Sleep tracking isn’t what it used to be, and that’s a good thing. Most can agree that restful slumber does a mind and body good, but apart from how you feel, how do you know how good your time knocked out actually was?
Nowadays, it’s not hard to find a fitness tracker or wearable that measures sleep quality through various sensors. They continue to evolve in how they do it, often giving you more than just a simple sleep score. That makes these devices vary in focus in sophistication, letting you decide what fits best for you and the time you spend with your eyes closed.
Samsung has been chipping away at better sleep tracking for years with its smartwatches, and the Galaxy Watch 5 offers the most comprehensive feature set for the brand so far. You do get an SpO2 sensor to measure blood oxygen, including a new skin temperature sensor to see if you’re running hotter or colder than usual. The watch can even detect snoring, which may be a more impactful feature for your partner if you’re keeping them up every night. A Sleep Score on the Samsung Health app lays it all out, and if necessary, you can always go with a month-long sleep coaching program to gauge just how much rest you’re actually getting.
- Display Size : 1.19″
- Display: 1.19″ Sapphire Crystal Glass AMOLED 396 x 396px (40mm) or 1.36″ Sapphire Crystal Glass AMOED 450 x 450px (44mm)
- CPU: Samsung Exynos W920
- RAM: 1.5GB
- Storage: 16GB
- Battery: 284mAh (40mm) or 410 mAh (44mm)
- Connectivity: NFC, GPS, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi (2.4Gz & 5Ghz), LTE (optional)
- Durability: IP68, Waterproof to 50m (5ATM), MIL-STD-810H
- Software: One UI Watch 4.5 atop Wear 3.5
- Health sensors: Optical Heart Rate, Electrical Heart Sensor (ECG), Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA), Continuous SpO, Skin Temperature Sensor
- Price: From $280
- Strap: 20mm
- Dimensions: 40.4 x 39.3 x 9.8 mm (40mm) or 44.4 x 43.3 x 9.8 mm
- Weight: 29 (40mm) or 32.8g (44mm)
- Mobile payments: Samsung Pay, Google Wallet
- Workout detection: Yes
- Exercise modes: 90+
- Color options: Silver, Graphite, Pink Gold (40mm only), Sapphire (44mm only)
The mere fact the Withings Sleep Tracking Mat lies underneath your mattress says a lot about what it could track while you’re passed out. It will cover the basics, like sleep quality, heart rate, snoring, sleep cycles, and more. Digging deeper, it monitors breathing patterns to look for any abnormalities, like sleep apnea, to give you a sense of how well or poorly your slumber truly is. Far from being a medical device, the data it collects could be very useful in conversation with a doctor to get a better grip on how you’re sleeping. Plus, it’s a great alternative if you’d rather not wear something in bed while asleep.
Withings Sleep Tracking Mat
Fitbit has placed more resources into improving sleep tracking on all its trackers, but the Charge 5 is the current centerpiece for what’s possible. The best part is Fitbit also adds to its trackers after launching them, which is where the Sleep Profile comes in. You do need a Premium account to access it, and once in, it takes your sleep patterns over a month and tells you which specific part of your sleep could use improvement. It even assigns you a “Sleep Animal” to indicate which member of the animal kingdom best fits how you sleep. Guidance within the profile also lets you know what you can do to improve and get you sleeping better every night.
- Battery Life: Up to 7 days
- Display: 1.04″ color OLED (326ppi)
- Sensors: Heart rate, built-in GPS + GLONASS, SpO2, device temperature sensor
- Water resistance: Up to 50 meters
- Dimensions (body): 36.7 x 22.7 x 11.2mm
- Small bands: Fits wrist 5.1″ – 6.7″ in circumference
- Large bands: Fits wrist 6.7″ – 8.3″ in circumference
- Color: Black, white, and blue
- Price: $180
- Mobile payments: Yes
- Workout detection: Yes
- Exercise modes: 20
The Whoop 4.0 isn’t the tracker you want if your needs are going to be basic. This is a deep tracking device that does a lot to tell you about how active you are, so if that’s you, then you may like how it handles your sleep, too. Whoop’s data integrates your activity and rest to tell you when your body can handle a push, or when it’s time to hold back and give it time to catch up. A haptic alarm can gently nudge you awake, and once you’re up, you’ll probably reach for your phone to see your recovery score. The big catch is that you need to subscribe to get all the features that make the tracker worth investing in.
‘Put a ring on it’ gets new meaning when it comes to everything the Oura Ring is supposed to track. It does track all activity, but its real value proposition is when it goes to work while you sleep. While you’re in dreamland, it measures your heart rate, heart rate variability, body temperature, nighttime movement, and overall sleep quality. It parses that data to not only give you an overall score, but also tell you a readiness indicator for the day ahead. There’s also a guidance portion to the sleep tracking that tries to pinpoint when it’s best for you to go to bed, along with tips to get the most out of your time asleep.
The Muse S (Gen 2) plays two roles when it comes to sleep. First, it will help lull you into a slumber using what Interaxon calls “Digital Sleeping Pills,” so you’re not relying on pharmaceuticals. Second, it will tell you how successful that time passed out actually was. The headband design is all fabric, save for the module at the front, which is a tracker monitoring your brain activity via electroencephalography (EEG) to provide the data you’ll want to see when you wake up every morning. You do get a sleep score, as well as insights into how you’re sleeping, including any progress you’re making to improve quality.
Garmin has several different smartwatches and fitness trackers, and the Venu Sq is somewhere in between. You can use it to track all your activity, and when it comes to sleep, it integrates many of the features you would otherwise find in the company’s wearables. One of the more unique ones is the Body Battery meter, which combines heart rate variability, active time, and sleep quality to determine your energy level. Sleep tracking includes blood oxygen and breathing monitoring, as well as menstrual cycle and pregnancy feedback for women to log their symptoms and gauge any baby movement.
Sleep tracking on a tight budget can happen when strapping on the Amazfit Band 5. While it may not be as deep or advanced as some of the more expensive options available, it still offers plenty to work with. You get your standard tracking metrics, like breathing data, to go with an overall sleep score. It can measure blood oxygen, which is great, but equally cool is a nap feature that can track those quick shut-eye periods of at least 20 minutes. The Band 5 itself doesn’t show you any real data, so you have to turn to the app to see how it all shapes out. Once there, it gives you insight into how well you’ve slept and how you can improve.
Amazfit Band 5 Activity Fitness Tracker
When it’s time for bed
Sleep tracking tech continues to evolve, which bodes well for anyone, regardless of whether you feel you sleep well. The Galaxy Watch 5 represents another push from Samsung to deliver one of the more detailed and comprehensive assessments you can find on any wearable. Its various sensors work well together to make that happen when you keep it on every night.
The Withings Sleep Tracking Mat doesn’t force you to wear anything if that’s your preference. It can’t measure things like skin temperature or blood oxygen, but it keeps tabs on heart activity and breathing in ways other devices don’t. It’s not every day you come across a piece of tech you can freely use at home that might warn you about potential sleep apnea. As an early warning system, the mat almost feels like an investment in your long-term health.
The Fitbit Charge 5 is a prominent fitness tracker, and it’s where the brand’s sleep tracking comes into focus. What other device assigns an animal to your profile that closely matches your sleep? Fun aside, the Sleep Profile was designed to provide a more holistic view of your sleep patterns, even if you don’t get concrete answers on why your circadian rhythm is how it is. The profile’s data is one step closer to a more personalized view of your sleep quality and is likely to only get better in time.
