Sleep tracking questions

[ssledoux]

What exactly is monitored with the sleep tracking? I did it for the first time last night, and I got heart rate info and breathing info, along with sleep time. Does it go into more detail? Have any information about sleep apnea?

Just wondering if people use the installed app for this, or add another.

Thanks.

 

[ufgatorvet]

I have been using AutoSleep for a while now, and find the information it provides sometimes .... more than I need. Overall, I really like it and look at the app each day to see how I "did" last night.

It seems to work fairly well for the limited time I have used it; it will recognize middle of the night trips to the kitchen, etc and deduct those minutes from your actual sleep time. It will automatically start when it detects you are asleep so you don't have to necessarily activate it. It picks up on those unexpected mid afternoon naps when you doze off and didn't tell your watch you were going to sleep, and adds that to your daily sleep time. Overall, I find it useful, but YMMV.

It monitors heart rate, respiratory rate, "deep" sleep, "light" sleep, awake time lying in bed, sleep deficit, consistency in time going to bed, and waking and "morning readiness" - which I always get 1-2 stars (yep, higher is better).

I've always found the sleep tracking apps kind of a "black box". I mean, how can I verify I was in "deep sleep" at 2 am and "light sleep" at 4 am ... I can verify those 3 am munchie trips to the kitchen however, and for that, it doesn't lie.

 

[Tdude96]

I got AutoSleep about a year before Apple's sleep tracking came out, so haven't used Apple's version much. I do like the data AutoSleep provides. There's a lot you can dig into with it if you want, or you can just get a quick overview of how you slept.

Here are some of my stats from last night to give an idea of how information is displayed. Note it says I fell asleep in 0 minutes...that's because I didn't use the "Lights Off" button in the Watch app before going to bed. I used to use Lights Off every night, but it got buggy after upgrading to the S7, so I got out of the habit. It's not hugely important. I know I went to bed at ten after midnight last night, and it tracked sleep from 12:30, so I can guess well enough that it took about 20 minutes to fall asleep.

 

[philosopherdog]

i don't think there's any decent sleep tracking on the watch yet. check out some of the reseach posted to youtube. one of the better sleep trackers is the withings sleep mat. cheap, accurate, and you have nothing to wear. forget apple watch for sleep trackin. it's useless. btw way the data shows most third party apps are a total waste of time. don't bother. check out the quantified scientist on youtube. he has a lot of great info.

 

[TiggrToo]

i don't think there's any decent sleep tracking on the watch yet. check out some of the reseach posted to youtube. one of the better sleep trackers is the withings sleep mat. cheap, accurate, and you have nothing to wear. forget apple watch for sleep trackin. it's useless. btw way the data shows most third party apps are a total waste of time. don't bother.

For you possibly. For others it's a valuable insight into their lives.

It's not a medical grade device for sure, but I've found it very useful in explaining exhaustion that always kicks in 2-3 days after any night where I've had an awful nights sleep. So much so that I can now "plan" for it.

 

[retrocool]

i don't think there's any decent sleep tracking on the watch yet. check out some of the reseach posted to youtube. one of the better sleep trackers is the withings sleep mat. cheap, accurate, and you have nothing to wear. forget apple watch for sleep trackin. it's useless. btw way the data shows most third party apps are a total waste of time. don't bother. check out the quantified scientist on youtube. he has a lot of great info.

Can you give us the name of this youtube channel? I'm interested to take a look. Cheers!

 

[ericg301]

I was a diehard AutoSleep user for many years and often recommended it, but towards the end of last year, I found myself overwhelmed with the data and obsessed with the calibration (I would change the calibration to reflect the sleep I thought I got, vs what I actually got). So I delete it and have been using the built-in sleep tracking ever since.

By design, it's not nearly as complex. It just gives me an overview of my night and makes it easy to track trends. And unless you are being treated for a specific, diagnosed sleep issue, the trend tracking is more valuable than a deep dive on each individual night.

