Sleep Tracking On Wear Os: What You Need To Know

Sleep tracking is an important feature for many smartwatch users. Wear OS has a variety of options for tracking sleep, from built-in sleep tracking in some smartwatches to third-party apps that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. While some users have expressed dissatisfaction with certain apps, others have praised the convenience and insights provided by sleep tracking on Wear OS devices. The evolution of sleep tracking on smartwatches continues, with Google's clinical sleep lead having ambitious plans for the future of sleep data.

Sleep tracking apps for Wear OS

Sleep tracking is an important feature for many people, especially those who are looking to improve their sleep quality and overall health. Wear OS offers a range of sleep tracking apps that can help users get a good night's rest and gain insights into their sleep patterns. Here are some of the popular sleep tracking apps available for Wear OS:

Sleep As Android

Sleep As Android is a popular sleep tracking app that has been around for a long time and continues to improve with unique features. It works with your smartphone and smartwatch, offering features like Smart Wake Up, Sleep Noise Recording, and Jet Lag Prevention. Sleep As Android can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, and it is compatible with various Wear OS devices. It provides insights into your sleep patterns and helps you optimise your sleep.

TicSleep

TicSleep is a sleep tracking app designed specifically for Wear OS. It is available for the TicWatch Pro, TicWatch Pro 4G/LTE, and other TicWatch models. TicSleep allows you to track your daily and weekly sleep patterns, providing insights into your sleep quality. The app integrates with Google Fit to sync your sleep data and offers features like sleep goal setting and sleep tips.

Samsung Health

Samsung Health is a comprehensive health and fitness app that includes sleep monitoring features. It is available on the Galaxy Watch, where it can detect and calculate your sleep patterns, record your snoring, and provide sleep coaching options. The app offers sleep scoring, sleep stage analysis, and blood oxygen monitoring during sleep. Samsung Health also provides personalised sleep advice and missions to help you improve your sleep habits.

Fossil Wellness App

The Fossil Wellness App is available on Fossil's Gen 5 Wear OS devices, offering built-in sleep tracking. This app provides automatic sleep tracking, allowing you to monitor your sleep patterns and gain insights into your sleep quality. It integrates with health platforms like Google Fit and Strava, enabling you to centralise your health data, including sleep tracking information.

Whoop

Whoop is a sports tracking app that also offers sleep tracking capabilities. It can be used with Wear OS watches, providing insights into your sleep patterns and sleep quality. Whoop is known for its sports tracking features but has been praised by users for its sleep tracking accuracy as well.

These sleep tracking apps for Wear OS offer a range of features to help you understand and improve your sleep. Each app has its own unique capabilities, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs and preferences.

Wear OS watches with built-in sleep tracking

Sleep tracking can provide insight into your sleep habits and help you develop better sleep habits. While there is no such thing as the best sleep tracker, as everyone is different, there are several Wear OS watches with built-in sleep tracking that can help you understand your sleep patterns.

The Fossil Gen 5E is a stylish smartwatch that offers design and size choices, good performance, and built-in automatic sleep tracking. Fossil is the only Wear OS watchmaker, other than Mobvoi, that offers built-in sleep tracking for its smartwatches. This feature is part of the Wellness App available on its Gen 5 Wear OS devices. However, it is not available on the Fossil Gen 5 LTE.

Mobvoi's TicWatch Pro 3 is another popular Wear OS smartwatch with automatic sleep tracking built-in using the TicHealth platform. The TicWatch Pro smartwatches offer excellent battery life and can handle overnight sleep monitoring without draining the battery. In addition to sleep tracking, the TicWatch Pro 3 can also track your heart rate and blood oxygen levels. However, it is worth noting that these watches are on the larger side.

For those who prefer a Samsung device, the Galaxy Watch series offers sleep tracking through the Samsung Health app. This app includes features such as sleep scoring, stages analysis, snore detection, and blood oxygen monitoring. The sleep coaching program provides personalized advice and missions to help you improve your sleep habits.

If you are looking for a more compact option, the Pixel Watch 3 is a recommended choice for its elegant design, excellent accuracy, and small size.

In addition to these built-in options, there are also third-party apps available on the Google Play Store, such as Sleep As Android, that can enable sleep tracking on Wear OS devices.

Samsung Health sleep monitoring on the Galaxy Watch

Sleep tracking is an important feature for many people, especially those who are interested in their health and fitness. The Samsung Galaxy Watch, in conjunction with the Samsung Health app, offers a comprehensive sleep monitoring system. The watch will detect and calculate your sleep patterns during the night, and you can view this data in the Samsung Health app on your phone.

