My Fitbit Encourage 2 and Apple Watch 7 compete every morning to supply essentially the most correct sleep knowledge.
Maria Diaz/ZDNET
There is a frequent ailment that plagues me and lots of others around the globe: I keep up too late after which get up exhausted, and drag my ft all day, solely to repeat the cycle once more every night time. Most of us know we’re alleged to get the best 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night time, however are you really getting them? I positive as heck am not.
So I made a decision to get a sleep monitoring machine. I like knowledge and seeing issues in black and white, so when it was delivered to my consideration that perhaps a few of my stress was rooted in lack of sleep, I believed a sleep tracker would possibly assist.
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My analysis turned up nice issues about Fitbit’s sleep monitoring algorithm, so I purchased a Fitbit Encourage 2 as step one to mending my damaged sleep. And I am not the one one to take this step: In accordance with the Journal of Scientific Sleep Drugs, 10% of adults in america put on or use a sleep monitoring machine frequently.
Why I put on each a Fitbit and an Apple Watch
Even after getting an Apple Watch, I wasn’t capable of half with my Fitbit.
Maria Diaz/ZDNET
The Fitbit confirmed me that I used to be getting even much less sleep than I believed I used to be. I might anticipated to see loads of wake-ups that I might be capable to attribute to tending to my 1-year-old, however, worse than that, I discovered that I used to be averaging about 4.5 hours of sleep at night time, some nights simply barely making it previous 3 hours.
The perfectionist in me rapidly accepted the problem and I grew to become enthralled by sleep knowledge; I’d get up each morning wanting to see my stats and commenced making aware selections seeking to get not simply extra sleep, however better-quality sleep, all with the aim of enhancing my rating.
Round this time, I additionally bought an Apple Watch 7, however discovered I could not half with my Fitbit. After it stated the giraffe is my sleep animal, my Encourage 2 and I have been buddies. Plus, Apple hadn’t launched WatchOS 9 but, so there was no native monitoring function that might present me my sleep cycles and phases like my valuable Fitbit may.
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That modified with the discharge of WatchOS 9 in September 2022, which allows suitable Apple Watches to trace sleep phases and cycles. My watch leveled up within the sleep monitoring division to higher compete with my Fitbit.
Does the Apple Watch monitor sleep higher than a Fitbit?
The jury remains to be out. For the reason that new WatchOS that tracks sleep phases and cycles has solely been in widespread use for a number of months, there is no definitive reply on the accuracy of its sleep monitoring but. Till some peer-reviewed research evaluating it with different tried-and-true strategies are revealed, anecdotal proof is all we have got.
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I might like to do an precise sleep research whereas sporting my Apple Watch and Fitbit to see how correct they’re at figuring out sleep phases — that is how a lot I like monitoring my sleep. For now, I can solely see the information from having worn each units to mattress for months.
Although I do not know which one is extra correct, I’ve discovered the Apple Watch 7 persistently does three major issues otherwise from the Fitbit Encourage 2. The info beneath is a each day common over seven days of sleep monitoring, the place each units tracked sleep cycles on the identical nights.
1. The Apple Watch reveals extra gentle or core sleep and fewer deep sleep than the Fitbit MetricFitbit Encourage 2Apple Watch 7Time asleep4 hr, 51 m5 hr, 16 mTime awake48 min1 hr, 3 mLight sleep2 hr, 23 m3 hr, 24 mDeep sleep1 hr, 9 m48 mREM sleep58 m1 hr, 38 m
Monitoring your sleep phases and cycles is most precisely achieved by polysomnography; it is not so simple as monitoring your coronary heart fee all night time. Polysomnography analyzes your sleep by monitoring your mind waves, respiratory and coronary heart fee, blood oxygen degree, and eye and physique actions all through the night time. When you sleep throughout a polysomnogram, an electroencephalogram (EEG) might be carried out to measure your mind waves, aka {the electrical} exercise in your mind as you navigate totally different sleep phases.
All these fancy phrases mainly imply that, at this level in fashionable know-how, you may’t monitor sleep cycles with 100% accuracy with units you put on in your wrist, however you may make approximations with a mix of various knowledge sources and a fantastic algorithm or two. That is what wearables do.
