Other sleep trackers we’ve tested
Photo: Simon Hill
Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen for $90: Second generation Nest Hub Uses radar to track your sleep, which means you don’t need to wear anything, but it also has a microphone to track snoring, sleep talk and other night sounds. I love the Nest Hub for smart home control on my nightstand, family photos, and listening to sleep sounds or podcasts in bed, but the sleep tracking consistently overestimated my REM stages and missed wake times that could have been better. Other trackers recorded. When I used multiple trackers at the same time, the Nest Hub was at the forefront.
Sleep Routine: Tracker and alarm for $7/month or $60/year (iOS/android): You don’t necessarily need a new gadget, as there are several sleep-tracking apps. I tested the sleep routine on my iPhone 14 Pro. The app provides a report for each night, breaking down your sleep into awake, light, deep and REM. The results seemed accurate and roughly matched the Ultrahuman Ring Air. You can add notes to help you better understand your sleep, and it creates a sleep pattern analysis and shows your statistics over time. The smart alarm function wakes you up gently. You can try Sleep Routine for a week before you subscribe. The problem? The app may be a bit buggy. Twice a week, I got an error message in the morning with no report or very little recorded sleep. Disturbingly, there was no indication as to why it failed.
Withings ScanWatch 2 for $350: Wear the Withings Scan Watch 2 (7/10, WIRED recommends) to sleep and you’ll get a sleep score of one out of 100 in the morning. It covers the same four stages as other trackers (awake, REM, light and deep) but boasts a PPG sensor to measure your breathing rate. It can also track your heart rate, temperature, and blood oxygen levels. ScanWatch 2 provides tons of data and advice in the Withings app. But some people may find it heavy and uncomfortable for sleep, and it had problems distinguishing between light sleep and when I was awake in bed.
Muse S Gen 2 Headband for $400: This headband has sensors capable of tracking your brain activity, along with an accelerometer and gyroscope, an electroencephalogram (EEG), and a PPG sensor to measure heart rate and blood circulation. It’s primarily a meditation aid designed to help you relax, but it also tracks your sleep, your heart rate, breathing, sleep time, and how much you moved around to give you a total sleep score. can record Sadly, I found it uncomfortable to wear and often woke up to find that the sleep tracking had failed, usually because I had taken it off at night. It is also very expensive.
Philips Sleep Headphones with Cocoon for $270: While pairing earbuds with sleep tracking is a smart idea, wearing these headphones made it difficult for me to sleep. The tiny earbuds plug into a curved control unit designed to sit on the back of your head, and they’re relatively comfortable because everything is covered in soft silicone. The companion app plays meditations, soothing sounds, and sleep stories to help you quit or drown out a snoring partner. You can also connect via Bluetooth to play your own content. Sleep tracking is limited, showing the familiar four stages, sleep efficiency, and consistency, but I often woke up to find that they had turned off during the night and shortened my sleep tracking.
Biostrap Kairos for $900: This lightweight wristband has a PPG sensor and accelerometer to track your heart rate, breathing and HRV. It tracks sleep broken into wakefulness, light and deep sleep (REM will be added soon), and combines your biometrics to give you a sleep score. It also surveys you every morning about the quality of your sleep, and how refreshed you feel, as well as asking how you feel when you wake up and before you go to bed. It seems pretty accurate, but it’s designed for researchers, medical staff, and organizations trying to monitor employee health or study the effectiveness of new services or products, so it’s not available for most people to buy. is
