The best sleep technology for you will largely depend on what you want to improve. Is your main concern how sleep affects your exercise performance? Or hoping to mask the sound of your partner snoring? Perhaps you want more health-focused help that tracks respiratory disorders? Sleep technology ranges from trackers and apps to expensive smart beds, but not all solve the same problems. Before you pull out your wallet, you should know how a gadget will help you reach your specific sleep goals.
Another factor to consider is how well a device fits into your lifestyle. Wrist-based sleep trackers are useless if you wake up in the middle of the night to take them off. If you can’t wear a watch, headphones or ring to bed, you may want to look into non-invasive options like Withings Sleep or the Google Nest Hub.
Likewise, excellent battery life is also a must. It’s not great if a device can’t reliably last overnight or requires a special charging schedule. (Fast charging can only help you so much when you’re exhausted.) That’s why you won’t find smartwatches like the Apple Watch or any Wear OS watches on this list.
Also, take the accuracy of sleep tracking with a grain of salt. Sleep technology has come a long way in just a few years, but it’s not about medical devices. Gadgets like the Withings ScanWatch may be FDA-cleared to monitor sleep disorders, but that doesn’t mean you can be diagnosed with sleep apnea. No matter how advanced the sensors or how many features a product boasts, trackers are meant to help detect when something is off. Nothing more.
With all of that in mind, I’ve compiled these recommendations based on how a sleep gadget addresses the problems it’s trying to solve. We also considered comfort, accuracy, battery life and whether it provides good context for your data.
Oura Ring Gen 3 is a comprehensive yet comfortable sleep tracker. Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
The best overall sleep tracker
The $299 Oura ring isn’t a fitness tracker that tracks sleep. It’s a sleep tracker that tracks some fitness metrics. The ring has seven temperature sensors, a green LED sensor to measure heart rate, and red and infrared LEDs to measure blood oxygen. This does not include the battery or accelerometers.
All of these sensors provide a holistic view of your recovery. Each morning, you’re given a report on your readiness, sleep quality, and activity goals for the day. These reports tell you how your sleep affects your daily ability to handle stress and whether you should take it easy or challenge yourself. The app also includes wellness features like guided meditations and white noise to help you fall asleep.
Oura Ring (third generation)
The Oura smart ring is a convenient sleep and recovery tracker that offers features such as quantified meditation sessions, the ability to measure daytime heart rate, and more.
Of all the sleep devices I’ve tested, Oura Ring has the best context for its data and presents it in an intuitive way. Its version of blood oxygen monitoring is also preferable to the random spot checks found on devices like the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. Instead, the Oura ring passively monitors saturation levels of blood oxygen (SpO2) during sleep and encourages you to check your level. base over a long period of time. It’s not exciting, but it’s a more useful measure for the average person. It’s also one of the few devices that comes with a recovery mode. If you are sick or injured, you can pause your activity goals until you are back to health.
But the main appeal here is the form factor: a ring is infinitely more comfortable than a watch. And while it’s not the most fashionable, it’s nondescript enough to wear to any event. Plus, you get up to a week on a single charge. (Though in my testing, I got four to five days. Enabling SpO2 monitoring will also drain the battery.)
The only thing I don’t like is that it now comes with a $6 monthly subscription. However, if you’re really passionate about monitoring your sleep and want to make a long-term commitment, it’s worth the price.
SpO2 tracking is passive on the Fitbit platform, but more useful than spot checks. Photo by Brent Rose/The Verge
The best smartwatch with sleep tracking
If you want a more robust fitness tracker that also has good sleep tracking, the $329.95 Fitbit Sense is a good choice. While it doesn’t have as much functionality for smartwatch features as the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, it does take advantage of Fitbit’s superior sleep tracking platform (though you’ll unfortunately have to shell out $10 a month or $79.99 per year to see Fitbit’s Premium service. deeper metrics.)
Fitbit was early to track sleep and it shows. Of course, you get sleep stages, but you can also see how your sleep compares to other people of your age and gender. Like the Oura ring, it eschews spot SpO2 checks for passive overnight monitoring (using the Estimated Oxygen Variation metric) and also provides a daily readiness score based on your long-term activity and sleep quality Fitbit Premium subscribers also get access to a ton of wellness content, if that’s your thing. Apple and Samsung are still catching up in this area in terms of the accuracy, battery life and detail of the sleep metrics they provide.
Fitbit Sense
The Fitbit Sense comes with FDA clearance and allows you to track your stress levels in addition to measuring blood oxygen levels. The watch also comes with built-in Google Assistant and Alexa support.
One thing unique about the Sense is its Electrodermal Activity (EDA) sensor. This measures the tiny levels of sweat on the skin to measure stress levels. Fitbit has designed one of the most meaningful stress tracking features, giving you a space to log your emotional well-being within the app. This, combined with sleep tracking, is an excellent wellness tool. If you’re not interested in stress management, you can save by opting for the $229.95 Versa 3. And if you prefer a fitness band, the $179.95 Charge 5 is a more affordable option with the EDA sensor. (Both are also on sale frequently.)
Finally, during testing, I got about a week of battery life on a single charge. That’s a lot better than most other flagship smartwatches, even if you give up fancy features like LTE connectivity and useful third-party apps.
The Whoop 4.0 tracks sleep with a strong focus on athletic performance. Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
The best sleep tracker for athletes
When it comes to recovery, no sleep tech gadget goes the extra mile for athletes like Whoop. It primarily tracks your body’s ability to withstand cardiovascular strain, but its view of sleep is unique. Instead of focusing on sleep quality, it focuses on your sleep debt and whether the sleep you’re getting is enough to fuel your training.
If you’re interested in recording how certain factors affect your sleep, Whoop is way ahead of the competition. You can log how anything from the COVID-19 vaccine to magnesium supplements affects your sleep. It’s not a required feature, but it’s a plus if the sleep diary is important to you.
Wow 4.0
This distraction-free recovery tracker helps you monitor your sleep quality and cardiovascular strain. The hardware is “free” but costs $30 a month.
Unlike most modern wearables, you’ll get next to nothing in the way of notifications or smart features. However, this also means it has good battery life. The Whoop 4.0 also comes with a portable battery pack that slides into the tracker itself. The result is that you can go several days without ever having to remove the tracker. Whoop also gives you flexible options for carrying your device. For example, you can choose to wear it on your bicep, leggings or even a sports bra.
That said, this is a niche product best suited for athletes who play cardio-intensive sports. (It’s not the best for tracking the strain of activities like strength training.) The device costs nothing, but the $30 monthly subscription is steep, and if you’re a casual athlete, your money’s worth they spend better elsewhere. But if you’re someone who’s always training for an event or prone to overtraining, the Whoop 4.0 can give you that extra edge.
Bose SleepBuds II fit securely in your ear, so they’re less likely to fall out while you sleep. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
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