To use the sleep monitoring feature on the Samsung Galaxy Watch, you need to first enable it in the Samsung Health app. Open the app on your watch, swipe to Settings, and then tap the switch next to Blood Oxygen during Sleep to turn it on. You can also set up the feature using the app on your phone. Once set up, simply wear your watch to bed, and it will track your sleep.

The Samsung Health app provides detailed sleep data, including your sleep score, sleep time, sleep stages, blood oxygen levels, and snoring detection. The app also offers a sleep coaching program with personalised advice and missions to help you improve your sleep habits. This feature requires you to wear the watch for at least seven nights to gather enough data for analysis.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch uses an accelerometer to detect movement and combines this with user data from its sensor array to determine when you fall asleep. The watch can also monitor your body temperature throughout the night, providing additional insights into your sleep quality. It is important to note that while the watch provides valuable data, it should not be used for self-diagnosis, and you should always seek professional medical advice if you have concerns about your sleep or health.

In addition to the Samsung Health app, there are other sleep tracking apps available for Wear OS watches, such as Sleep As Android, which works with your smartphone and smartwatch to track your sleep. This app offers unique features like Smart Wake Up and Sleep Noise Recording. Mobvoi is another app that integrates with Wear OS watches and offers automatic sleep tracking using the TicHealth platform. These alternative apps provide additional options for sleep tracking if you prefer not to use the Samsung Health app with your Galaxy Watch.

Google's clinical sleep lead's ideas for the future of sleep tracking

Google's clinical sleep lead, Dr. Logan Schneider, has several ideas for the future of sleep tracking. Dr. Schneider is optimistic about the potential for smartwatches to "pick up on interesting signals" and provide novel insights into sleep health. Smartwatches have certain limitations in sleep tracking, such as their inability to track brain waves (EEGs), eye movement, and some full-body motions. However, they can still capture valuable data that can be extrapolated to understand sleep.

Dr. Schneider's vision involves understanding sleep through population health and real-world changes in sleep over time. Smartwatches, with their ability to collect data from various sensors, can aid in this endeavour. This data can be used to make inexpensive and objective sleep disorder diagnoses, as well as provide wellness and lifestyle recommendations through AI analysis.

Additionally, Dr. Schneider foresees the potential for smartwatches to play a role in monitoring the effectiveness of sleep disorder treatments. After someone is treated for a sleep disorder, it can be challenging to determine if they are truly cured or simply experiencing fewer episodes. Smartwatches could passively provide this information, giving patients and doctors valuable feedback and peace of mind.

While sleep tracking on smartwatches is becoming more sophisticated, there are concerns about the accuracy of the data and potential negative impacts on user stress. Dr. Schneider acknowledges these challenges and emphasizes the clinical value of the data, even if it does not align with an individual's subjective experience.

In conclusion, Google's clinical sleep lead, Dr. Logan Schneider, has ambitious ideas for the future of sleep tracking. These include utilizing smartwatch data for novel insights into sleep health, aiding in sleep disorder diagnoses, providing personalized recommendations, and monitoring treatment effectiveness. While there are limitations and challenges to be addressed, the potential for smartwatches to revolutionize our understanding and management of sleep health is significant.

The pros and cons of sleep tracking

Sleep tracking has become increasingly popular since the mid-2010s, with one in five people now wearing a sleep tracker. This technology can be accessed via a smartphone or smartwatch, or through devices that are left on a bedside table or clipped to a pillow.

The Pros

Sleep tracking can help you to get a complete picture of your health. By tracking aspects such as movement, noise, heart rate, breathing patterns, and blood oxygen levels, sleep trackers can estimate sleep quality and duration. This can help you to set personal goals for your sleep and improve your sleep habits and bedtime routine. Some trackers even have alarms that wake you up when you're closest to being awake, which can make it easier to wake up and improve your mood. Sleep trackers can also help detect sleep disorders, with advanced sensors that measure your blood oxygen levels flagging the possibility of conditions such as sleep apnea.

The Cons

The exact methods by which some sleep trackers estimate sleep quality have been questioned, and it is hard to know exactly when you've fallen asleep. Some people who use sleep trackers can become preoccupied with optimising their sleep data, which can lead to a condition known as orthosomnia, causing nighttime anxiety and making it harder to sleep.

Frequently asked questions