Here’s the Tech City News verdict on two sleep tracking devices – Sense and Mio Fuse.
Sense
Cost: £149
In a nutshell
A device that sits on your bedside table and, with the help of a ‘Sleep Pill’ that attaches to your pillow, monitors your sleep, plus your bedroom environment. It measures temperature, humidity, light, noise and even particles in the air. The Sense app connects via bluetooth to the device, so you can see an overview of your sleep cycle.
The good
If it senses the temperature or volume of light in your room is above the optimal for sleeping, it’ll let you know so you can do something about it. It also has a special alarm, which analyzes your sleep cycle to know when you’re sleeping lightly and then wakes you up at the optimal time.
The bad
It’s not cheap and we’re just not sure it’s entirely necessary. If your room’s too hot, open a window – do you really need a gadget to tell you to do that? The novelty of seeing how much you wriggle around at night soon wears off and it becomes yet another app cluttering up your homescreen.
Verdict
If you like cool-looking gadgets, this would be a good one to add to your collection, and if you’re particularly pernickety about your sleeping pattern, you’ll likely enjoy being able to monitor everything that’s going on in your bedroom. It seems to be pretty accurate, although we can’t be sure of that – we were asleep when we tried it, after all.
Mio Fuse
Cost: £99.98
In a nutshell
A heartrate monitor you wear on your wrist, which, along with tracking your sleep, can also monitor your step count, calories burned, distance traveled, pace and goal progress. It syncs with a phone app via bluetooth, showing your activity for the day (and night!).
The good
As a sleep tracker? There’s little good to say about it. If we had to pick something, we’d say it’s relatively simple to use and the app is easy to navigate. It also comes in a couple of different colour combinations, so you can be extra stylish and coordinate your wearable with your pyjamas.
The bad
It’s quite bulky, so uncomfortable to sleep in and we don’t think it’s accurate. When one of the team tried it for a night, the app told her the next day she had slept with 100% efficiency – time spent in bed: 8hr 3min, time sleeping: 8hr 3min. Hmm, not even the heaviest sleeper is conked out literally the minute their head hits the pillow.
Verdict
We’ll give this one a break, as the sleep mode is really a secondary function of this device – it’s main function is as an activity tracker. Perhaps we’ll do an exercise monitor head-to-head in the future, and that could be the Mio Fuse’s time to shine, but as a sleep tracker? Give it a miss.