Other sleep trackers we tested
Photo: Simon Hill
Google Nest Hub 2nd generation for $90: Second generation Nest Hub uses radar to track your sleep, meaning you don’t need to wear anything but also has a microphone to monitor snoring, sleep talking and other nocturnal sounds. I love the Nest Hub on my nightstand for smart home control, family photos, and listening to sleep sounds or podcasts in bed, but sleep tracking always overestimates REM stages mine and missed out on periods of alertness that other trackers recorded. When I use multiple trackers at once, the Nest Hub is the exception.
Sleep Habits: Tracker & Alarm for $7/month or $60/year (iOS/Android): You don’t necessarily need a new gadget as there are several sleep tracking apps out there. I tested my iPhone 14 Pro’s sleeping habits. This app provides reports for each night, dividing your sleep into awake, light, deep, and REM states. The results appear to be accurate and broadly consistent with the Ultrahuman Ring Air. You can add notes to help it better understand your sleep, while it builds analysis of your sleep patterns and displays your statistics over time. The smart alarm function wakes you up gently. You can try the Sleep Routine for a week before needing to sign up. Problem? This application can be a bit confusing. A few times a week I get an error message in the morning with no reports or very short recorded sleep. What’s annoying is that there’s no indication as to why it failed.
Withings ScanWatch 2 for $350: Wear Withings ScanWatch 2 (7/10, WIRED recommended) go to bed and you will receive a sleep score of 100 in the morning. It includes 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 monitor your heart rate, temperature, and blood oxygen levels. ScanWatch 2 offers a wealth of data and advice within the Withings app. But some people may find it cumbersome and uncomfortable to sleep on, and it’s difficult to distinguish between light sleep and when I’m lying awake in bed.
Muse S Gen 2 headband for $400: This headband has sensors capable of monitoring your brain activity, similar to an electroencephalogram (EEG), along with an accelerometer and gyroscope, as well as a PPG sensor to measure heart rate and blood circulation. This is primarily a meditation aid designed to help you relax, but it can also track your sleep, recording your heart rate, breathing rate, time taken to fall asleep, and how well you move. moves around to give you an overall sleep score. Sadly, I found it uncomfortable to wear and often woke up to find the sleep tracking wasn’t working, usually because I’d taken it off at night. It’s also too expensive.
Philips Sleep Headphones with Kokoon for $270: While combining headphones with sleep tracking is a smart idea, wearing these headphones makes it harder for me to sleep. The small headphones plug into curved controllers designed to rest on the back of your neck, and they’re relatively comfortable because everything is covered in flexible silicone. The companion app plays meditations, soothing sounds, and sleep stories to help you reduce or drown out your partner’s snoring. You can also connect via Bluetooth to play your own content. Sleep tracking is limited, showing four familiar stages, sleep efficiency, and consistency, but I often woke up to them appearing during the night and cut my sleep tracking short. I.
Biostrap Kairos for $900: This lightweight bracelet features a PPG sensor and accelerometer to monitor your heart rate, breathing rate, and HRV. It tracks sleep divided into wakeful, 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 your sleep quality and sense of well-being, and asks how you feel when you wake up and before you go to bed. It seems pretty accurate but it’s designed for researchers, healthcare workers and organizations that want to monitor employee health or study the effects of new services or products, so most everyone can’t buy it.
