Rest assured with this sleep tracker
Unlock the secrets of your nightly slumber with this fascinating new gadget
Emfit QS Smart Mattress Price: €299. See emfitqs.com
Over recent years, scientists have highlighted the benefits for mind, body and mood when one gets a good eight hours’ sleep. And the arrival of fitness trackers, complete with sleep-monitoring features, has made many of us more aware of how much – and how well – we’re sleeping.
The fitness tracker is useful but it can’t give you the holistic or detailed analysis that dedicated sleep monitors can. Emfit is a Finnish company that has been in business for decades.
The evolution of home Wi-Fi and smartphones has allowed it to create consumer-friendly products more likely to be used by you and me.
The Emfit QS is one such gadget that’s designed to seamlessly integrate into your nightly routine and give you feedback on your sleep. The device itself arrives in a small box and isn’t actually a mattress but a strip of synthetic leather that’s placed under your mattress. As well as the sensor strip, which has a power lead attached, there’s a mains adapter.
Setting up the Emfit is reasonably straightforward. Unusually, it uses Wi-Fi, rather than Bluetooth, to connect to your home network and the Emfit servers. I needed my Wi-Fi password and the Emfit’s unique code to register it online but it was quickly up and running.
The positioning of the sensor strip itself is important. It’s about half the width of a double bed and needs to be placed under the mattress. There is no contact between you and the gadget; instead it uses incredibly sensitive sensors to monitor your sleep. I placed it under the mattress roughly level with my chest to ensure the cardio readings were accurate.
Once the device is powered up and positioned, I forgot about it for a couple of days. I find devices like these don’t tell you anything useful until you have a few days, or even weeks, of information to review. When I signed in online and connected to my account though, the broadness of what the Emfit can tell you became appar- ent. The data is presented clearly and in chart form.
As well as telling me how long I slept each night, the data also shows the class of sleep from deep to light and even REM sleep. My breathing was also monitored each night and my heart rate was recorded. One of the most interesting statistics is how much you move during the night, with any tossing and turning recorded. There is more technical analysis available – including heart-rate variability – and athletes can use the data to review their recovery from exercise.
For the average user, though, the basic analysis is sufficient and there’s also a useful daily wellness report.
The sleep data is presented using the Emfit website and, while it looks good, I think a dedicated app would be useful. Also, the device is made for one person whereas a bigger, double bed version would let a health conscious couple keep an eye on their sleeping stats.
Overall, the Emfit provides a fascinating insight into an important part of our lives. The device could even be useful for monitoring a relative about whom you have concerns, or for addressing sleep problems. It’s well made, good value and, while not a medical device, it gave me more than enough data to change some bad habits and sleep a little sounder.