We all face sleeping problems at one point in our life. The technology has become so advanced that it can now track our sleep and tell the quality of our sleep. There are millions of apps and wristwatches which can track our quality of sleep. These devices can monitor our heart rate and oxygen consumption to the number of steps you take each day. Sleep tracking is a process of tracking a person’s sleep which is done commonly through measuring inactivity and movement to estimate sleep.
These sleep trackers can track the stages of a person’s sleep such as light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep, the length of the sleep, the quality of person’s sleep, and the consistency of the person’s sleep. Other trackers also have features like sleep score telling us how well a person is sleeping, smart alarms that wake up a person depending on the circumstances of the person’s sleep. There are some devices such as pillows, smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and other wearable devices.
Definitions
Dr Alan Schwartz, director of the Sleep Disorder Centre at John Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre said that while sleep tracking app devices can be useful for helping a person recognize patterns in their sleep habits, they are not capable of directly measuring a person’s sleep unlike sleep study.
Dr W. Chris Winter, Men’s health sleep adviser, and author of The sleep solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix it said that the data sleep tracking app devices provide can be useful and that the tracker does a good job of providing insight into a person’s sleep patterns over time such as the total time a person’s probably sleeping.
In a study published in the journal of clinical sleep medicine on February 15, 2017, researchers from Rush University Medical College and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine found that the three patients involved in the study using sleep tracking app devices complained about the data that was collected by applications and devices from Nike, Apple, Fitbit and other companies.
Facts and Statistics
- 54.1% of adults prefer to sleep in the fetal position while 37.5% sleep on their back even though it is the healthiest position.
- Falling asleep takes on average 10-15 minutes, if you pass out within a few minutes, it might mean you are sleep deprived.
- Lack of sleep costs the United States over $411 Billion Annually as per reported in Fortune Magazine.
- 20% of teenagers get less than 5 hours of sleep while the average amount is 6.5 hours.
- In 1942, Americans had 7.9 hours on average per night compared to 6.8 hours in 2013, which is a 13% decrease.
- 40% of people aged 40 to 59 reported that they are getting less than recommended amounts of sleep.
- People with a college degree or higher degree have the most sleep 72% while unemployed or those unable to work much lower at 51%.
- Healthy Sleep duration is more common among married people 67% and lowers in those who were never married 62% or who were divorced, separated or widowed is 56%.
- 37% of people between the age of 20 and 39 years old reported short sleep duration.
- The population of Hawaii has the shortest sleep duration of 54% while South Dakota has the highest at 72%.
Do Sleep Trackers Really Work?
Yes, sleep trackers work as it collects a lot of information about our sleeping habits and measures our inactivity. Sleeping trackers can track some guesstimate how much you are actually sleeping. It helps you to recognize the patterns of your sleep. Suppose, when you feel sluggish when you get to bed later, try shifting your bedtime to an hour or earlier. But still, you want to go for deep analysis on how to improve your sleep, you need to go to medical testing. A medical test can give a clear picture of your sleeping issues. It has risen the demand for the best sleep tracker. Nowadays, developers and an app development company are developing the best sleep tracker app globally.
What Do Sleep Trackers Monitor?
There are various devices in the market and also some wrist watches through which you can track your sleep wearing wristwatches. Here we will discuss what points of sleep can be tracked through the best sleep tracking app:
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Sleep Duration
The devices can track the timing of your inactivity and when you stir in the morning. Such devices can track your sleeping time and waking time which can tell you the total length of sleep.
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Sleep Quality
Apart from sleep duration, it can also track the quality of sleep. Whenever you disrupt during the sleep, it records all your activity. It records all the activities happening during the whole night. Sleep quality also affects your mental health.
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Sleep Phases
There are some devices which can track your sleeping phases and time. It tracks the time when your alarm goes off during the night.
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Environmental Factors
Some devices can also track some factors like the temperature of your room and the amount of light in the room.
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Lifestyle Factors
Some trackers ask you to fill in some details about activities that can affect your sleep such as how much your stress level when you have had the food and so on.
How Does Sleep Tracker Work?
