Do Sleep Trackers Work? (and are they worth it?)

“Sleep deprivation is the most common brain impairment.”

– William C. Dement (founder of the Sleep Research Center at Stanford University)

A couple of weeks ago we looked at the evidence that sleep deprivation does a lot of bad things to us. Lack of sleep reduces our cognitive abilities, makes us fat,  and reduces our life span, and makes me grumpy. 

We took note of some famous people who sleep a lot and discovered that most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep every night. 

I have been a Fitbit Versa wearer for a couple of years now since Jill and I bought them on a Black Friday sale that got the price down to about $80. I like to sleep, but I like to work out too. I’ve found that if I don’t get my workout in first thing in the morning, it rarely gets done. 

This causes trouble for my sleep. I live a pretty simple life. I need time for work, working out, sleep, family and God – and I’m always trying to get in a couple of those at the same time for efficiency – but let’s not get into the downsides of multi-tasking. 

So, because I’ve got more to do than fits into a 24-hour day my sleep generally gets cheated. In fact, my Fitbit rarely tells me that I get over 7 hours in a night. I might be in bed for 7.5 hours, but my watch tells me I was asleep for less than 7. 

Are these things accurate?

If the experts say I need at least 7 hours of sleep, I want to get at least 7 hours of sleep. I’ve got a lot to get done and a growing family. I want to live a long and healthy life. I need to be at the top of my game every waking minute I’ve got. 

So, is the Fitbit accurate? I found some studies that say they are. Several studies have compared them to formal sleep studies that occur in a sleep lab and found that sleep trackers with heart rate tracking are pretty accurate. 

A study in the Journal of Sleep found that “wrist-worn devices with movement and cardiac sensors can be used to determine sleep stages with a reasonable degree of accuracy in normal adult sleepers but without the cost and artificial sleep environment of a sleep laboratory.”

I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in checking into an overnight sleep study unless I have some serious issues that cannot be otherwise fixed. This study and others like it show that trackers like the Fitbit Versa are “good enough” to help average folks like me work to improve our sleep. 

How do we use sleep trackers to sleep better?

Start wearing it to sleep and use the app to measure your results. Also, measure life outcomes that matter most to you. I have found that my self-discipline is directly correlated with my sleep. 

I find it much easier to do hard things in the morning. I find it almost impossible to do them in the evening when my energy tank is low. That is why workouts get done in the morning and I try to fix my work meals the night before (actually, my amazing wife does that for me way more often than I do – I’m so blessed).

When I am low on sleep my ability to concentrate and get work out the door is lower. I have less patience with the kids and I have way less discipline for eating healthy. 

When I’m more rested, I do better at all of these things that matter to me. Try it for yourself and let me know what you find out. Sleep is a personal thing. Find the number of hours that produce the best outcomes for you, then do everything you can to get those hours.  

Once last sleep quote before we go:

“Everyone should have kids. They are the greatest joy in the world. But they are also terrorists. You’ll realize this as soon as they are born and they start using sleep deprivation to break you.” –Ray Romano

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