Hello,
I would like to find the best sleep tracker home device possible. I understand that they will not match the sleep lab polysomnography, but I think that there are some things which a patient can do at home. My goal is to measure how well my sleep therapy is working. Does anyone have a recommendation?
From my research these seem to be the options:
1) Pulse oximetry (Contec CMS50) with Sleepyhead software.
2) Itamar-Medical WatchPAT. Rx Required and very expensive. Used for at home sleep studies.
3) Actiwatch from Phillips. Rx Required.
4) Wrist activity trackers (iWatch, Jawbone, Garmin, Fitbit, Basis, Misfit, Withings)
5) Contact-less activity trackers (Withings Aura, Beddit, and Luna)
6) SleepRate from Stanford
7) Smart phone apps (Sleepbot, SleepCycle, SnoreLab)
8) Smart CPAP machines like Philips Respironics tracking software
Thanks, Que
Thanks for the info, @Que! I'm asking because we've heard a variety of views on the wrist activity trackers. It seems that the general consensus is that a majority of the companies have some work to do, but there have been a few successful validation studies on the Fitbit's more recent devices. I know a number of people with Fitbits that love them, but admittedly don't use them much for sleep tracking.
Anybody else have any experiences?
I have used many including the The Sleep Sense,multiple apps etc. Right now I wear the jWbo e UP 3 because it wS on sale at Target for $45.00. The Sleep Dat is pretty accurate ND reply helped me see my habits after wearing for at least a month. Also, I use its vibrating function to wake me up in the morning and I set it during my sleep is periods in the day to vibrate if I M I active so I don't fLl back alseep etc. Lately, I have found I am having trouble falling asleep and the data alerted me to the fact that the hours I sleep weekly has de line and I've been wing up an average of 2 hours later eCh day so I am now looking into vibrating bed alRm because it is stronger. My sleep sense, I use for I found and it's smart alarm. I also stopped dusting sleep apps but find I use N app that. Calculates the best time to go to sleep and wake up etc. Be Use I find the if my arms are set to wKe me up during my lightest sleep, I cN be woken up by the Jawbone and or zleepsense, otherwise I cut wKe up.
My comment was regarding it's sleep function. The criticism is that it can't tell if you are asleep or awake properly solely through body movement. Some people are awake but not moving.
My ex perils that the Jawbone UP 3 absolutely can because of its Bility go monitor heat Rte where my Sleep Sense de ice next to my bed and attached to my pillow cannot. I mistakenly bought the Misfit Shine at first ND because of its small size etc. Ould not. My sense is the it depends on the model For e,Male the fitbit has to be a certain model like the Charge or the LT etc.
My experience with Jawbone was that it was useless for any real sleep tracking. There is no real scientific basis for their claims. The output is based on your movements, and even that isn't very accurate. Two examples: one time when I woke up from being cold, I sat up, pulled up the covers, and checked the clock. The next morning, Jawbone showed me in light sleep during that time. Another time, I accidentally knocked the Jawbone off my wrist and found it beside the bed the next morning. It said I was in deep sleep all night. The sleep function can only give you a general, broad idea of how active you are while sleeping and should not be used to address an actual medical condition such as sleep apnea.
@Kyle I have a fitbit (the kind that goes on your wrist), and by its self it is indeed useless for tracking. It always thinks I went to sleep hours after I actually did, and either I have a sleepwalking problem no one has ever noticed, or it keeps having hour+ long stretches in the middle of the night where it seems to think I was fully awake, but of which I've no memory.
Now, part of my problem is that I tend to be restless, so maybe I'm just not a good baseline, but suffice to say I was disappointed.
That said, I have found the fitbit useful as a supplement to manual sleep tracking. If I use the fitbit app or another sleep tracker app to manually clock in and out when I go to bed and wake up, once those times are entered into fitbit, it maps the motion it tracked onto the sleep record, so I have (giving fitbit some benefit of the doubt) an accurate record of when I was restless during that time.
There's an Android/iOS app I used to use called SleepBot, which I keep meaning to try going back to. It makes it easy to tap in/out of clocking your sleep, and a while back they added an option to have it track motion if you put it on your bed, and record sounds, so you can see if you snored (or if you said something weird in your sleep, I guess).
The main thing keeping me away from it is that I am trying to keep track of all my stats in one place, and even though the fitbit app isn't nearly as good, it syncs up with all my other fitbit data. As far as I know, sleepbot doesn't integrate with FB or anything else. If you're ok with a standalone app though, it might be worth checking out.
I got the app Motion/24. It is on my smartphone and seems to do a good job. I do not like the idea of keeping any electronic device near my head. Worried there could be a problem concerning emissions. COMMENTS WELCOME ON THIS!
It still gave a good diagram of my sleep...even though I had it nearer to my waist. Will try it once near head to see if there is a big difference.
I used the Sleeptracker watch several years ago, but it now needs a new battery. Looks like I have to send it back to company! Have to call about that. It gave a super print out. I compared it to my software and it was right on.
OK, it showed deep sleep during which Sleepyhead showed I had many OA events...so not a good judge of restorative sleep.
I haven't used but Sleepimage seems to collect detailed data. I don't think it is good for diagnosing sleep apnea.
The SleepImage CPC technology uses electrocardiogram (ECG) and accelerometer data to measure the effects of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems to determine sleep quality, objectively and accurately.
What is CPC? CPC is an algorithm that uses mathematical analysis to determine the synchronization between modulations of heart rate variability and respiration. The algorithm calculates the percent of stable sleep, presented as high frequency coupling (HFC), unstable sleep, presented as low frequency coupling (LFC) and wake/rapid eye movement, presented as very low frequency coupling (VLFC) in their respective spectral bands. Oscillations between stable and unstable sleep are expected within an intact system to modulate in 30 – 90 minute infra radian cycles that range from 5 – 16 cycles in an 8-hour sleep period and correspond to the alternating periods of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Disease states negatively impact this rhythm.
