The Best Sleep Trackers of 2023

How you sleep can deeply impact the following day, so tracking your sleep can give you a good insight into what’s really going on once you enter dreamland. Are you waking up feeling groggy? Struggling to sleep through the night? Tossing and turning too much? Monitor your sleep patterns with a sleep tracker.

What to Look for in a Sleep Tracker in 2023

Sleep trackers come in all different shapes and sizes. Some sleep trackers are built into smartwatches, whereas others can be placed under your mattress or worn on your finger. There are touchless alternatives, too, like the Nest Home Hub, which is a radar-based system for tracking your sleep.

There are various factors to consider when picking a sleep tracker that suits your needs and preferences. By far, the most important thing is accuracy. Some trackers use multiple sensors, like heart rate sensors, accelerometers, and more, to give you a more comprehensive view of your sleep patterns.

Since you’ll be wearing your chosen sleep tracker while you sleep, it should also be comfortable. Consider factors like the size, weight, and design of the device. Some trackers are worn on the wrist or finger, while others can be attached to your mattress or pillows.

To give you an accurate round-up of your sleep each night, the tracker should also provide detailed data and insights about your sleep patterns, such as the time spent in different sleep stages (light, deep, REM), wake-up times, and disturbances. Since many of these trackers use smartphone apps to show you this data, you’ll need to ensure that an app is available for your phone’s OS (iOS or Android).

If you want to take things further than simply tracking your sleep, you may want to get a device that includes features like an alarm clock, which wakes you up at an optimal time within a specified window based on your sleep cycle. Additionally, you might want the tracker to provide notifications or alarms for events like sleep disturbances or deep sleep cycles.

There are plenty of features and options to consider that can help you monitor and improve your sleep quality effectively.

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Best Sleep Tracker Overall: WHOOP 4.0

The WHOOP 4.0 sleep tracker is an innovative and comprehensive wearable fitness device that provides users with a holistic approach to monitoring and improving their overall health and wellness.

When you purchase the WHOOP 4.0, you receive an all-inclusive package. This includes an initial 12-month WHOOP membership, the 4.0 hardware, an Onyx SuperKnit band, and a wearable, waterproof battery pack. This package is specially designed for first-time WHOOP members, making it easy to get started on your journey to better health and performance.

The WHOOP 4.0 excels at continuous monitoring of various physiological data points. It tracks metrics such as your heart rate, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, blood oxygen levels, daily activity, and sleep patterns. This extensive data collection allows users to gain a deep understanding of their health status and track their progress over time.

WHOOP takes a personalized and insight-driven approach to health and wellness. It doesn’t just provide data; it offers clear next steps and a science-backed methodology to help users improve their overall health and optimize performance.

The WHOOP Journal enables users to track and log their daily behaviors, such as activity, diet, stress levels, caffeine intake, and more. The system then calculates which behaviors positively or negatively affect sleep and recovery, making it easier to adopt and maintain healthy habits.

The tracker itself is light and comfortable to wear. There’s no screen and no distractions, and all your data is available on the mobile apps. The only catch is that once the included one-year subscription runs out, it’s a fairly steep monthly or annual cost. But it’s absolutely worth it for a good night’s rest.

If you’re searching for a fitness tracker that not only tracks your sleep but also your workouts and other health metrics, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is worth considering. And although it offers plenty of features, it still keeps a low price, making it one of the most affordable sleep trackers available.

Boasting an AMOLED touch screen, SpO2 sensor, and a generous battery life, there’s a lot to love in this tiny package. While there are lots of other Fitbit smartwatches you can choose from, the Fitbit Inspire 3 keeps things simple and budget-friendly, allowing you to hone in on tracking important metrics. You can easily swipe up to get a daily rundown of your stats, including sleep, SpO2, hourly activity, steps, and so on.

When you’re asleep, the Fitbit Inspire 3 monitors your sleep, breathing rate, skin temperature, SpO2, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability. Using the Fitbit app, you can view graphs of all the metrics to better understand the results. There are also helpful tips depending on your sleep score to help you improve it.

Sleep score is calculated by assessing a few factors; sleep stages, restoration, and sleep duration. You can also dig further into the Sleep tab of the app and look at your blood oxygen saturation which could help alert you to anything you might want to investigate further.

With a wealth of in-depth metrics across various areas, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is an affordable sleep tracker that doubles up as another useful tool. You can purchase the Fitbit Inspire 3 in Black/Midnight Zen or Black/Morning Glow and change up the bands as and when you feel like it, with plenty of excellent third-party options available as well.

