Will you sleep with watch to track your sleep?

[GaresTaylan]

I think you're mixing up "relying" with "providing data." My CPAP machine only doesn't track movement (I think) and def. doesn't track heart rate action.

All I'd like the watch to do is give me data I can analyze. I can then aggregate that data with things like activity levels during the day, and what I spent the night doing (How does Game of Thrones affect my sleep). I analyze data for a living, so I'm of the belief that there is no such thing as too many data points.

The thing with conditions is, unless you see your doctor every week, your going to have to track a lot of the data yourself. If I see my sleep doc once a year, and there is an app that tracks a years worth of sleep data (even if it's not as accurate as the home sleep study kit) she can combine with the data off my CPAP machine, that's good.

Also, I'm having bariatric surgery this year and hope to go off the CPAP machine. The sleep data off a watch would be nice to have to monitor that.

Interesting. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[glxyjones]

But yet again, you haven't addressed the question:

If you wear this watch to sleep, and you end up with a bunch of data, what do you do with it to make your life any better? I'm not talking about taking it to a doctor; they have their own equipment for making diagnoses, and I don't understand why someone would want to shell out their own money to make the doctor's job easier or geekier - how does it serve YOU?

Like I mentioned earlier in the thread, it can be a great tool for knowing your sleep cycles. I've used an app that attempts to determine, based on movement, when you are in deep sleep and therefore, when to (and when not to) wake you. You give it a time period when you want to get up (along with an "absolute latest" time) and during that period it will attempt to determine when the best time to wake you based on your sleep cycle. The app has its flaws since you have to sleep with the iPhone under your pillow and could accidentally be affected by your sleep partners movements. Having a device on your wrist that could better detect just your movements along with your pulse could be much more accurate.

 

[jonfarr]

Don't you suppose that some jobs are probably best left to medical professionals?

So it sounds like you would rather wait to hear from a Doctor that you had cancer instead of using a product that might lead to earlier detection. Good theory.

 

[Tomorrow]

I don't understand why giving my doctor better data over a prolonged period is a bad thing?

I'm not against my doctor having better data on me; I'm just against buying the equipment with my own money. If you go in for a checkup, do you bring in your own sphygmomanometer? Do you own your own x-ray machine, in case you ever, you know, need your insides photographed?

So it sounds like you would rather wait to hear from a Doctor that you had cancer instead of using a product that might lead to earlier detection. Good theory.

Calm now, this thing doesn't detect cancer.

What I'm saying is, if I'm going to have my doctor run tests, I don't want to shell out for the equipment she's going to need to run them.

 

[sterl320]

what is sleep tracking for, anyway?

 

[Brammy]

I'm not against my doctor having better data on me; I'm just against buying the equipment with my own money. If you go in for a checkup, do you bring in your own sphygmomanometer? Do you own your own x-ray machine, in case you ever, you know, need your insides photographed?

Well, obviously I'm not buying it *just* to track my sleep (although, oddly enough I do own my own sphygmomanometer). I am buying it for better overall fitness. As a part of the bariatric surgery I'm having this year, the overlap between things I need to track and what the watch tracks is pretty decent. I'm also tracking steps, workouts, general activity. While my iPhone tracks a lot of this, by its nature it only works if I have my iPhone with me. My hope is with my watch strapped to my wrist, I'll have a better idea how many steps I actually take during the day.

Let me put it this way. I expect to own this watch for at least 1.5 years -- my feeling is the watch will be released on an iPhone cycle, with the new iPhone. Will I spend $400 over that year and a half to get a better handle on my overall health? Gladly.

 

[BSben]

what is sleep tracking for, anyway?

Now that is a very good question, I would love to know the benefits of sleep tracking, so far the only one I can think is cash for producers of such devices.

 

[Bbqthis]

On a different note, the sleep tracking ability is not built into Watch OS and there are no 3rd party apps in the watch App Store nor will there be until apple opens up the full API. The reason being, 3rd party developers do not have access to the watch's accelerometer or gyroscope, tools necessary for a sleep tracking app.

