The Best Sleep Tech to Help You Catch More ZZZs
Cored Meditation Trainer (Credit: Hyperice)
Sleep deprivation is a real problem. Studies show that not getting enough rest can lead to impaired cognitive skills and health risks like diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, and obesity. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third(Opens in a new window) of American adults don’t get the recommended seven hours of shut-eye per night.
Although we blame our smartphones and their blue light for keeping us awake, there’s also a lot of tech out there that tries to do the opposite. And you don’t have to spend a lot to get a better night’s rest. Here are some of our favorite sleep products, and how they can help you get quality rest.
How to Track Your Sleep
Gaining insight into your sleeping patterns is the first step toward identifying problems and fixing them. Fortunately, sleep is a standard health metric among fitness trackers and smartwatches. When you are evaluating your options, look for a device that can track your sleep stages, overnight heart rate variability (HRV), breathing/respiration rate, blood oxygen saturation level (aka SpO2 or Pulse Ox), and skin temperature.
The Fitbit Charge 5 ticks all those boxes. It tracks the amount of time you spend in light, deep, and REM sleep, and its companion app offers graphs of your sleep stages, sleeping heart rate, and more. It also gives you a daily Sleep Score that can help you quickly gauge the quality of your shut-eye. These insights can be a good wake-up call if you’re not getting enough rest.
Fitbit app
(Credit: Fitbit)
The Charge 5 and other Fitbit devices also track your Estimated Oxygen Variation(Opens in a new window), or the changes in your breathing as you sleep. This information can potentially help you identify signs of sleep apnea and other sleep disorders.
Garmin and Polar wearables also generally do an excellent job of tracking your rest. The Garmin Venu Sq 2 has a Pulse Ox sensor that can monitor your blood oxygen saturation on demand, throughout the day, and while you sleep. It also tracks your overnight respiration and reports your average, highest, and lowest number of breaths per minute.
If wearing a tracker on your wrist to bed is too uncomfortable, you might prefer the Oura Ring. It looks like a basic metal band, but it houses small sensors that keep tabs on your activity, physical and mental health, and sleep.
Garmin Connect app
(Credit: Garmin)
Smartwatches are also capable of sleep tracking, but they tend to be bulkier and have shorter battery lives, which makes them less suitable for overnight use.
The Apple Watch Series 8’s most notable upgrade from the previous generation is the addition of sensors that measure your overnight body temperature. Like other wearables with this feature, the Apple Watch doesn’t let you take an on-demand reading like a basic thermometer, but frequently samples your wrist temperature overnight and tracks changes from your baseline.
Overnight temperature data from the Apple Watch Series 8 (left) and the third-generation Oura (right) for the same time period
(Credit: Apple)
When it comes to sleep tracking, Samsung’s smartwatches have a slight advantage over the Apple Watch. When you wear a Galaxy Watch 5 to bed and place your smartphone on your nightstand, they work together to listen for snoring and can even record it. In the morning, the watch offers a sleep quality score and tips for improving your rest.
Many fitness trackers and smartwatches also let you set silent alarms so they will wake you up with a gentle vibration on your wrist, a handy feature if you share a bed with someone or have roommates in a home with thin walls. You can find this feature on the Apple Watch, the Charge 5, the Venu Sq 2, and others.
Google Nest Hub
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)
As for contactless alternatives, we highly recommend the second-generation Google Nest Hub, which uses imperceptible motion-sensing technology to track your sleep from a bedside table without physically touching you. Several similar bedside sleep trackers exist, including the SleepScore Max(Opens in a new window) and the Hatch Restore 2(Opens in a new window).
Nanit app
(Credit: Nanit)
And if you’re worried about your little ones, options exist for them, too. The Nanit Pro Camera is a baby monitor that can track sleep patterns. This information can help you narrow down a better bedtime for your cherub.
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How Do Smart Mattresses Work?
Another option is to throw out your old spring mattress and upgrade to a high-tech smart bed like the SleepNumber 360 i8. But what does a smart mattress offer over a traditional one?
The Sleep Number 360 i8 features built-in sensors that can track your sleep and other health metrics such as your respiration, heart rate, and HRV. Some smart mattresses can even pick up sound and elevate your head to stop you from snoring. The other component is a companion app, which lets you view your sleep data, overnight health metrics, and trends. This information can help you determine what is and isn’t working so you can adjust your lifestyle accordingly. You might, for instance, notice that you sleep worse on the days you drink coffee in the afternoon, or better if you work out during the day.
