Escape Morning Grogginess With The Sleeptracker Pro Elite
Perhaps you’re like some of the staff here who can’t think of many more painful things in life than the alarm going off when you’re blissfully dreaming about puppies and all things fluffy. Or, maybe you’ve wanted to partake in a sleep study at a health facility to have your sleep monitored and find some answers to your sleep problems. Enter the Sleeptracker Pro Elite Sleep Monitor by Sleeptracker, a digital watch that tracks your sleep cycles and promises to wake you at the optimal time, thereby minimizing that loathsome grogginess when the cursed alarm goes off. We found ourselves intrigued by this watch and couldn’t wait to hit the sack to try it out.
We reviewed the men’s version, but as far as well can tell, the only difference between the men’s and women’s watches are their colors. Prior to going to bed, set your wake-up time, just like any alarm. The watch defaults to waking the user within 20 minutes of the set time. The option of a vibrating alarm, buzzing alarm, or both is a great feature. The vibrating setting allows your lovely bedside companion to continue sleeping while you are awoken. The watch is worn just as a normal watch would be. Like past Sleeptracker watches we’ve tried, we probably wouldn’t wear this as an everyday watch (low on fashion points). We are also a little amused by the fact that the watch is water-resistant (in case of sleep-swimming).
The fun begins when you drift off to La La Land, when the Sleeptracker monitors your sleep cycles. People typically have five sleep cycles a night, which progress from light sleep, to deep and restorative sleep, to REM sleep. The Sleeptracker tracks your “almost-awake moments” throughout the night. The watch will display how many almost-awake moments you had the night before, as well as the average amount of time between your almost-awake moments. This data can then be extracted from the watch to your PC with an included USB cord. Ideally, by tracking the average number of almost-awake moments for a period of days, the user can determine if there is a pattern and modify diet or habits to improve sleep quality. When you reach the specified alarm range, the Sleeptracker will alarm when you are in an almost-awake moment so that you feel refreshed, rather than groggy and cranky.
A downside is that the watch keeps only one night’s worth of data. Thus, data must be extracted everyday. The software, included with the watch, is rudimentary at best and is sometimes finicky. Nonetheless, we found it fascinating to track how many almost-awake moments we had each night, and whether that correlated with how well-rested we felt the next day, and how exactly a night of drinking effects sleep quality.
Because sleep is such a personal and individualized issue, satisfaction with the Sleeptracker will also probably vary. For some of us at Truly Obscure, we do not find ourselves awoken that often during a heavy sleep cycle, and our daily improvement from the watch was minimal. Others, however, were very pleased with the watch and observed improvements to their overall mood. We found the watch on Amazon for around $176. If the watch piques your interest, a good strategy is to buy the watch from Sleeptracker and try it to determine whether you may benefit from this innovative timepiece. The company offers a full refund within the first 30 days, as well as excellent customer service. There’s a chance the company’s CEO might even talk to you directly should you have problems with your Sleeptracker. Sweet dreams!
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