Wearable: Beddit Sleep Monitor
Who’s Tried It: Kimberly, Sara, Alex
What It Does: Sleep monitoring, including sleep quality, total sleep time, time to fall asleep, sleep efficiency, heart rate, respiration, sleep cycles, snoring, bed exits, restless sleep indicator
Most of the wearables we’ve been trying this summer do some kind of sleep monitoring: the Microsoft Band, the Jawbone series, the Misfit Shine, the Fitbit series, and more. If you wear the devices at night, they report on restless vs. restful sleep and time awake. Some allow you to set sleep goals, and help you meet them by using notifications and alerts to tell you it’s time to start winding down and then head to bed.
But for a more complete picture of sleep, several people here are trying the Beddit. Instead of wearing it on your body, it lays across your sleeping space and its sensors detect different things to determine the quality of your sleep.
The sensors measure forces caused by your heartbeat, respiration and movements. These signals are used to analyze sleep time and sleep quality.
Beddit uses falling resting heart and respiratory rates and lack of movement to determine when you’re falling asleep, and then the stabilization of vitals to determine deeper sleep. The device’s sensor works with your mobile device’s microphone to pick up snoring – and can even determine when that snoring is yours or someone else’s.
The app provides insights each morning, and tracks sleep patterns over time. After it makes some determinations about your sleep cycle patterns, it can provide tips about making your sleep better. There’s a tool that assesses recovery from stress and exercise as well, based on resting heart rate.
You can use the output to make your own determinations about sleep as well. Was snoring picked up by the microphone around the same time you moved out of restful sleep? If you begin taking medication, or have additional stress in your life, or an incredibly hard workout, do you see a difference in sleep quality? What about if you read before bed? Watch TV or use a mobile device?
Doctors of every specialty will extoll the virtues of good sleep for a healthy life, from stress relief to heart health to injury recovery. Beddit is a tool to help you get there.