Apple Watch, FitBit, Gear S2 Sleep Tracker App Review: Do They Actually Work?

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The advancement in technology doesn't stop with smartphones and telecommunications. There are also tech-wearables that are designed for health and fitness like FitBit and Beddit to name a few.

According to Center for Disease Control, insufficient sleep is a public health concern. Four in every 10 Americans get less than the recommended amount of sleep each night and 70 million Americans have sleep disorders.

Sleep problems should be addressed because they do not only affect how one feels during the day as it also raises one's risk for cardiovascular problems, diabetes, weight gain, accidents and other problems, aHealthierMichigan reported.

Will wearable sleep trackers help you address your sleep problems? Do these devices really work?

Dr. Christopher Winter took the time to experiment with the different sleep trackers to see if these devices do work. The experiment began when he arrived at the sleep center with different devices for tracking sleep, including Philips Actiwatch Spectrum, Basis Chrome, Jawbone Up, FitBit Flex and 24/7.

Winter worked with a registered polysomnographic technician with years of experience to stage his sleep. When Winter got into the bed, he tapped all the wearables to signal the devices that he will be sleeping and after turning off the lights, he fell asleep quickly.

When he woke up, they checked the results shown in each device. The Actiwatch Spectrum did great in separating sleep and awakenings. The Basis Chrome impressed him with its amazing job of characterizing sleep stages but it did not detect the final REM cycle.

The Jawbone produced an impressive amount of data and even attempted to distinguish the number of hours for light sleep and deep sleep. FitBit, on the other hand, focuses on detecting the periods of disturbed sleep and wakefulness. 24/7, the app for iTouch, generated a complete arbitrary series of stages during the night and even recorded unusual sounds and captured a period of snoring, Winter wrote on his blog.

Winter thinks that the Basis Chrome stands out in terms of accuracy in sleep monitoring perspective. However, he was reluctant to declare winners and losers because he only collected one night of data.

"The bottom line is that any device on your wrist that makes you think twice about staying up too late is a good thing," he said.

Well, it seems that sleep trackers are efficient in making people get to bed earlier.

Beth Lipton also shared her experience with Beddit in Fox News Health. According to her, nighttime procrastination is a real problem for her but the tracker helped her overcome it. She doesn't want to score low in Beddit, so she sleeps early. "It sounds crazy, but using the tracker has cured me of my bedtime procrastination habit," she said.