Beddit 2.0 Smart Sleep Tracker

The Beddit sleep tracking experience is certainly excellent and very user friendly. This is why...I have to admit that I consider myself a gadget nerd and love this sort of sleep data. I am actually a doctor (radiologist) and biomedical engineer. I have been using Beddit for 3 weeks and I have also just received a competing device (I shipped it from the USA to Sydney Australia where I live) and tracked my first two sleep nights comparing both the Beddit data versus the S+ device. I think they work on a similar principle of balistocardiography with Beddit using a contact resistive strip vs S+ using a ultrasounds to obtain the same graph. However the Beddit RAW data I believe is likely to be more sensitive and accurate as it tracks heart rate very accurately. Please see below the graphs of the S+ vs Beddit data of two consecutive sleeps. The graph at the top is from the S+ and one bellow it is from the Beddit. I extracted these graphs from their respective online companion sites that keep a record of your data. They have an amazing amount of correlation for the deep sleep part of the sleep cycle. You can see however that S+ estimates REM and that it is not actually in the deep part of the cycle. Not shown on these graphs but shown on the iOS Beddit app are the restless motion times and the snoring time points.Whilst the RAW data between these devices looks the same including little ‘blips’ for the hear rate motion, the S+ device only advertises that it tracks respiration which of course is a far larger body motion and less prone to noise. I suspect that S+ may actually be processing HR in the background but because its likely a little unreliable they have not advertised this function. But I have give them credit for producing REM data. Since they have been in the game for a long time and also published clinical studies on their device (just like Beddit has) I guess that the REM data is not all a stab in the dark perhaps (however scientifically you really need EEG to truely detect REM - like the Zeo device that uses a head band and which unfortunately the company that made it went out of business) . There is no a reason why Beddit cannot estimate REM like S+. In fact Beddit has the upper hand based on not having to worry about fiddly positioning the S+ device for instance and because of the accurate HR information.Sleep score comparison:Night one - I felt like I had an Ok nights's sleep (did some exercise that day, ate well, went to bed early and had a longer sleep but not as long as I wanted)Beddit scored me 64/100S+ scored me 77/100Night two - I had a terrible night of sleep (went to bed late, diet was suboptimal during the day, woke up early and felt groggy in the morning)Beddit scored me 41/100S+ scored 72/100You can see which device matched more closely how I felt.Where I think Beddit excels:- incorporates snoring information- includes sleep efficiency data- break up of different practical sleep periods like awake time, time to fall asleep, away from bed time and restless sleep time.- accurate HR data - you can even extract Heart rate Variability (HVR) from the companion website! - nerds know this is a big deal- the app looks nice and modern and updated!- sleep score more accurately reflects how you feel- the results and tips of your nights sleep are available straight away on waking.Where I wish Beddit could improve on:- been able to dig down on the data more on the phone itself - such as touching a part of the graph with a time popup been displayed and a line to correlate to the period on the sleep or HR graph. However, you can do this on the companion website however - estimate of REM times (even if you could say that it is a beta data). I am actually having second thoughts on this however due to the experience with the second sleep night with the S+. On the second night where I used the devices simultaneously, I had a terrible night of sleep. The Beddit correctly scored be were as the S+ gave me a high score and near full marks for REM and Deep which I am just not ready to believe. I need more time with it to see if this continues to be a theme.- option to increase the HR log frequency. Based on the entries Beddit sends to the Apple Health app (I have an iPhone) it appears that Beddit records HR every 5 minutes. I wish you could have the option of recording the HR every minute (like the Basis Peak use to) or more. I know that Beddit can definitely do this.I have been interested in REM sleep tracking for a while which is why I have doubled up on the sleep monitoring device. I wish I could have compared the Beddit, S+ and my Basis Peak watch (before I sent it back) at the same time. Unfortunately the Basis Peak watch is currently having a world wide refund/recall issue due to a small number of people complaining about overheating. It did however track REM but I have no idea how accurate it was. Its HR was very accurate but it did not track respiratory rate.Eventually I plan of going to a sleep lab one day and comparing the Beddit and S+ with polysomnography.For now I will continue to use Beddit and S+ every night. I suspect my patience for the S+ may wear out sooner as it is physically a larger device that takes up space on my bedstead and the questionable REM data (need more time with it to make my final decision on this). Right now, because I can get REM data from the S+ and HR from the Beddit I consider them complementary.