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As you may see on the desk above, my Apple Watch tends to trace longer time asleep than the Fitbit by about 25 minutes on common, whereas additionally monitoring barely extra time awake all through the night time. Nevertheless, the most important variations are in Mild/Core sleep and REM sleep; the previous is marked as over an hour longer by my Apple Watch 7, whereas the REM sleep is about 40 minutes longer.
2. Asleep and awake occasions are fairly even for each, with lower than a 20-minute differenceMetricFitbit Encourage 2Apple Watch 7Sleep onset1:40 a.m.1:18 a.m.Awake for the day6:45 a.m.6:53 a.m.
Whereas my Fitbit confirmed much less time asleep than the Apple Watch did, by a mean of 25 minutes, the information I’ve seen over the previous couple of months makes comparisons between each units a toss-up: Some days my Fitbit says I fell asleep a number of minutes or as much as an hour earlier than the Apple Watch marked the onset of sleep, occasions once I was mendacity in mattress studying my Kindle or, sure, watching TikTok.
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On different days the Apple Watch marks sleep onset sooner than my Fitbit, leading to occasions like those proven above. Many components could make this roughly correct, like how tight or unfastened your machine is, which wrist you put on it on, and the way a lot you progress at night time.
3. Exhibits “Time asleep” as longer than “Time in mattress” about half the time
Six of the seven cases the place my Apple Watch has recorded longer occasions asleep than occasions in mattress previously 30 days.
Maria Diaz/ZDNET
The brand new replace to the Apple WatchOS offers it the flexibility to trace sleep phases by analyzing coronary heart fee and motion, and it does so with no less than some accuracy: although it is nonetheless too quickly for revealed, peer-reviewed research, my anecdotal impression is that the Apple Watch is extra correct than Fitbit at sleep monitoring.
Another anecdotal examples, like scientist’s Rob ter Horst’s sleep assessments (video), additionally discovered the Apple Watch post-WatchOS 9 replace to be essentially the most correct at monitoring sleep cycles of the units he is examined.
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However one factor that grinds my gears is that the Apple Watch tends to indicate my whole time asleep as longer than the entire time I really spent in my mattress, as proven within the image above. Complaints from different customers present this is not a brand new drawback, and it makes me query the accuracy of the sleep monitoring knowledge the Apple Watch offers me.
You should purchase an Apple Watch if…
An Apple Watch 7 with knowledge from an evening’s sleep on show.
Maria Diaz/ZDNETYou’re an Apple one that needs a smartwatch with strong sleep monitoring.
The Apple Watch has extra options than a health tracker, like extra third-party apps, for instance, and suits seamlessly into the Apple ecosystem.
When evaluating Apple Watch fashions or deciding whether or not to improve to a brand new Watch mannequin, it is value noting that some options are unique to the Apple Watch Collection 8, like crash detection, which may alert emergency companies within the occasion of a automobile accident, and temperature monitoring, which may assist monitor ovulation through adjustments in basal physique temperature.
Additionally: One of the best Apple Watch fashions of 2023
So far as sleep monitoring, anecdotal proof is break up to date, however I’ve most popular monitoring with my Apple Watch 7 for the reason that WatchOS 9 options rolled out. I discover that it is extra typically correct on displaying my sleep onset time and the occasions I get up throughout the night time, however I can not communicate for the sleep phases knowledge with out additional proof.
You should purchase a Fitbit if…
The tiny and cute Fitbit Encourage 2.
Maria Diaz/ZDNETYou’re group Android, and/or searching for a top-of-the-line health tracker with sleep monitoring.
As a result of Fitbit fashions can sync with each iOS and Android, a Fitbit is a greater possibility for Android customers, for the reason that Apple Watch is unique to iPhone homeowners.
The lineup of Fitbits can be far more inexpensive than the Apple Watch, so when you’re available in the market for a health tracker however do not need to spend an excessive amount of, that is possible a better option.
Although they do not have as many options because the Apple Watch, Fitbit additionally has a line of smartwatches, just like the Fitbit Sense 2, Fitbit Versa 4, and Fitbit Versa 2, in addition to Fitbit monitoring on the Google Pixel Watch.
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