6 OF THE BEST Sleep trackers

THERE is an increasing number of very clever sleep-tracking devices coming on to the market, and many of the extremely popular fitness tracking devices also offer a sleep-tracking function.

However, some sleep specialists don’t wholeheartedly approve of them.

Professor Ellis warns that tracking devices shouldn’t be used as an alternative to a sleep diary unless there is a proper practical reason you can’t complete your sleep diary by hand.

‘Most of the trackers on the market have not yet been tested against the technology that we use in the sleep laboratory,’ he says. ‘ And, unlike a sleep diary, they cannot account for

your impressions of your sleep pattern and how it is affecting you both at night and during the day.

‘Studies show that even normal sleepers wake up a few times in the night, every night, but they will just go back to sleep and don’t remember being awake.

‘I’d be concerned that a sleep tracker might inform a normal sleeper that they woke repeatedly in the night, and thereby fuel unnecessary anxieties — which might in turn fuel insomnia.’

U.S. sleep specialist Chris Winter, author of The Sleep Solution (published by Penguin), has conducted his own tests on a range of sleep trackers, even spending a night in a sleep laboratory while wearing an armful of them, to compare results.

He says sleep trackers and the sleep-tracking function of many of the newer portable fitness tracking devices can help provide useful information about the quality of your sleep.

But he warns they are no substitute for cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and the methods outlined by Professor Ellis in this series. He says many people who have insomnia radically underestimate the amount of time they sleep.

‘Fitness trackers can do a great job of helping people understand that the two hours of sleep they thought they got was in fact closer to six. This reduces anxiety and can help sleep,’ he says.

‘If you want to establish whether you sleep better at the weekend or in the week, a fitness tracker worn over several weeks might help quantify your sleep and point you in the right direction.’