Improve your sleep with the Sleeptracker watch

We are pleased to bring to you the new Sleeptracker range, a watch designed to help you wake up refreshed and energised each morning. It also provides you with sleep data which can be used to help improve your sleep. My immediate excitement dawned from the possibility that it could help me get up for early morning runs and over time help me improve my physical performance by giving me better sleep.

For many getting up on time and feeling energised are two things which do not go hand in hand. Every once in a while we will open our eyes only to realise that we have had a truly brilliant night’s res and others we will reinforce the saying of ‘getting up on the wrong side of the bed’. But it certainly does not have to be like this all the time.

I have personally always felt more productive in the evening and the thought of feeling alive first thing in the morning was a distant dream. However, some months ago I decided that I did not want to miss out on the morning and that feeling of having a head start on the day. With the help of a few early nights, a darkened room and some ear plugs I managed to get into a routine of waking up at 6:30am each morning. Yet, admittedly I never felt great about getting up and it always was a struggle against my body. As soon as the alarm went off the internal dialog would begin trying to convince me to stay in bed. So, I invested in the Philips Wake Up Light which slowly brightened the room, mimicking the sun. It worked occasionally but never gave me that energised feeling. Forever searching I came across the Sleeptracker…

When it arrived I was sceptical how such a little watch could be the answer to my problems. So I decided to put it to the ultimate challenge. Could the Sleeptracker wake me up refreshed not just at 6:30am but at 5am! No gradual reduction in my wake up time just a sudden hit.

Well, what can I say it works. It is such a weird sensation and difficult to articulate. Every time it goes off I feel like I am already awake and it is easy to think that it is not working and that you are waking up naturally by yourself. But that is how the watch works, by waking you up in your ‘almost-awake’ moments. So, when you are turning over, moving a body part or just coming around for a brief second, the Sleeptracker whips into action and keeps you awake.

Its effectiveness has been great but I would be lying if I said it was 100% consistent. Sometimes I didn’t feel 100% energised but with that said I do have the energy to get up whereas previously I would have hit the snooze button. I am also getting up much earlier so perhaps my body needs time to adapt, no watch could assist my biological clock fully.

But what can be said is that the Sleeptracker works and I am very pleased at how it has improved my mornings. I am not the only person with such views; a recent evaluation study revealed that the Sleeptracker was nearly as effective in gathering specific sleep data as advanced sleep laboratory equipment. In fact it got it right 91% of the time. (Douglas W. Puryear, MD, FCCP, D. ABSM, Director of Sleep Disorders Centers of Pulmonary Associates in Midlothian, VA)

I am now going to play with the Sleeptracker data on my PC so that I can keep a sleep diary which will enable me to notice patterns and eradicate things which may be reducing my quality of sleep.