Overall disappointed.. several reasons:a) sleep score is bunk.. a sleepless night can still have a high score, and does, if you lie awake and do not get up.b) many times (20%) you check in morning for results and it says there was an error connecting.. this is a product flaw. it should have figured this out night before.C) many times (20%) it shows no data for portions of the night, for no good reason.d) It is not accurately tracking when I get out of bed at night.. about 70% accurate.e) the advice it provides has nothing to do with your results.f) there is no way to use the data over a period of time to draw conclusions.. eg. export it to a tool that rolls it up.Overall, this seems like a product that needs major fixes to survive.

I bought this to start tracking my sleep habits as I was having a terrible time falling asleep, followed by fatigue in the mornings. The strip was easy to install and pair to my phone via a hand-holding wizard in the app. The strip itself is passive, so no worries about EMFs disturbing your sleep aside from the potential of your phone's cell and/or bluetooth broadcasting... Just make sure to keep your phone 3' from your head when you sleep. My first nit comes with the strip itself, which is just barely long enough to reach halfway across my queen-sized bed. I'm now confined to exactly half of my sleeping area if I want the tracker to measure my sleep, which is unfortunate as I like to sprawl. Nevertheless, I've gotten used to it. And, just having the strip there monitoring your sleep puts a bug in your head to stay in position throughout the night which at first actually messes with your sleep a bit until you get used to it. The app works well but it's a bit tough figuring out the best mode--automatic or manual. If you set it on manual you have to toggle the tracker active when you hit the hay and off again in the morning. Every day. If you leave it on automatic, it switches on based on pressure and off somehow magically after you wake up. However, I've had some issue getting this to work just right with my own workflow. I leave Bluetooth off during the day so it doesn't suck up battery life and switch it on just before bed to enable the Beddit tracker, then I go brush my teeth. Most the time when I lay down it takes the tracker a bit to register and activate, and sometimes it flat-out doesn't... forcing me to close and reopen the app itself. The few times I've just assumed it would work, I got funky sleep results almost like it took a while to start tracking. So, if you use automatic be sure it starts tracking (on) before you lock the phone for the night. Aside from all that usability stuff, the data you get from it is really pretty cool. Beddit tracks your respiration, pulse rate, uses the mic on your phone to note snoring and also flags times away from the bed. It tells you how long it took you to fall asleep, the depth and consistency of your sleep phases (graph) and gives you an overall sleep score in the morning which you can compare vs. previous weeks/months to note trends. Another nit, since I was worried about sleep apnea I was hoping for a way to tell if I was choking or if my breathing stopped followed by gasps and elevated heart rate over the course of the night. Using Beddit you can look at the heart rate patterns but there's no simple way to register gasps or choking at night (obstructive apnea), unless of course these gasping episodes register as snoring in the app. Hard to say for sure but this would be a great feature-add as sleep studies cost upwards of $1,000. In the end, using Beddit I started removing/tweaking things which are known to disturb sleep and discovered (visually) that even a cup of coffee per day was wreaking havoc on my sleep quality. I cut the coffee and boom, sleep depth and quality went way up! Using the data it gave me, I also found out that it takes me hours to fall asleep. I have since read up on using melatonin and light therapy to try and shift your sleep cycle, and bought a Philips Wake Light to help bend the curve in the right direction. In short, this tool has given be insight into what used to be pretty nebulous stuff and from that I've started to make some good lifestyle changes.