As somebody who usually sleeps well, I'd love to have a dumb app that notes when the last time I put my phone down and the first time I pick it up in the morning. Maybe with an option to tell it how long I think it took to fall asleep.
Does something like this exist?
Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
151–160 of 182 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#152https://ouraring.com/ is pretty awesome. I've started sleeping more, at more consistent times, and consuming less caffeine and alcohol. $75 off - http://ouraring.com/partners/rohannatraj - doesn't benefit me, just a coupon I received myself.
All these sibling comments throwing $229 at a newfangled and unproven gimmick based on some anonymous online comment have really got me scratching my head... Am I the only one who likes sleeping on these things before committing to a purchase?
Certainly no - I am one of them as well, but we are minority, judging from abuse of discounts in commerce. It does work, regardless it's piece of bread or fancy gimmick we are talking about.
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#153Anecdata: Have sleep apnea, so am interested in better sleep, and I'm hooked up to a CPAP machine which registers every breath I take. I've tried several devices (withings, 2 garmin smart watches and a fitbit), and quite frankly, the results have been appalling. Some random observations: * My latest garmin has an "SpO2" sensor. Which is basically a random number generator with red LED. When I compare the results with…
How are you getting that much data off a cpap? Mine will give me basic states (on time, # apnea events) but not much else.
Many CPAP devices have have an SD card which is used to record all that data. You can use OSCAR to read/analyse it. Not all devices are supported, and it can be a bit tricky to interpret the data at first. Lanky Lefty has some pretty useful videos on the subject, like this one: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5jCNeivvrjU
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#154https://ouraring.com/ is pretty awesome. I've started sleeping more, at more consistent times, and consuming less caffeine and alcohol. $75 off - http://ouraring.com/partners/rohannatraj - doesn't benefit me, just a coupon I received myself.
All these sibling comments throwing $229 at a newfangled and unproven gimmick based on some anonymous online comment have really got me scratching my head... Am I the only one who likes sleeping on these things before committing to a purchase?
No. My default behavior with Amazon is to add things I might want, or sometimes even need, but that aren't strictly necessary, to the cart and then decide on them the next time I find myself in the cart with a purchase that actually needs to be made.
The way this really plays out is my wife says, "Do you want this stuff in the cart?" and then I go and remove most of it.
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#155None. Period. I was in human sleep research for 14 years as a technologist and proj manager. I tested dozens and dozens of devices- a mattress pad that claimed to track sleep. None of them are accurate. to track limb movements you need EMG attached to your legs and then to a recorder. Then a sleep tech certified in scoring must review the results. A board certified sleep doctor can get you home devices to track perio…
I don't know how good professional tracking is, but I can tell you that I definitely get useful information from my Oura ring that has lead to an improvement in my sleep. Many small things, but the obvious one is how much even a drink or two of alcohol is affecting sleep for half the night.
Obviously won't help with tracking leg movements, though. Just for a quick confirmation I'd recommend a web camera, but there won't be statistics from it.
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#156None. Period. I was in human sleep research for 14 years as a technologist and proj manager. I tested dozens and dozens of devices- a mattress pad that claimed to track sleep. None of them are accurate. to track limb movements you need EMG attached to your legs and then to a recorder. Then a sleep tech certified in scoring must review the results. A board certified sleep doctor can get you home devices to track perio…
Are you aware of modern consumer sleep-tracking headbands like Dreem and Philips SmartSleep? Considering these have an EEG, I find it hard to believe they're less accurate than an acti-watch.
Dreem has a self-run study that claims pretty great results [0], do you have any objections to their methodology?
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#157They are all garbage, without monitoring brainwaves you have essentially zero useful information about sleep quality/duration/stages. No amount of accelerometer/heart rate data is going to accurately reflect your sleep stages, regardless of what marketing spiel you read. For a brief time there was a consumer product "Zeo sleep monitor" which was a legitimate EEG-style brainwave headband you would wear to sleep. From…
The Dreem is the modern version of what you're mentioning. https://dreem.com/en
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#158None. Period. I was in human sleep research for 14 years as a technologist and proj manager. I tested dozens and dozens of devices- a mattress pad that claimed to track sleep. None of them are accurate. to track limb movements you need EMG attached to your legs and then to a recorder. Then a sleep tech certified in scoring must review the results. A board certified sleep doctor can get you home devices to track perio…
Are you aware of modern consumer sleep-tracking headbands like Dreem and Philips SmartSleep? Considering these have an EEG, I find it hard to believe they're less accurate than an acti-watch. Dreem has a self-run study that claims pretty great results [0], do you have any objections to their methodology? [0]: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/662734v1
Thanks for citing the study. Just read through the introduction and conclusion and the Dreem sounds very promising.
After reading Matthew Walker's "Why we Sleep", I currently use the deep sleep percentage metric provided by the Sleep as Android app to determine how well I sleep, and jot it down in a sleep log. The book has given me the idea that deep and uninterrupted sleep is hugely important, but obviously the app is only able to give a crude estimate.
Perhaps this headband would give me better insights into my (failings of) sleep. I hope the parent commenter replies to your message.
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#159https://ouraring.com/ is pretty awesome. I've started sleeping more, at more consistent times, and consuming less caffeine and alcohol. $75 off - http://ouraring.com/partners/rohannatraj - doesn't benefit me, just a coupon I received myself.
All these sibling comments throwing $229 at a newfangled and unproven gimmick based on some anonymous online comment have really got me scratching my head... Am I the only one who likes sleeping on these things before committing to a purchase?
> All these sibling comments throwing $229 at a newfangled and unproven gimmick based on some anonymous online comment have really got me scratching my head...
Social media is either making money via ads, or their making money via sales of $SOMETHING. This is marketing at work.
Re: Ask HN: Best sleep trackers?
#160None. Period. I was in human sleep research for 14 years as a technologist and proj manager. I tested dozens and dozens of devices- a mattress pad that claimed to track sleep. None of them are accurate. to track limb movements you need EMG attached to your legs and then to a recorder. Then a sleep tech certified in scoring must review the results. A board certified sleep doctor can get you home devices to track perio…
> to track limb movements you need EMG attached to your legs and then to a recorder
I've had this problem for many years where my legs don't relax when I sleep. So when I wake up my legs are always tired and sore. It's not serious enough to cause any major health issues but very annoying. I've visited many doctors and none were able to provide any useful information.
I was thinking of attaching EMG and getting some data for analysis. But I wouldn't even know where to start.