Google Nest Hub, Apple Watch, and the pros and cons of sleep tracking



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I slept with my gadgets – five of them.

These sensors on my bedside table, under my mattress and on my wrists automatically capture all kinds of information overnight. I swim in a sea of ​​data – time in bed, time to fall asleep, time it took to fall asleep, number of disturbances, percentage of light and deep sleep, instances of snoring, average heart rate, average breaths per minute. The point of it all: to fix my groggy mornings.

The pandemic has left me perpetually in debt asleep, and apparently I’m not alone. Can any of these smart bedside bracelets, watches, tampons or screens help me wake up more rested and refreshed?

Sleep tracking has long been offered on wearable devices like Fitbit, but recently more and more gadget makers are entering the bedroom. Last September, the Apple Watch received a sleep tracker app with WatchOS 7. Google’s recently announced next-gen Nest Hub, which starts shipping on Tuesday, has a radar sensor designed to measure nighttime movement. and even breathing patterns.

Trackers draw attention to an often overlooked but vital aspect of our health that sleep experts say is a good thing. But doctors and psychiatrists I spoke to also questioned the devices’ ability to accurately capture certain data, such as stages of sleep, and said people can easily be overwhelmed by the deluge of data. which leads to more stress blocking sleep.

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