Apple makes a point of its health and fitness features too, offering a dedicated subscription service called Fitness+ ($9.99 per month), a direct connection to the Health app in iOS, and several specific features (fall detection and arrhythmia detection, among others) for emergency health events. The Apple Watch (I used the Series 7) has set the standard for what the modern smartwatch can do, offering a mix of simple apps, the ability to receive and act on notifications from your phone, and to monitor your health and fitness.Sleep tracking devices are numerous, and there are several that don't even require you to wear anything at all, but the average person is most likely going to track their sleep for the first time through a device that offers tracking as just one of many features. But the real question should be: What can you do (and what do these trackers and services do) with the information you collect? To put the benefits of sleep tracking to the test, I spent two weeks wearing smartwatches from Google and Apple, and a smart ring from Oura, in the hopes of gaining some insight into my sleep, and just what nighttime self-surveillance actually gets you. Research suggests that tracking your sleep might actually be bad for some people in the long run. Now how useful that is to the average person will vary. The quantified self applied to when you’re moving the least. Sensors observing your movement, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and even body temperature all come together to offer a consistent view (though not necessarily a medically accurate one) of what last night's sleep looked like. That fitness band you use to track your runs? There’s a good chance it can give you some insight into your resting heart rate during last night’s slumber. Your new smartwatch can probably tell you how long you slept last night if you wear it to bed. Sleep tracking has become a bread-and-butter feature for wearable devices. A slightly more definitive, “data-driven” way of knowing how long you slept, how well you slept, and even how long you spent in each sleep stage. Do I feel tired today? When did I actually go to bed? It’s not exactly a foolproof system.Ĭonsumer-grade sleep tracking devices promise an alternative. Unless you’re participating in a sleep study, there’s no real way to know how you’ve slept other than conducting some personal inquiry.

Deep sleep apple watch