Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#1

Post by nreece » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 2:37 AM UTC

Finding the Best Sleep Tracker
karpathy.bearblog.dev

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#2

Post by Jsharm » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 1:47 PM UTC

Really surprised that Autosleep performed so poorly. I've been using it for over a year and I'm pretty satisfied, and chose it because it was the only apple watch sleep app I could find that didn't require a monthly subscription. Admittedly I don't look at the 'score' so perhaps that's it, I just look at the overall 'quality sleep' hours and have found that tracks pretty well with how off-my-game I am that day.

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#3

Post by p0012042024uy » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 2:39 PM UTC

Why did the author not evaluate the sleep tracking that comes with the Apple Watch out of the box?

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#4

Post by mikestew » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

p0012042024uy wrote: post #3

Why did the author not evaluate the sleep tracking that comes with the Apple Watch out of the box?

From TFA: Maybe there is a better app on Apple Watch for sleep tracking, but I haven't found it.

And what other apps were tried? As you ask, why not try the default? From what I hear, it is “better” (for whatever that means) than Garmin, for example, on sleep tracking. I dunno, it is kind weird to start comparisons with some random paid app rather than the built-in that Apple offers for free.

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#5

Post by zenapollo » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 4:01 PM UTC

Nice article but I with there was something more authoritative to compare it to. I know controlled in-lab sleep studies are expensive but this would be the key data to have in the mix.

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#6

Post by godshatter » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 4:34 PM UTC

My Garmin Instinct Crossover watch does a great job of sleep tracking. It correlates well with how I feel the next day and how active I was the day before. On the other hand, Sleep as Android inflates the scores too much to be useful.

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#7

Post by mrbonner » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 4:53 PM UTC

I enjoy Peter Norvig's writing style—it's rich in detail and backed by solid statistics. I've also been following Andrej Karpathy for the past two years, and I have to say, his writing has become my top priority to read first.

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#8

Post by davidanekstein » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 5:55 PM UTC

If anyone wants a tool to show you this analysis automatically, I make an app that links with Whoop and Oura and Apple Health and it shows you all of those relationships: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638...

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#9

Post by tinnou » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 6:37 PM UTC

zenapollo wrote: post #5

Nice article but I with there was something more authoritative to compare it to. I know controlled in-lab sleep studies are expensive but this would be the key data to have in the mix.

The Quantified Scientist YouTube channel by Rob ter Horst does a good job imo at comparing trackers against an industry standard baseline. For sleep he uses the Z-Max EEG device.

Re: Finding the Best Sleep Tracker

#10

Post by calmoo » Mon, Mar 31, 2025, 9:36 PM UTC

p0012042024uy wrote: post #3

Why did the author not evaluate the sleep tracking that comes with the Apple Watch out of the box?

Apple's health app is extremely careful not to say what is 'good' or 'bad' about the metrics it monitors, I find. The sleep tracking really just gives you a breakdown of sleep stages and length of sleep, rather than a sleep score that the o ther apps give you. I believe that is what Karpathy is comparing, not the telemetry itself, rather the measured sleep quality mapped to his perceived sleep quality, which Apple doesn't really give you.