 

[Vanilla Face]

I'll be waiting for sleep cycle or equivalent. It'll be nice to wake up to a gentle tapping on my wrist when I'm in my lightest sleep. I don't really care about tracking.

 

[andyblila]

Nope. Use a fitbit.

 

[ftaok]

This is what I've been asking all along, and nobody seems to have a good answer.

But yet again, you haven't addressed the question:

If you wear this watch to sleep, and you end up with a bunch of data, what do you do with it to make your life any better? I'm not talking about taking it to a doctor; they have their own equipment for making diagnoses, and I don't understand why someone would want to shell out their own money to make the doctor's job easier or geekier - how does it serve YOU?

Having the data can be beneficial, but the data alone isn't all that useful. Sure, it's easy to wake up and gauge how you feel to determine if you had (or had not had) a good night's sleep.

The real benefit would be to track your sleeping pattern over a duration and to keep a log of your daily activity. Over time, you'll see patterns develop that will show what types of activities you do or don't do that lead to good sleep.

For instance, let's say that you typically have good sleep every night except Tuesday and Friday. And this is a consistent pattern that you observe. Then you can see if you're doing things on Tuesday and Friday that you don't do other nights. Perhaps those nights, you go to the gym. Or maybe those are the days that you eat lunch at McDonalds. Or whatever.

The point is that tracking your sleep can help you make lifestyle changes that can improve the quality of your sleep.

Could you do it without wearing a watch or sleep band? Sure, but you'd have to keep a running journal or spreadsheet to do what an app does automatically. If it's easy, you're more likely to follow through.

Anyways, that's the theory.

 

[plwebb]

The Apple Watch has to charge at some point so I'll charge mine at night and wear my Fitbit Charge to track my sleep.

 

[Tomorrow]

Having the data can be beneficial, but the data alone isn't all that useful. Sure, it's easy to wake up and gauge how you feel to determine if you had (or had not had) a good night's sleep.

The real benefit would be to track your sleeping pattern over a duration and to keep a log of your daily activity. Over time, you'll see patterns develop that will show what types of activities you do or don't do that lead to good sleep.

For instance, let's say that you typically have good sleep every night except Tuesday and Friday. And this is a consistent pattern that you observe. Then you can see if you're doing things on Tuesday and Friday that you don't do other nights. Perhaps those nights, you go to the gym. Or maybe those are the days that you eat lunch at McDonalds. Or whatever.

The point is that tracking your sleep can help you make lifestyle changes that can improve the quality of your sleep.

Could you do it without wearing a watch or sleep band? Sure, but you'd have to keep a running journal or spreadsheet to do what an app does automatically. If it's easy, you're more likely to follow through.

Anyways, that's the theory.

This is a good answer. Thank you.

 

[sniffies]

Actually, sleep tracking analyse the movements and knows if you're sleeping or still partially awake. It also determinate the sleep quality (if you slept profoundly or not)

There's no app that can accurately analyze such things. It's still science fiction.

 

[d21mike]

Like others say it doesn't but how you gonna charge it ? When you wake up in day and you have to do your daily chores? Like workout or whatever the case it?

I have only had the watch 4 days but it charges really fast. I watch TV every night and I charge my watch to 100% before going to bed. I wake up with 85% charge. I put on my charging stand for about 30 minutes and back to 100% while getting ready. I don't think it is that big of a deal. But that is my usage pattern.

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Don't you suppose that some jobs are probably best left to medical professionals?

Not completely. The more you know about your own body and symptoms the better you are and the more help you can be to the medical professional.

Not sure why people are against technology helping with health diagnostics on this forum. Seems like a no brainer to me. Did you not see the last Apple Presentation about the Medical Community embracing this new technology and setting up studies to better track health issues. I think we are really just starting and things will get much better. I would like to be part of that growth.