In February 2017, the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine carried a study that stated that the science to support the claims of these devices (sleep trackers) is insufficient, and many consumers don’t know this. Those with sleep disorders, on the other hand, such as insomnia should check in at a sleep facility for testing and not depend on a sleep tracker. Plus, for most healthy sleepers, it might not even make a huge difference. Sleeping in an unfamiliar bed in a strange facility can make one sleep a little less optimally than if they were in their own bed.įor this reason, many people might prefer to use a simpler device in the comfort of their beds being that it is more convenient and less expensive. For this reason, therefore, the analysis can hardly be regarded as thorough.īut then again, the polysomnograph test is not without its challenges. On the other hand, a sleep tracker like Fitbit is a wearable device that only measures movement using an accelerometer. They do this by placing electrodes and monitors on the chest, head, and legs. There, the technologist would record a number of biological functions during sleep like eye movement, brain wave activity, heart rhythm, muscle tone, as well as breathing (which is much more than we can say for sleep trackers, by the way). In her opinion, a better gauge for measuring sleep quality is how you feel during the day.įor a polysomnograph, the person to be tested would have to spend the night in a facility. Thanuja Hamilton echoes these same reservations about the accuracy of sleep trackers in this video. The only test that can assure you of that, as the experts say, is a polysomnograph test.ĭr. Sleep is complicated as the National Sleep Foundation explains, and an analysis that is going to be meaningful and useful must be comprehensive and precise. In fact, sleep experts are worried that there might be more bad than good arising from using sleep trackers especially for users with sleep disorders. But that’s not enough seeing as, regardless of what stage of sleep you’re in, deep or light, you tend to move the same amount of times as Montgomery-Downs explains. These accelerometers can only monitor movement. In his study of the accuracy of sleep trackers, the researcher has come to the conclusion that sleep trackers are incapable of doing what they claim espeically when it comes to distinguishing sleep stages.Īccording to him, these trackers are limited by the fact that they only include an accelerometer. Hawley Montgomery-Downs is a sleep researcher and also an associate professor at the West Virginia University. However, from this study, Fitbit is saying that sleep trackers (including Fitbit sleep trackers) are not only better, they’ve also helped to simplify sleep research.īefore now, Fitbit has already said that the data obtained from the analysis of more than 4 billion sleep stages in its user data support the theories as held by sleep scientists.ĭespite the research that Fitbit have put forward, sleep experts don’t seem to be having any of that and are still very skeptical about the accuracy of fitness trackers in measuring sleep. Also, being that they use electrodes to monitor electrical activity ongoing in the brain, they are respected as the most precise for sleep tracking. It’s important to note that these EGG-based sleep studies combine the functions of respiratory, movement, and cardiac trackers in their testing. Conor Heneghan pronounced that the fitness trackers performed similar to or better than reports previously obtained from non-electroencephalogram (EGG)-based sleep studies. When this test was finished, Fitbit’s lead sleep researcher, Dr. It acted as the control for cross-reference and comparison of results in this study.Įach of the trackers contained a photoplethysmogram that records cardiac activity and, of course, a 3D accelerometer that records movement. This sleep testing device is a device recommended by doctors to test conditions like sleep apnea at home.
The devices used include two fitness trackers, one on each wrist, as well as a Type III home sleep testing device. The adults were around 34 years old (give or take 10 years), and there were 36 male participants and 24 female participants. The results of the study came out and from what the researchers say, sleep trackers can determine the stages of sleep, that is, from wake and light sleep to deep sleep and REM, within a reasonable degree of accuracy in healthy adult sleepers.įor the study, 60 adults were tested, wearing three different devices. So, apparently, Fitbit commissioned a study to check just how accurate a sleep tracker is.
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