Sleep monitoring phone apps...

[andyoxon]

Experiences with smart phone sleep apps?   Anyone obtained useful info from them?  Just trying "Sleep as android" atm, with phone on mattress, but the whole night plot is not that easy to interpret.  Think it's pro version for a trial period, but not actually sure.

[citoyen]

I'd be wary of sleep monitoring apps. For a start, they're unlikely to be accurate. The only way to get accurate in-depth data about your sleep health is to go to a sleep clinic and have it monitored by professionals who know what they're doing and what they're looking for. If you think you suffer from sleep apnoea, the way to test that is by wearing a blood oxygen monitor overnight.

For another thing, what are you going to do with the data they give you? Is it genuinely useful? What can it tell you that you don't know from the way you feel when you wake up in the morning?

For a third thing, obsessive monitoring puts you at risk of orthosomnia - ie it can actually make your sleep problems worse.

If you have concerns about your sleep health, speak to your GP.

[mrcharly-YHT]

MrsC uses her fitbit to track her sleep.

I think it is very counter-productive. She suffers from insomnia and constantly checks the app.

It shows when she was in deep sleep, light sleep or awake.

There are times when she steadfastly maintains she was awake from hour X to Y, the app says so, even when I say "I was awake then and you were snoring".

[L CC]

I wouldn't bother. Wrist based is marginally better, but that's a deep pile of poop vs a shallow pile.

What do you want to know?

[citoyen]

a deep pile of poop vs a shallow pile.

This says all you need to know about sleep apps, really.

[andyoxon]

Thanks all.  Think there's a consensus opinion here.      I know I probably don't get enough total sleep, so just wanted to see what, if anything, the monitoring showed about the duration of my sleep.  Last night I also tried "Sleep monitor", and it said I had 1x cycle of REM sleep - which left me wondering, how on earth does it detect REM sleep?  Also said I was awake for ~25% of the total, which was news to me.

[quixoticgeek]

I use sleep as android, and have done for approaching 10 years. It's brilliant. I don't so much use it for logging, tho that is useful. But for timing my alarm to not interrupt a sleep cycle. This has definitely improved how I feel in the morning.

That and the Captcha on the alarm so I can't turn it off by mistake.

J

[citoyen]

timing my alarm to not interrupt a sleep cycle

How does it track your sleep cycle?

[quixoticgeek]

timing my alarm to not interrupt a sleep cycle

How does it track your sleep cycle?

Movement. It uses the motion sensor built into the phone, I stick it next to my pillow on the mattress. I give it a time I wanna be awake, and if I start moving (i.e. am in light sleep), any time in the 30 mins before that, the alarm goes off.

J

[Mrs Pingu]

I use sleep as android, and have done for approaching 10 years. It's brilliant. I don't so much use it for logging, tho that is useful. But for timing my alarm to not interrupt a sleep cycle. This has definitely improved how I feel in the morning.

That and the Captcha on the alarm so I can't turn it off by mistake.

J

That would be wasted on me. I have a cat to interrupt my sleep cycle, most recently by plucking the carpet at 5am. 

[trumpet]

I was shocked to learn from my Garmin Instinct that I regularly only get between 19 and 55 mins deep sleep during my habitual 7 - 8 hours a night, and apparently this always occurs  before my midnight visit to the toilet for a pee.

[ian]

It's yet another thing to worry about. Am I getting enough sleep, am I drinking too much coffee, repeat repeat repeat. Life is becoming a pipeline for anxiety.

I can mostly ignore LMC's paw punches and rarely get fewer than eight hours of sleep, I don't like to see the world before 9 am, it's indecent.

[citoyen]

Movement. It uses the motion sensor built into the phone, I stick it next to my pillow on the mattress. I give it a time I wanna be awake, and if I start moving (i.e. am in light sleep), any time in the 30 mins before that, the alarm goes off.

Ah. That wouldn't work for me, unless I stopped sharing a bed with my wife.

Tbh, since I've been mostly WFH, I hardly use an alarm any more - I allow myself to wake up naturally. It's only the days when I'm going into the office that I set an alarm, and then the timing is non-negotiable. I find the best way to ensure I'm able to get up on those days is to go to bed at the right time. Which is a nice idea in theory.

[ian]

I have one of those gradual light things, which works quite well, unless I'm facing the other way. Eventually, it launches into a nice bird chorus, which is quite a pleasing way to wake up. Then I lie there a bit longer till I hear the coffeebot start to grind. I'm usually in the office by about 9.15 am. I'm a high performing go-getter.

[Feanor]

I have one of those gradual light things, which works quite well, unless I'm facing the other way. Eventually, it launches into a nice bird chorus, which is quite a pleasing way to wake up.

Is that what was us luddites call a 'window', or is there now an app for that?

[quixoticgeek]

I have one of those gradual light things, which works quite well, unless I'm facing the other way. Eventually, it launches into a nice bird chorus, which is quite a pleasing way to wake up.

Is that what was us luddites call a 'window', or is there now an app for that?

Yes, since many people opt for thick curtains that make the room very dark.

So now you get light that will start to brighten based on a timer. To emulate dawn.

J

[ian]

That's what it does, though unlike real dawn, simulated dawn is scheduled for a far more amenable hour.

[phantasmagoriana]

I've had a Lumie clock for years for that purpose. There's too much variation in sunrise times throughout the year for actual dawn to be a sensible indicator of when to wake up, so blackout curtains and fake sunrise alarm clock do a much better job.

On sleep trackers, my Garmin is pretty rubbish. This morning, for instance, it thought I woke up at 7.30. I didn't: I woke up at 6.30 and read for an hour as I didn't need to get up.

[Feanor]

My suunto watch claims to do sleep tracking, but it's a hefty brute of a thing and I certainly wouldn't want to wear it in bed!  That would for sure f*ck up my sleep patterns!

[Kim]

Any alarm works fine for waking me up.  For making me actually want to get out of bed once I'm awake, I find warming the bed and/or room is effective.  In the past I've had an electric blanket on a timer, but these days I have an alarm clock and central heating that talk to each other.

[L CC]

I don't use an alarm, except for timing food in ovens. I wake naturally, every day, around 5, 6 if I'm lucky (see time of posting, lucky weekend).
Fitbit reckons I get an average of 6 hours sleep a night but I don't believe it. I'm asleep within 10 minutes of being in bed at somewhere between 9 & 10 and wake between 5 & 6. I'm not awake for 2 hours of that, I'd remember. It's bollox.
I'm awake enough when I wake to get on a rowing machine or a bike in less than half an hour and am never late for work which starts at 08:00 whether at home or on site.
In the summer I wake earlier but I go to bed earlier. I think I'd like more sleep (who wouldn't) but this has been my daily routine for at least 10 years so I reckon it's probably OK.

[Kim]

As I've got older my body's decided that 6am is a thing.  This is deeply suboptimal, as it tends to lead to me lying awake for hours until either I give up and get up, or my naturally-sleepy phase at around 10am.  The only thing that seems to help is going to bed after 2am or so, which was fine in the days when I didn't feel tired by midnight...

[Lightning Phil]

If you have an alarm put it other side of room, so you have to get out of bed to turn it off.

[Kim]

A vibrating alarm clock brings me from 'REM sleep' to 'ready to fight off the zombie hordes'^[1] in about 0.4 seconds.  Interestingly this also applies to someone else's vibrating watch leaning against my skull (DAHIKT)...


_{[1] Also 'run down the stairs and answer the door before the postman wanders off', which is more frequently useful.}

[ian]

If I didn't have some kind of alarm, I'd probably sleep till noon every day.