Sleep Tracking Apps: Effective Or Just A Fad?

Sleep tracking apps are designed to help users better understand their sleeping patterns. They can collect a lot of information about sleep habits, including sleep duration and quality, and can provide valuable insights and recommendations. However, it's important to note that these apps don't directly measure sleep. Instead, they often rely on measuring inactivity and movement to estimate sleep patterns. While they can be useful tools for monitoring sleep, they may not always be completely accurate, and it's recommended to consult a health professional if you have concerns about your sleep.

Limitations of sleep tracking apps

Sleep tracking apps have gained popularity due to their accessibility and ease of use. However, they have several limitations and concerns:

Inaccurate Measurements

Sleep tracking apps often rely on measuring inactivity as a surrogate for estimating sleep. They make guesstimates about the user's sleep, which may not always be accurate. For example, they might not differentiate between a person who is sleeping and one who is temporarily paralysed during sleep and thus not moving. They also cannot accurately detect different sleep stages, such as REM sleep, without specialised equipment.

Lack of Empirical Evidence

Many sleep apps lack empirical evidence to support their claims. Some apps base their effectiveness on studies with significant methodological limitations, such as a lack of control groups or small sample sizes.

Data Privacy Concerns

Sleep apps often collect sensitive user data, including sleep habits and location, and share this information with business and marketing partners without the user's knowledge. This raises ethical concerns, as most users do not read the privacy policies and are unaware that their data is being shared.

False Positives and Increased Healthcare Engagement

The use of sleep apps may lead to an increase in false positives, where the app indicates a potential sleep issue that does not actually exist. This could result in unnecessary strain on healthcare services as users seek clarification or further analysis from professionals.

Environmental and Lifestyle Factors

Sleep tracking apps may not always take into account environmental and lifestyle factors that can affect sleep, such as caffeine intake, stress levels, bedroom temperature, and light conditions. These factors can significantly impact sleep quality and duration, and their omission may lead to inaccurate assessments.

Wearable sleep tracking devices

Wearable sleep-tracking devices are a great way to learn about your sleep patterns and habits. These devices can be worn on the wrist, clipped to your pyjamas, or even on your finger as a ring. They are especially useful for people who want to optimise their sleep to maintain peak athletic performance or just need a reminder to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Wearable sleep-tracking devices can track a range of metrics, including sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep phases. They can also monitor your heart rate, heart-rate variability (HRV), body temperature, blood-oxygen rate, and menstrual cycles. The data collected by these devices can be analysed through an accompanying app, which often presents the information as a ""sleep score". This score is based on factors such as sleep efficiency, temperature, restfulness, consistency, total sleep, and heart rate drop.

Some popular wearable sleep-tracking devices include the Oura Ring Gen3, the Whoop 4.0, and the Apple Watch Series 9. These devices offer a combination of accuracy, user experience, and comfort. For example, the Oura Ring has been shown to be 98.4% accurate in measuring HRV when compared to an electrocardiogram.

While these devices can provide valuable insights into your sleep habits, it's important to remember that they don't directly measure sleep. Instead, they estimate sleep by tracking periods of inactivity. For exact data about your sleep habits, a medical sleep study that monitors brain waves is necessary. Additionally, the accuracy of these devices can be impacted by factors such as sleeping with a partner or a pet.

How sleep tracking apps work

Sleep tracking apps use your smartphone's accelerometer to track your movements during sleep. The accelerometer is the same technology that tracks your phone's orientation and rotates the screen to landscape mode. The apps use this to determine when you're sleeping your lightest, i.e., when you're moving more, and can wake you up during a "smart wake period" so you don't feel groggy.

Some apps also allow you to input factors that could affect your sleep, such as caffeine intake, stress levels, and exercise, to help you understand what helps or hurts your sleep. They can also record snoring to see if breathing trouble is hindering sleep.

