She enjoys writing about a variety of health and personal finance topics. When she’s away from her laptop, she can be found working out, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her family. Information provided on Forbes Health is for educational purposes only.
Plus, users can create their own custom soundscapes by layering and looping their favorite relaxing sounds as they fall asleep. The low profile of the Withings Sleep allows it to unobtrusively collect data on your sleep experience from underneath your mattress. Sensors in the device detect heart rate, breathing, and movement, and this data is processed to produce reports on your sleep cycle, heart rate, and breathing, with an overall sleep score. Rest periods between workouts allow the body to repair micro-tears in muscle fibers caused by exercise. Without adequate rest, the risk of overtraining increases, leading to diminished performance and injury.
Does Sleep Recovery Tracking Really Help Improve Sleep Quality?
When it’s time to wake up, Pillow uses sleep data to find a user’s lightest sleeping state and gently wake them with an alarm, helping them wake up feeling refreshed, according to the company. Should users require a quick burst of energy during the day, the app’s timer feature can also support short power naps. BetterSleep focuses on helping users achieve high-quality sleep by creating and maintaining effective sleep routines. The app features a wide variety of calming soundscapes, including ASMR, nature sounds, music, meditations and bedtime stories so users can select their preferred method to lull themselves to sleep. What’s more, the app offers bedtime reminders so users can begin their evening routines and drift off to sleep at their preferred time each night, as well as timers, which turn the app off after a set time. For sleep tracking to benefit you, you need to be able to easily understand the information presented to you.
Do you want a sleep tracker, or a smartwatch that can track sleep?
Discover the Oura Ring 4, our top-recommended sleep and recovery tracker for its accuracy, comfort, and comprehensive insights. For women who want a simpler overall picture of their sleep trends, even a smartwatch can help. But for those honed in on improving their overall recovery, multi-sensor devices can interpret (rather than just collect) data.
Tip: Focus on Trends, Not Single Nights
Rest Recovery is an intensive outpatient treatment program that specializes in providing highly individualized care for mental health, trauma and substance use disorders. Our integrated approach to recovery is built on unique programming and hands on learning experiences that extend beyond individual therapy and group sessions. We understand that each client has a unique history and we believe recovery looks different for everyone. The most straightforward method is using a timer, either on your phone or a stopwatch. A countdown timer is ideal because it removes any ambiguity about when to start the next set.
Consider working with a nutritionist to optimize your dietary choices and ensure you are meeting your individual needs. Learn the best strategies for recovering after each track and field race with our featured guide. Enhance your performance and reach reviews of unimeal your full potential on the track.
To assess accuracy, a tracker should be compared head-to-head with a home sleep test or a formal sleep study, which takes place overnight in a specialized lab. This type of comparison is not always practical, though, especially since sleep trackers are constantly being updated with new features and technology. The headband is equipped with sensors that measure brain activity to gauge the amount of time you spend in different stages of sleep.
The Sleep Need vs Sleep Taken chart shows your requirements against actual rest. Sleep Debt tracking accumulates deficits over time, revealing chronic exhaustion patterns. The Bed Time Analysis identifies your average bedtime with deviation tracking. The comprehensive sleep tracking guide explains how to improve each component. The information available in Athlytic is much more detailed than the other apps on this list, providing training and recovery trends, HRV levels, cardio fitness and much more.
How to Improve Flexibility with Daily Stretching
On the flip side, if you got a good night’s sleep, you may find that the number shrank more than expected during the night. Again, you don’t want to read too much into this number; it’s just an estimate, after all. But it’s a good sign if you find you’re recovering quickly from your hard workouts. If I get a long recovery time, that’s a reminder that I did actually work pretty hard, and I should make sure my efforts are balanced over time with easy and hard days. Any good training program will keep that in mind, anyway—with or without a watch putting a number on it.
I Tested A Bunch Of Sleep Trackers To Help Me Get A Full Night’s Rest
The Whoop 4.0 also comes with a portable battery pack that slides onto the tracker itself. The result is you can go several days without ever having to take the tracker off. For example, you can opt to wear it on your bicep, in your leggings, or even in a sports bra. Of all the sleep gadgets I’ve tested, the Oura Ring has the best context for its data, which it presents in an intuitive way. Its version of blood oxygen monitoring is also preferable to the random spot checks found on devices like the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. Instead, the Oura Ring passively monitors your blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels during sleep and encourages you to check your baseline over a long period of time.
