A personal sleep tracker can give you lots of interesting insights into how you sleep. After all, we spend a third of our lives asleep. So it makes sense to want to know more about this important function. While a sleep tracker isn’t going to give you such an accurate and thorough result as a professional medical assessment. It will certainly tell you what you need to know about your sleep quality so you can take the necessary steps to make improvements. Some personal sleep trackers are also smartwatches and activity trackers, and it is these devices that we are looking at here.
The Fitbit Versa
Of all the wearable sleep tracker watches available today, the Fitbit Versa is certainly one of the best. Reliable, accurate and easy to wear, it gives you all the information you need about how long you’re sleeping for, how often you wake and what time.
This watch also offers a number of other benefits too. Its fitness tracking is also pretty reliable and, while it doesn’t have as many functions as other fitness tracking smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series, it does have a good step counter, a pulse sensor and an automatic movement tracker. As this device is also water resistant to 50m, you can use it while swimming and it even has sufficient storage for as many as 300 songs which you can listen to through Bluetooth.
The Fitbit Versa also has contactless payments enabled, allows you to receive notifications on the go, and there are an increasing number of apps available for download. In addition, the stylish appearance, the long battery life and the light and comfortable feel, it all adds up to one appealing device.
The Advantages:
- Accurate and automatic sleep tracking
- Fitness tracking functions including specific exercise tracking
- 50m water resistance
- Robust glass touchscreen with 1000 nits brightness
- Long battery life of 4 days
The Disadvantages:
- Syncing is sometimes slow
- No built-in GPS
Fitbit Alta HR
If you want a slim and unobtrusive sleep tracker with some fitness tracking features, the Fitbit Alta HR may fit the bill. Its design is thin, sleek and minimal, so you won’t notice you’re wearing it in bed. It doesn’t have so many apps and tracking features, but it does have an incredibly long battery life of seven days.
The Alta HR has pretty accurate sleep tracking, and its app breaks down your sleep patterns so you can see at a glance how you spent your night. There is even a vibration reminder to encourage you to get to bed on time so you can enjoy a healthy sleep regime.
The Advantages
- Accurate and automatic sleep tracking
- Heart rate monitor
- An excellent app with sleep breakdown patterns at a glance
- Vibrating alerts and reminders
- Step, distance, calorie and active minutes tracking
- Customisable display
- Calendar, text and call alerts
The Disadvantages:
- Few features
- No inbuilt GPS
- No waterproofing
Polar Vantage M
The Polar Vantage M is certainly one of the best sports watches with sleep tracking around. It links to the Polar Flow site to show you all of the details of your time in bed, for example a graph which depicts the quality of your sleep and any interruptions you experienced.
The watch is also a good all-round sports tracker with integrated GPS and a multisport mode, which allows you to get all the vital statistics you need to maintain fitness and good health. The battery life is pretty impressive too – 30 hours when in training mode – and the heartrate tracker is accurate and convenient.
The Advantages
- Accurate sleep tracking functionality
- Integrated Heart rate monitor
- An excellent website with sleep breakdown patterns at a glance
- Multisport mode
- Step, distance, calorie and active minutes tracking
- Integrated GPS
The Disadvantages:
- Shorter battery life than some of its rivals
How Do We Test Smartwatches?
We take pride in the amount of time and effort that we put into testing and reviewing smartwatches. You’re relying on us to give you the key information that you need to decide whether a certain model is right for your needs, and that’s why we put each and every one through its paces with a rigorous approach to testing.
We examine the design of each watch to see whether it’s stylish and appealing while also remaining highly functional and easy to use. Is it comfortable to wear? Does it look good on wrists of all sizes? Does it offer customisation options or interchangeable straps and faces? We examine all of these elements.
We look closely at integrated features and fitness tracking capabilities. Is there GPS? Are there LTE capabilities? Can you make contactless payments? Is there storage for songs and podcasts? Sleep tracking and activity tracking for different sports? We test these elements and look at the effect that each have on the power, processing capacity, memory and battery life of each device.
Then we bring all this information together in an informative review so that you can make the best choice about whether the smartwatch that we’re reviewing is really the best one for your requirements.
In Summary
Firstly, all of the sleep trackers that we’ve showcased here have a lot to offer. If you’re looking primarily for a sports tracker with sleep tracking capabilities thrown in, we’d recommend the Polar Vantage M. However, if you’re looking for something easy to wear all night long with basic fitness tracking, the Fitbit Alta HR is hard to beat. However, we think that the Fitbit Versa represents the best value for money thanks to its accurate sleep tracking paired with its good looks, its smartwatch capabilities and its long battery life.
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