However, it's important to note that these apps don't directly measure sleep. They estimate sleep by tracking inactivity, and they can't truly identify when you're sleeping or awake. They also can't differentiate between your movements and those of a bed partner or pet. Acti-watches, which are worn on the wrist, are said to be more accurate in discerning sleep patterns and are used in clinical research.

Accuracy of sleep tracking apps

The accuracy of sleep-tracking apps and devices is a complex issue and depends on various factors. Firstly, it's important to understand that sleep-tracking technologies do not directly measure sleep. Instead, they rely on tracking inactivity and movement to estimate sleep patterns. This means that they are making a guesstimate about your sleep based on the assumption that a lack of movement indicates sleep.

The accuracy of these estimates can be affected by factors such as the presence of another person or a pet in the bed, which may lead to false readings. Additionally, some sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, which causes periodic stopping and starting of breathing during sleep, may not be accurately captured by consumer sleep trackers as they often rely on movement detection.

The accuracy of sleep-tracking apps specifically has been questioned by some users and experts. One issue is the placement of the phone or device, which, if not anchored properly, may fall off the bed or be knocked away by the user's movements. Another concern is the potential discrepancy between different apps using the same technology, indicating that the algorithms used to interpret the data play a significant role in the accuracy of the results. The more an app is used, the more data it collects, and the more helpful it can become over time.

Some sleep-tracking devices, such as acti-watches or wristbands, claim to provide more accurate results by being in direct contact with the user's body, making them more sensitive to individual movements. These devices often use optical heart-rate monitoring, where tiny LEDs in the band shine a light through the skin to capture blood flow data, which is then combined with movement data to generate a sleep report. While these wearables may offer more detailed insights, their accuracy still relies on the algorithms used to interpret the data, and improvements in this area are expected over time.

In summary, while sleep-tracking apps and devices can provide valuable insights into sleep patterns, they should not be solely relied upon for precise sleep data. If you have concerns about your sleep quality or potential sleep disorders, consulting a health practitioner and considering a medical sleep study that monitors brain waves may be more appropriate.

Benefits of sleep tracking apps

Sleep tracking apps can be a great way to gain insight into your sleep patterns and quality. They can help you understand the correlation between your sleep and your lifestyle habits, such as diet and exercise. By tracking your sleep, you can identify issues and make necessary changes to improve your sleep quality. Here are some benefits of using sleep tracking apps:

Understand Sleep Patterns

Sleep tracking apps can help you understand your sleep patterns by tracking the time you fall asleep, your sleep duration, and when you wake up. This information can help you identify any inconsistencies in your sleep schedule and make adjustments to improve your sleep hygiene.

Monitor Sleep Quality

These apps can also provide insights into your sleep quality. They can detect interrupted sleep, tossing and turning, and wake-up stages. By analyzing this data, you can determine if you are getting the restorative sleep your body needs. Some apps even provide a ""sleep score" to give you an overall assessment of your sleep quality.

Environmental and Lifestyle Factors

Some sleep tracking apps and devices go beyond sleep data and allow you to record environmental and lifestyle factors that can impact your sleep. These may include the amount of light or temperature in your bedroom, caffeine intake, stress levels, and diet. By understanding how these factors influence your sleep, you can make informed decisions to optimize your sleep environment and habits.

Smart Alarms and Sleep Aids

Many sleep tracking apps offer smart alarms that wake you up during a period of light sleep, helping you feel more refreshed and less groggy in the morning. Some apps also provide sleep aids, such as relaxing sounds, bedtime stories, or meditations to help you fall asleep more easily.

Personalized Sleep Improvement

Sleep tracking apps can offer personalized tips and reminders based on your sleep data. For example, if the app detects that you have been experiencing disrupted sleep, it may suggest winding down earlier or provide relaxation techniques to improve your sleep quality. Over time, these apps can help you set realistic sleep goals and make gradual improvements.

While sleep tracking apps offer numerous benefits, it is important to remember that they provide estimates of your sleep patterns and should not replace medical advice or a clinical sleep study. However, they can be a valuable tool for self-management and improving your overall sleep hygiene and quality.

Frequently asked questions