How Do Smartwatches track Sleep?

In this article, we will learn how do smartwatches track sleep. In recent years, we have seen many smartwatches fashioning a sleep tracking sensor. It is really interesting how a device sitting on your wrist tracks the quality of your sleep. Sleep is something meta-physical because you may have your eyes closed yet not asleep. You can be conscious of your surroundings even when you have your eyes closed. Actual sleep removes your senses, and you will be like a dead person.

So, it is a feeling, and tracking how someone is feeling cannot be explained with simple devices. Therefore, we take a deep dive into the smartwatch’s sleep tracking mechanism to quench our thirst for knowledge.

Importance of Sleep:

Let us do a simple calculation. There are 24 hours in a day, and doctors say that a healthy person needs to sleep at least 8 hours for a complete recovery of a fatigued body. So, a healthy person will sleep one-third of the day! That means one-third of his life will be spent sleeping. If a person lives for 60 years, s/he will spend 20 years sleeping! That is an astonishing number!

However, that also shows how important sleep is to our bodies. We can eat when we are hungry, drink when thirsty, and breathe every second, but without sleeping, these three activities will create a disorder and imbalance. People even die from sleep deprivation. When people sleep, their bodies will go into a state of low power consumption and let the whole system recharge.

If someone does not get proper sleep, his body will feel stressed. This will lead to even more sleep disturbance. Besides, if your health is not good, your mind will feel the same. You will become more anxious and depressed. This can also be the other way round. When someone is suffering from severe mental issues, he will feel lethargic, tired, and have trouble sleeping.

Usually, when a person is working in various different shifts or time segments of the day, he will have a night of disturbed sleep. Because he is actually getting back to work even before his body is properly recovered from the irregular shift of the previous day. There is no routine in shifting duties. If you are doing the night shift, it does not mean that you will be doing night shifts for the rest of your service life. You do eight to twelve hours today and only get home to do the household work, eat, and then sleep, only to wake up after a few hours to do your evening shift the next day.

When you face these kinds of threats to your lifestyle, you need to adapt and revise the routine of your daily life to make time for proper sleep. Sleep disturbance causes anxiety, depression, sudden mood swings, loss of energy, agitated behavior, problems in relationships, and a normal function of your body during the day. This is why sleep is important to your body, and we feel the need to learn about the quality of our sleep.

Sleep quality monitor of your smartwatch:

Although it is not quite possible to fully understand the quality of sleep through the data. The only person who can actually tell how he slept is the person who slept. In this section of the article, we will have a look at the mechanisms of a sleep monitor of typical smartwatches.

First of all, the sleep monitors will track the duration of your sleep. The next data they provide is the quality of your sleep. This can be divided into REM and Non-REM, or light, deep, and REM data. Another thing is the sleep cycle. Sometimes, although we set the alarm, our sleep is not complete. The expectation of an alarm sound may sometimes cause harm to your sleep cycle. The smartwatches equipped with this function will record the data. The last thing is the detection of irregular breathing during your sleep due to sleep apnoea. You need to take the data and talk to your doctor. You cannot take any measures yourself because these are not certified medical devices. So, to understand the data, you will need the help of a doctor.

How do sleep trackers work:

In older smartwatches, sleep tracking is done via the accelerometer. If your body moves, this sensor will detect your body movement and flag it. Usually, body movement is typical behavior when you are asleep. If the frequency of the movement is too high, then the quality of your sleep is thought to be below, and if you move less within a period of time, your sleep quality is considered good.

The most recent smartwatches with heart rate and SpO2 monitors can detect your sleep quality a bit more accurately. However, because these sensors rely only on your physical movement, they will flag a sleep duration even if you are lethargically sitting on a sofa or lying on your bed and watching a movie or reading a book and not moving. To get actual workable data, you will need a fully equipped laboratory to track your sleep. Our everyday smartwatches are not simply capable enough to do something like that.

However, smartwatches can give you the data through a graphical representation like a graph or chart. You will be able to grasp the situation very quickly that way.

How to sleep better:

There are a lot of things you can do to make your body fall asleep. Let us have a look.

Eat a balanced diet. Eat at least two hours before your bedtime.
Do light walks around the neighborhood or within your house for 10 minutes before bedtime.
If you have a gym membership, make good use of it. Do some weight training and cardio after the office.
Set the alarm on your alarm clock or cellphone and leave it on your desk.
Do not use a cell phone on your bed.
Avoid watching TV while you are on your bed.
Try to read a book. It is the best sleeping pill in bed.
Avoid alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine at any cost during the day or before bed.
If you have an air conditioner, keep the room temperature comfortable.
Get a comfortable bed and pillows.
Book for a full body massage once or twice a week to loosen up your body.

We hope you have learned a few new things from this article and will be able to sleep better from now on. Try to keep to the advice given to you for a good sleeping session.