Most sleep trackers can measure sleep quantity and quality by using accelerometers, small motion detectors. Accelerometers track how much movement you are making while you sleep. This data then analyzed by using an algorithm to project sleep time and quality. If you want to get more details about your sleep stages, a sleep tracker can also track REM sleep in addition to deep and light sleep stages by measuring our heart rate. During sleep, heart rate and respiration rate varies and they both have a close relationship since the autonomic nervous effects both.
Respiration is considered as the most significant parameter of physiological data because it clearly depicts sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and snoring according to research published in the journal. Some sleep trackers use a microphone to track noise from the or your body. Now you can use data accumulated by sleep trackers to improve the sleep. Research finds that sleep sensor sensing feedback can help patients determine the effectiveness of a treatment for a particular sleep disorder.
6 Best Sleep Tracking App to get adequate sleep in 2021
1. Sleep cycle- Best App to Measure Sleep Quality
- Sleep better with a gentle wakeup call- sleep cycle’s alarm clock wakes you up while you are in light sleep and is a natural way to start your day.
- Relax at bedtime and track sleep easily- Learn about your sleep patterns with detailed analysis.
- Asleep tracker with a difference- there’s no phone under your pillow, you can track sleep by placing your device on the nightstand or close by on the floor.
- Your health comes first- your sleep data and reports will help you feel great inside and out.
- Sleep better- Relax and let sleep cycle analyse your light sleep, deep sleep, and overall health.
2. Sleep score- One of the best free Sleep Tracking applications
- Non-contact sleep monitoring, using just your smartphone.
- Sleep graphs every morning to show you your unique sleep patterns.
- Goodnight inspirational quotes to help you wind down.
- Good morning motivational messages.
- A smart alarm clock designed to gently wake you at the ideal time in your sleep cycle.
3. Sleep Bot: Best Sleep Tracker
- Without activating anything, just go to bed and the sleepbot will do the rest.
- Forget about having to activate the app every time you go to bed like the rest of sleep apps.
- With a sleepbot if you put the apple watch while sleeping, you can analyze the dream in a totally revolutionary way.
- Through algorithms, you can analyze your movement patterns, your steps and your heart.
- You can detect when you went to sleep, all this without spending anything on the battery as the application gets the data from the health application.
Download- iOS
4. Pillow: one of the best free Sleep Tracking applications
- Sleep better with a pillow, your smart sleep assistant.
- Pillow can analyze your sleep cycles automatically using your apple watch.
- You can use a pillow without an apple watch by replacing your iPhone or iPad on the mattress near your pillow.
- Track your sleep cycle and heart rate analysis by best apple watch sleep tracker.
- Audio recordings and optimal bedtime.
Download- iOS
5. Alarm Clock Xtreme: Sleep Tracking App for Android
- Set your Xtreme is more than your basic alarm clock. It is highly customizable, allowing you to wake up in whatever way works for you.
- Use the extra-large snooze button to prevent you from accidentally pressing dismiss.
- Jump-start your brain by solving math problems to snooze/dismiss the alarm.
- Decrease snooze interval time and set a maximum number of snoozes.
- Easily deactivate your alarm if you wake up before it goes.
Download- Android
6. Sleep as Android: Sleep Tracking App for Android
- Sleep cycle tracking with smart wake up uses your phone’s or wearables sensors.
- Sonar: revolutionary contact-less ultrasonic sleep tracking.
- Wearable tracking- supports pebble, wear OS, Garmin Connect IQ, Mi Band, Tizen based Samsung wearables.
- Health services: Google Fit, S health integration.
- Sleep talk recording, snoring detection, and anti-snoring.
Download- Android
The Bottom Line
Sleep tracking applications can tell us the status of our sleeping but checking our inactivity. Such applications can only tell us the length of our sleep. If you have other medical problems, then you should consult a doctor. We hope you find the article useful and informative for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Hello All,
Aman Mishra has years of experience in the IT industry. His passion for helping people in all aspects of mobile app development. Therefore, He write several blogs that help the readers to get the appropriate information about mobile app development trends, technology, and many other aspects.In addition to providing mobile app development services in USA, he also provides maintenance & support services for businesses of all sizes. He tried to solve all their readers’ queries and ensure that the given information would be helpful for them.