A step up above the Apple Watch Series 8, the Apple Watch Series 9 is priced almost identically but brings with it a new powerful processor and a few extra handy features. If you’re an iPhone owner, then the Series 9 is a solid smartwatch that not only looks good but is packed with every smartphone feature you can think of.

The bright 2,000-nit display is a great feature during the day, however, at night, this might prove to be an issue. Thankfully Apple thought about the light sleepers among us. The Apple Watch Series 9 features Sleep Focus mode, meaning the watch will dim to a single nit, allowing for a peaceful night’s sleep.

Using the Sleep app on your Apple Watch, you can track the amount of sleep you had, sleep stage timings, and average sleep over a 14-day period. You can also view these metrics via the Health app on your iPhone, which offers a more detailed look into each stage.

In addition to tracking sleep, the Apple Watch Series 9 also tracks breathing rate, so you can keep an eye on your overall health. Of course, the Series 9 isn’t just for sleep tracking, either, and is a powerful smartwatch that’s a must-have for iPhone users. Boasting a powerful S9 processor, double-tap gestures, on-device Siri commands, and a bright display, what more could you ask for?

Best Non-Wearable Sleep Tracker: Withings Sleep

If you don’t want to wear something physical on your wrist or person but still want in-depth information about your sleep, the Withings Sleep under mattress mat might work best for you. The discreet mat slips under your mattress and delivers data based on changes in pressure and noise while you’re sleeping.

You can set up the mat easily with a few minutes of calibration, and connecting it to your Wi-Fi network lets you access the Withings Health Mate app for iOS or Android and analyze your sleep data. No manual intervention is needed here; sleep, then dig into your in-depth results and see how the night fared.

Different from most sleep monitors or trackers, data for Withings Sleep is gathered by using a pneumatic sensor. It can differentiate between types of movement and sounds, allowing you to see a full breakdown of your night’s sleep in the morning.

An overall sleep score is provided, which consists of sleep duration, depth, time to sleep/get up, and more. You can select a score to show even more data like how restful your sleep was, how long you spent in deep, REM, and light sleep, and even share the results with your healthcare professional.

Withings Sleep is a non-invasive sleep tracker that you’ll forget is even there. You won’t feel it, and you’ll get a detailed breakdown of your sleep each night, which appears to be just as accurate as wearing a physical device.

Sleep Tracker with the Most Comprehensive Data: Oura Ring

Claiming to track over 20 biometric signals, the Oura Ring comes in a range of different colors and is made from tough Titanium, which is built to last. For those who want to track their fitness and sleep data but don’t want to wear a watch or tracker on their wrist, the Oura Ring is much more of a fashion statement yet is comfortable to wear.

Since the Oura Ring features sensors to track metrics, you’ll need to ensure these remain clean and are positioned correctly. Using the Oura app, you can track a whole host of metrics across the day and night. It will even tell you when the optimal time for sleep is depending on your activity and previous sleep scores.

With SpO2 monitoring, the ring can measure your blood oxygen throughout the night. It can also detect when you might be under stress and adjust your goals depending on the results. It’s an all-in-one tracker that you’ll barely feel is there, which is handy if you prefer wearing a ring to a watch.

The catch, though, is that the Oura Ring requires a subscription on top of the initial purchase. Your first month is free, but a monthly payment is required if you want to be able to access in-depth sleep analysis, health insights, health monitoring, and so on. Really, it’s a must-have if you don’t just want a ring to wear on your finger. If you don’t want to invest in a membership, which really you should in order to get the most out of it, you can access sleep, readiness, and activity for free as a non-paying member.

FAQ

Do smartwatches track sleep?

Most smartwatches will feature sleep tracking, either by using heart rate sensors or through the gyroscope/accelerometer built-into the watch.

How do sleep trackers and smartwatches track sleep?

Sleep trackers tend to track sleep, providing metrics on sleep duration and quality, by using motion detectors, also known as accelerometers. These measure movement which can build a bigger picture as to how you have slept.

How accurate are sleep trackers?

Sleep trackers are fairly accurate, but of course, are not as accurate as professional tests. Depending on the sensors used in the sleep tracker, the results may differ.

Are there sleep trackers you don’t need to wear?

Yes, sleep trackers like Withings Sleep, which is a mat that slips under your mattress, don’t require you to physically wear it. It can differentiate between different types of movement, pressure, and sounds to determine sleep/wake cycles.