Sleep is a bit of a unifier – we all do it, after all. More than that, we all have to do it, there’s no getting around it. It’s an activity most of us spend upwards of 30% of our time on this planet doing, so it should be no wonder that it’s worth prioritising.
As with the rest of our health and wellbeing, then, it makes sense that a massive range of options have popped up to let you keep track of your sleep, both in terms of how much you’re getting and the quality of that rest. We’re in the midst of a data revolution, and your sleep’s part of it.
So, if you’re keen to jump on board and start tracking how well you’re spending that time in bed, what are some of the best trackers on the market to do it with? You’re in luck – we’ve put together this handy list of all the very best choices for you. We’ll start with some dedicated bed monitors, before moving on to some wearable options.
Withings Sleep Analyzer
Withings knows what it’s doing with sleep tracking – it’s been doing it for years. The Withings Sleep Analyzer is great evidence of that fact. It’s a flat sensor that slips under you mattress and syncs to your phone wirelessly to deliver you daily insights. It’ll keep track of your sleep phases and give you a sleep score each night, which is mirrored by most systems nowadays.
It’s the accuracy that gets Withings over the line – it tracks sleep really effectively and lets you know when you’ve not had a good night’s sleep, so that you can try to rectify it. The fact that it’s just under your bed working its magic without you worrying about switching it on or forgetting to do so is a great bonus.
Beddit 3.5 Sleep Monitor
Beddit’s sleep tracking is so good that it got Apple to buy it out a few years ago, signalling that sleep tracking is a big business nowadays. Like Withings Sleep, it’s a flat tracker for your bed, although it goes above your mattress, under the sheets. The Apple link-up makes it a great companion if you have iOS devices or an Apple Watch.
It’s a little harder to get your hands on, though, and is quite a lot more expensive – plus having it over your mattress means that sensitive sleepers may not feel it helps them relax. Still, it tracks a great range of data and shows it to you clearly.
S+ by ResMed
Our final non-wearable monitor comes from ResMed, and is a completely non-contact tracker. It sits on your bedside and records light, noise and temperature readings that let it know how you’re sleeping. It’ll check on how your night’s sleep was, and give you tips on how to improve it through the paired smartphone app.
It’s a nice system, and being completely separate means it really won’t impact your comfort at all. The drawback is that if you share a bed it can get confused fairly easily, and it is very sensitive to where you place it to get good results, meaning that if you knock if off its spot you might find yourself untracked.
Fitbit Versa 2
If you’re thinking less of a standalone tracker, and more along the lines of a fitness tracker that can also monitor your sleep, the obvious name is Fitbit. The tracking giant is getting bought by Google, and has real pedigree when it comes to fitness data.
We like the Versa 2 especially, a lightweight smartwatch with some great features like Amazon’s Alexa on board, but also the gamut of great fitness tracking including sleep tracking that is impressively accurate. Plus, with solid week-long battery life, you don’t have to worry that wearing it overnight will destroy your ability to track your sleep.
Withings Steel HR Sport
Our final pick, though, sees us returning to Withings, where we started. It also makes a number of really nice smartwatch hybrids that are minimal when it comes to displays but have loads of tracking on board. You’ll get an analogue watch face, but in the case of the Steel HR Sport a tiny display lets you see key info or select a tracking type manually.
It’ll let you surreptitiously keep track of your wellbeing, and its sleep tracking is also present and correct as a result of heart rate sensing on board. It’s not as accurate as the dedicated sleep system, but the fact that you can wear it overnight and forget about it, while still getting data back, makes it valuable.