161–170 of 182 posts
One of the reasons I bought my Fitbit is to look at my sleep patterns. (In hindsight, I only look once every few months) The data is surprisingly accurate, and sleeping with a watch on doesn't bother me one bit. (I use a silicon watch band, the dressier watch bands would probably bother me.)
How do you know?
They 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…
However, their Android app is still on Google Play, and you can find used models on eBay. There's also a cottage industry making replacement headbands (which wear out).
At least there was 3-4 years ago when I last used mine. I haven't tried it since.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
60-80? That seems high - I don't think you could be at that without taking a lot of supplements every day. I think 30 is the lab normal (and it was recently raised to 30 from 20) - though a lot of people are below that when tested.
There's no guarantee that the optimum Vitamin D level is one that the skin can synthesize under even optimal conditions. It might be. But it could also be more.
Doesn’t mean that isn’t true, but I’d need more to be persuaded.
Anecdata: 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…
The developer stopped actively maintaining it, but the software still works great.
Essentially the sensor capacity for all of them are similar, with the Apple Watch slightly better than many of the competitors, the form factor for the oura is best. We make an algorithm that runs on many of the devices using Sonic Sleep and we found that our algorithm on Apple Watch performs the best. The oura is good too for sleep wake. Biostrap is good for SpO2. You can also buy a pulse ox that is less consumer friendly but accurate.
But DO NOT put too much value in the sleep staging. Current state of the are is bad at this.
Sincerely,
Daniel Gartenberg, PhD
Hey y’all - I am a cognitive psychologist and entrepreneurs who had scientifically validated all the best wearables with $3.5 mm in grant funding from the national institute of aging and the National Science Foundation. We are about to publish a paper that compares these wearables in the premier journal Sleep. Essentially the sensor capacity for all of them are similar, with the Apple Watch slightly better than many…
With such devices, is there a hope of portable EEG based sleep monitors?
Anecdata: 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…
Have you tried Sleepyhead to analyze your CPAP reports? The developer stopped actively maintaining it, but the software still works great. https://sleepyhead.jedimark.net/
Looks like it's currently getting some TLC under the hood. Hopefully it'll continue to be maintained.
Unlike accelerometer-based sleep trackers (fitbit, Apple Watch et. al), the Dreem 2 is EEG-based. I can't trick it into thinking I'm sleeping by just holding very still.
Now I effectively get a free sleep study done on me every night, which is AMAZING for N=1 randomized control studies on myself (ex: do I sleep better with earplugs? an eye mask? how many days after a bad night of sleep do I feel cognitive impairment? how much does blue light before bed affect my sleep onset latency?). Clean data I could trust was vital to figuring out how teach myself to sleep like a human again.
My most recent sleep report from Dreem says I've logged 181 nights wearing this headband. It's amazing. It enabled the single biggest improvement to my life in the last decade.
It's expensive, and it's so much cheaper than a sleep study that only measures a single unusual night.
I've been tooting Dreem's horn on twitter for a while, so they gave me a promo code that I think gets you 5-ish percent off: GENCO
I also recommend:
* a Manta sleep mask[2] and/or blackout curtains. Aim for pitch black if you open your eyes in bed at night. Cover any small lights in your bedroom with aluminum tape (it's light proof)
* silicone ear plugs[3]. They're actually comfortable, and you can sleep on your side without them jamming into your ear
* the Coup adjustable-loft pillow[4]. Your pillow is more important for bed comfort than your mattress (particularly your neck angle). While I'm on the topic: I'm not convinced mattresses matter nearly as much as people think. The best sleep I've gotten so far is on an ~$80 cot mattress from Amazon.
* if you sleep with a partner that sleeps hotter or colder than you, get a Chilipad[5]. Kicking your leg in and out to regulate temperature is keeping you from sleeping deeper.
Also, if you snore, that's called sleep apnea and you're suffocating while you're asleep. Get that fixed immediately. You can pick up used CPAP machines on craigslist for a few hundred dollars.
Also AMA about sleep here on on twitter @cgenco. This shit is really important to get right.
I've got an article in progress better summarizing all this stuff that will be live at https://gen.co/sleep in the next few weeks :)
1. https://imgur.com/a/3FsK39j 2. https://mantasleep.com/ 3. https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Pillow-Soft-Silicone-Earplugs/d... 4. https://amzn.to/3dvoWKP 5. https://www.chilitechnology.com/
Dreem 2* is probably the best tracker you can get to use at home. The band is not uncomfortable (after a couple of nights, it's very strange at first) and it will give you lots of insights other solutions can't. You do have to put it on before bed and take it off and charge in the morning though. And it's expensive. * https://dreem.com/en
If you don't mind charging devices, Oura ring is my top choice as it's the most accurate wearable. Fitbit does a decent job if you're on a budget, but the data is less accurate.
My personal favorite is set and forget, under the mattress - Withings Sleep.
The hard part is making sense of the data and determining what to do to try and improve your sleep - getting a tracker won't simply improve your sleep.
To fix this issue I build SleepWell.ai, that takes sleep tracker data and makes custom recommendations based on what sleep science has shown will improve sleep.