There's a lot of sleep apps in the app store, and most of them make outrageous claims that can't possibly be backed up (like REM or deep sleep) by a wrist-based device that can only track heart rate, respiration, and movement. And despite all of those apps, they all use the same data captured by the watch—they can't change the frequency of data capture. So the only difference is how they interpret and display that data.

 

[baypharm]

I like the sleep tracking on the Samsung watch better than AW. It records audio (breathing) to my phone - along with heart rate and oxygen saturation data (set up to record every 10 minutes). Additionally, it gives me a good picture of the usual: REM, deep, light, etc. The audio clearly records my breathing in 60 second sound bites. It’s not something you want to listen to every day obviously, but if you experienced health or respiratory issues it could help in narrowing it down.

 

[Night Spring]

There's a lot of sleep apps in the app store, and most of them make outrageous claims that can't possibly be backed up (like REM or deep sleep) by a wrist-based device that can only track heart rate, respiration, and movement.

I think differences between REM and deep sleep can be quite accurately tracked by a device that can make all those measurements. I mean, you can tell when your dog or cat is in REM sleep just by looking at them twitching. There may be other claims sleep apps make that are outrageous, but telling apart REM and deep sleep is actually one of the more simpler things sleep trackers do.

 

[ericg301]

I think differences between REM and deep sleep can be quite accurately tracked by a device that can make all those measurements. I mean, you can tell when your dog or cat is in REM sleep just by looking at them twitching. There may be other claims sleep apps make that are outrageous, but telling apart REM and deep sleep is actually one of the more simpler things sleep trackers do.

REM sleep can’t be measured without brainwaves.

 

[Night Spring]

REM sleep can’t be measured without brainwaves.

Well, it can't be CONFIRMED without brainwaves, but there are physiological signs that correspond with being in that state.

 

[thegrants82]

REM sleep can’t be measured without brainwaves.

Wrong

 

[seatton]

I rely more on the Apple Watch native tracking data now. The only thing that annoys me is that when I nap during the day (even though I activate the "Sleep" mode on the watch), the watch will not detect the hours I nap. I hope there is a better update to the software this year.

 

[PaladinGuy]

I’ve honestly been very unimpressed with almost all of the third party sleep tracking apps for the Apple Watch. I can only guess that the low sampling frequency of the Apple Watch makes it less possible to get good estimates. SleepWatch is one of the better ones in my opinion. I like it’s UI pretty well, and it actually tries to interpret things more for users and give some practical feedback. In terms of their sleep scores, I’m not sure how I feel about them after trying the full version of the app.

Personally, I find the UI for AutoSleep and Sleep++ to be awful. It’s just too much thrown at you and not arranged well. On top of that, I find that basic stuff is usually wrong.

To each their own here. Those are just my opinions.

 

[philosopherdog]

Can you give us the name of this youtube channel? I'm interested to take a look. Cheers!

quantified scientist is the youtube channel. far as i know no watch app or ios app is anywhere close to reliable. i'm using the withings mat which is very decent and inexpensive. highly recomment it.

 

[philosopherdog]

I’ve honestly been very unimpressed with almost all of the third party sleep tracking apps for the Apple Watch. I can only guess that the low sampling frequency of the Apple Watch makes it less possible to get good estimates. SleepScore is one of the better ones in my opinion. I like it’s UI pretty well, and it actually tries to interpret things more for users and give some practical feedback. In terms of their sleep scores, I’m not sure how I feel about them after trying the full version of the app.

Personally, I find the UI for AutoSleep and Sleep++ to be awful. It’s just too much thrown at you and not arranged well. On top of that, I find that basic stuff is usually wrong.

To each their own here. Those are just my opinions.

actually it's not just an opinion. people have tested these things. check quantified scientist on youtube. he does refiews of sleep tracking apps. none are any good

 

[philosopherdog]

REM sleep can’t be measured without brainwaves.

can't be measured super accurately. but there are devices such as withings sleep mat that get pretty close