A few months ago we wrote a post on how electronics in the bedroom can disturb and distract you from your sleep. But now, sleep trackers in phones and health gadgets are offering a way to use technology to monitor and perhaps improve your sleep habits.

That’s right—popular fitness devices like Fitbit and smartphone apps like Sleep Cycle are now providing functions that let you track, not only the number of hours you spend sleeping, but also how restful your slumber is. How useful and accurate are these devices, and how can they be used to improve your nightly routine?

So what exactly is a sleep tracker?

Sleep tracking functions are included with many multi-purpose fitness devices, like Fitbit and Jawbone Up. Such gadgets are loaded with other health-related capabilities, like exercise monitors, calorie counters, and food logs. Altogether, they emphasize a restful, revitalizing sleep routine and help to incorporate it into a healthy lifestyle. Other programs take advantage of your oft-used, all-in-one smartphone. Apps are as inexpensive as a few dollars or even free.

Both methods let you record your sleep on a nightly basis and monitor it over time, which can help you pick up patterns in your behavior.

How do they measure sleep quality?  

Many sleep trackers work under the principle of measuring an individual’s movement during the night to assess their sleep quality. They use embedded accelerometers to detect motion and correlate it to the user’s wakefulness or restlessness.

For instance, many fitness gadgets are worn clipped near the torso or on the wrist during sleep, so as to measure motions like rolling over or even just moving your arm. iPhone and Android apps require that the phone be kept in close proximity to the sleeping person so that it can measure shifting of the body and bed (this can create added complications, as it presents the temptation to use sleep-disturbing electronics in bed).

This method of determining slumber has its drawbacks. It can misinterpret fidgeting as wakefulness or wide-eyed contemplation as sleep. If the user doesn't sleep alone, the machine could mistakenly pick up the movement of a bed partner. At best, the process is inexact because it does not take into account factors like brain waves, breathing, and heart rate.

How can I use a sleep tracker to improve my nightly routine?

Sleep monitors are a great way to get an overall picture of the number of hours you sleep each night. You can then compare your habits to the CDC’s sleep duration guidelines to see if you’re catching enough zzzs, or if you should consider hitting the sack sooner.

A consistent record of your sleep behaviors over time can also help you discern telling patterns in your routines that might lead you to change your behavior. Do you tend to run on very little sleep for a while and then crash for days once your exhaustion is overwhelming? Does caffeine or a certain food tend to keep you up late into the night? Do periods of stress impact your ability to fall asleep? Gaining insight into your habits can help you correct the less healthy behaviors for a more restful night.

Finally, sleep trackers provide a great incentive to change your lifestyle for the better. If you know that you’re going to have to log your evening rest, you might rethink that 2:00 a.m. bedtime! Just the act of using the tracker means that you are becoming cognizant of your sleep practices and how they contribute to your overall health. Anything that inspires people to improve their health and recognize the importance of sleep is good in our book!

How can’t a tracker improve my sleep?  

However, sleep tracking phone apps and fitness devices have some serious limitations. They can’t tell you anything about your brain activity during sleep—meaning it’s dubious that they can distinguish certain phases, like REM sleep.  Also, if you have a breath-related disorder the device might not realize exactly how labored your sleep is.

Most importantly, such a device is not a substitute for a professional sleep test. A much more detailed polysomnograph (in-center sleep test) or a Home Sleep Test (HST) is needed to diagnose sleep disorders like sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome. These tests are conducted by a local sleep center, like Advanced Sleep Medicine Services. If you think you might have a sleep disorder, feel free to contact us for more information, or download our 5 Steps to Scheduling a Sleep Study below!

Have you used an app or fitness gadget to monitor your sleep? Comment and let us know what type, how it worked, and what insight it gave you!

Photo Credit: Doug Belshaw