Sleep Number SleepIQ app
(Credit: Sleep Number)
Sleep Number’s SleepIQ app also lets you adjust the firmness of your mattress, from ultra-soft to extra-firm, or anywhere in between. Sleep Number’s FlexFit 3 adjustable mattress base can even warm your feet to help you drift off faster, and elevate them to improve circulation.
The big catch with smart mattresses is that they cost a pretty penny. If you’re not that much of a high roller, there are more reasonable options that work with your existing mattress. The Withings Sleep(Opens in a new window) is a thin pad that goes under your mattress and tracks your sleep cycles, heart rate, and snoring. It even lets you control compatible smart lights and thermostats by simply getting into and out of bed.
If temperature issues keep you up, a smart mattress topper like the Eight Sleep Pod Pro Cover or the Perfectly Snug Smart Topper may provide some relief. Both let you adjust your existing bed’s climate from hot to cool via your phone. The Eight Sleep cover offers a wider temperature range, sleep-tracking abilities, and smart alarms, but we found that Perfectly Snug’s air-based system is better for combating night sweats.
To deal with snoring, you also might want to consider a pillow insert, like the Smart Nora. It contains a pump that inflates when a bedside companion device hears snoring.
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Electronic Lullabies: White Noise Machines and More
If noisy neighbors are your biggest problem, there are plenty of solutions that can drown out those distractions.
The QuietOn(Opens in a new window) earbuds are made for sleeping. We haven’t yet tried them, but they promise to block out noise such as snoring and outside traffic.
A white noise machine can also block out the world and offer some peace of mind. The Dreamegg(Opens in a new window) has 24 built-in white noise, fan, and nature sounds. You can leave it on all night or set a 30-, 60-, or 90-minute timer with a memory function that lets you automatically use your last sound each time. It also has a night-light function.
Virtual assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant can play soothing sounds, guided sleep meditations, restful music, or tell you a bedtime story to help you get to sleep. Besides the sleep-tracking Google Nest Hub, our favorite virtual assistant-powered nightstand companion is the Amazon Echo Show 5. It’s the most affordable smart display available, and its small size makes it a good fit for your nightstand.
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How to Set the Mood for Sleep
Before settling in for the night, you can try winding down with some relaxing meditation. The Smiling Mind(Opens in a new window) app (available for Android and iOS) is free and offers guided sleep meditations.
If you’re new to meditation or easily distracted, you might want to check out the Core Meditation Trainer. You hold the orb-like device in your hands as you stream guided meditations via its companion app, and it gently vibrates to help you relax and focus. As you meditate, sensors on top of the device measure the electrical activity of your heart through your thumbs to quantify the benefits of each session on your body. It offers a selection of guided meditations specifically designed to help you prep for sleep.
Dyson TP07 air purifier
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)
Tech can also help you make sure that your bedroom is conducive to rest. Try using smart bulbs for soothing lighting. Most color or ambient white bulbs, such as the Wyze Bulb Color, let you create bedtime and wake-up routines. Since blue tones keep you up, you can adjust your lights to a warmer, yellower tone past a certain time. Likewise, you can program a gradual fade-in to intense blue-tone lighting that mimics natural daylight to slowly wake you up in the morning.
You also might consider springing for a smart thermostat or air conditioner that you can control with your voice or phone so you don’t have to get up after you’re already comfy. If your allergies flare up at night, a smart air purifier might be able to help. The Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, our favorite model, doubles as a smart fan that can keep you cool.
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Sleep App-nea: How Your Smartphone Can Help You Rest
If all these solutions sound like too much effort or investment, rest assured that countless mobile apps aim to help you sleep. They tend to fall into one of three categories: tracker, smart alarm, and white noise.
Your iPhone can help you create a nightly routine, limit which apps you use at bedtime, and automatically put itself into Do Not Disturb mode before you drift off.
SleepCycle(Opens in a new window) is a free app that uses your phone’s microphone to track your sleep patterns and can wake you up at an optimal time when you’re in a light sleep.
SleepCycle App
(Credit: SleepCycle)
For smart alarms, we can attest to the effectiveness of Alarmy(Opens in a new window) (available for both Android and iOS). If you use it properly (no cheating), there is no defeating it other than to delete it from your phone. The gist is that the app requires you to take a geo-specific photo, shake it furiously, or solve a math puzzle to turn it off. You can’t turn down the volume, you can’t hit snooze, and rebooting does nothing.
White noise apps are a dime a dozen, and for some people, a little white noise is all they need.
All in all, sleeping smarter doesn’t have to be rocket science. No matter your budget, there’s plenty of sleep tech available to help you get a better night’s rest.
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