Lifestyle Factors
- Track pain levels before bed, sleeping positions that help or hurt, and morning stiffness duration.
- Each morning, you’re given a report on your readiness, sleep quality, and activity goals for the day.
- Not working out can often be the best thing for both your mind and body — sometimes, less really is more.
- Advanced health, fitness, and longevity insights to help you perform at your peak, longer.
- Between these tools, the Whoop provides daily summaries of your recovery (how ready you are to take on strain), sleep (how well did you rest last night), and strain (how hard did you work yesterday).
- Without a subscription, the Fitbit app provides your total sleep time and your time spent in each sleep stage, which are two components of your Sleep score.
Designed to be worn as a wristband and powered by a long-lasting battery, the WHOOP 4.0 gathers detailed data about your sleep and works as a high-level fitness tracker. Offered in multiple styles and finishes, Oura Ring 4 has a stylish look that complements its in-depth tracking of sleep and daily activity. One charge gets you up to eight days of battery life, and the titanium build is lightweight and gentle on your skin. Every evening (or other sleep period, if you’re working on a different schedule), the Whoop collects data across five different sensors. The Whoop’s analytics engine analyzes the quality of your sleep, with a specific focus on HRV and resting heart rate to determine just how recovered your body is. Many fitness apps, like Fit Records, include rest timers built into workout logs, making it even easier to track your rest periods.
Our testers wore their sleep trackers all day, not just at night, as activity closely informs rest and recovery. Neither of these two Android-only watches is an option for iPhone users, of course. If you refuse the green bubble life, the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch overall but its native sleep-tracking features have a long way to go.
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Another pitfall is ignoring subjective feelings if you feel well-rested despite a low sleep score, trust your body’s signals rather than the data alone. Additionally, avoid making drastic changes based on short-term data. The value of subscription-based trackers depends on how you use the data and features. Devices like Oura Ring and Whoop require subscriptions but provide more detailed analysis, personalized recommendations, and regular feature updates. If you actively use these insights to improve your sleep and recovery, the subscription may be worthwhile.
Key Features to Consider When Choosing a Sleep Tracker
This distraction-free recovery tracker helps you monitor your sleep quality and cardiovascular strain. Taking all that into consideration, I’ve compiled these recommendations based on how well a sleep gadget addresses the problems it’s trying to fix. We also considered comfort, accuracy, battery life, and whether it provides good context for its data. Sleep tech runs the gamut from trackers and apps to expensive smart beds, but it doesn’t all address the same issues. Are you trying to see how your sleep impacts your athletic performance?
Watchers
Between these tools, the Whoop provides daily summaries of your recovery (how ready you are to take on strain), sleep (how well did you rest last night), and strain (how hard did you work yesterday). For anyone that uses real time and trending metrics in their professional role, Whoop’s graphics will be very intuitive. If you don’t think you’ll utilize the advanced functionality of a smartwatch, a basic, budget-friendly fitness tracker may be sufficient. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra is rugged, waterproof, and reliable, making it a great option for outdoor enthusiasts who are willing to invest in a high-quality, high-performance tracker.
Best Lifetime Subscription
These reports tell you how your sleep impacts your daily ability to take on stress, and whether you should take it easy or challenge yourself. The app also includes wellness features like guided meditations and white noise to help you fall asleep. If you use the Natural Cycles app for digital birth control or fertility planning, it can be used in lieu of a basal body thermometer as well.
Other colors and styles cost extra, and you get free hardware upgrades when a new model comes out. Advanced health, fitness, and longevity insights to help you perform at your peak, longer. Alena is a professional writer, editor and manager with a lifelong passion for helping others live well. She is also a registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and a functional medicine certified health coach.
“Before I wouldn’t respect my body, I would feel like I would need a rest or to lower the intensity of my training but I would just push https://www.healthline.com/health/hydration-top-iphone-android-apps-drinking-water on.” It’s accumulated throughout the day in workouts, but also general movement. So activities like cleaning, commuting, and moving house would all build up your strain score.
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