mainly in helping me to be mindful.  I can spend hours at a computer and forget meals.  My Gear buzzes me haptically every 30 minutes and goads me to at least stand up and do five torso twists.  It also stands alone as a reminder for events which updates whenever I link it to my phone via Bluetooth. Things like getting the hoses running when our allotted watering times come every second day (we have water restrictions every summer due to absence of rainfall and because salmon need a cool flow in the local streams and rivers in order to breed).  It has a useful pedometer and tells me when I have climbed my minimum daily flights of stairs (10), and taken the minimum numbers of steps (12K).  Mine allows me to respond to text messages when my phone is tucked away or out of reach...again, Bluetooth.  I also get emails on it, and it has a voice reminder feature.

Many uses that, for me, made it a useful purchase.

[Eldon]

I use a Withings sleep mat.  It fits under your mattress.  This mat is the main reason I was able to get diagnosed with Sleep Apnea.  

it can listen for snoring, and even highlight breathing disturbances (with varying degrees of accuracy).  

It also attempts to map out deep/light/REM sleep, and heartbeat.  It's a great device, and Withings makes a ton of other biometic devices that all feed into the same Ecosystem.  Fitness trackers, Blood pressure cuffs, smart scales, etc.  Best fitness tracking company that no-one has ever heard of.  At least in my opinion.  

-E