Technology Can Help In Getting Back To Sleep
The good thing is there are effective treatments available for the condition. A bedside machine called a CPAP is one of them it works by preventing blockage of airflow and breathing muscles from collapsing. You get air from it through a face mask. That type of treatment is known as continuous positive airway pressure , and it has proved to be effective for a lot of people.
There are also mouthpieces or sleep mouthguards that prevent the airway from blocking. Central sleep apnea is another form of sleep apnea that affects people with conditions such as heart failure. It affects people due to sodium and water retention. A lack of sleep is brought about by the fluid entering the lungs hence the shortness of breath.
Most people suffering from sleep disorders will end up being less productive while working. This leads to procrastination, and a lot of work is delayed or gets put on hold. A significant number of working days are lost due to people not getting enough sleep, which significantly affects the United States economy. If people try and get at least seven hours of sleep every day, it can boost the economy. There can potentially be $226.4 billion added to the economy, which is quite a significant boost. The number of working days lost every year is equivalent to almost 1.2 million dollars due to people not having regular sleeping patterns.
Oura Ring : The Best Sleep Tacking Ring
If a fitness tracker is too uncomfortable for you, a ring might be a better choice. The Oura Ring 2 is a small, comfortable tracker and offers a multitude of sensors without looking any different from a regular piece of jewelry.
It has an infrared heart rate monitor, a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and not one but three temperature sensors. That allows the Oura Ring 2 to measure changes in your skin color, detect when you fall asleep, and how much time you spend in each sleep stage. It is one of the most accurate sleep trackers out there, but even the Oura Ring 2 sometimes struggles with daytime naps.
The information you get on the companion app is plentiful. You not only see how much youve slept, but how restorative your rest was, what your resting heart rate was throughout the night, how many times youve woken up, and more.
The inclusion of a temperature sensor is particularly useful since it tracks your body temperature during the night. This can help you see if you rest better at lower or higher temperatures and adjust your AC accordingly.
Check out our full review to learn more about the Oura Ring 2.
How Do I Clean My Sleep Tracker
How to clean your sleep tracker will depend on its materials and construction, so it is important to follow the manufacturers care instructions. Some sleep trackers have removable covers that can be washed, while others can simply be wiped down with a damp cloth or cleaned carefully with rubbing alcohol. Following the manufacturers instructions can help avoid damage to the sensors that could jeopardize the accuracy of the results.
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Analysis Of The Blood Oxygen Variation
A Fitbit device is not a medical device and will never replace a polysomnograph, the Golden standard for sleep analysis, or a clinical blood oxygen analyzer. Yet, it somehow comes with a blood oxygen sensor that provides insightful data.
The new Fitbit models offer the possibility to track blood d oxygen variation occurring during the night. A high variation in oxygen saturation can be a sign that you experienced sleep apnea episodes.
There is no need to rush to the doctor if you experience only moderate variations. Still, in case your blood oxygen varies consistently every night, it may be a sign of sleep apnea and will justify talking about it with your doctor.
What Is A Sleep Tracker
A sleep tracker is a device that monitors one or more aspects that reflect your sleep patterns, habits, stages, quality, and/or duration. This measurement is indirect, relying on more easily detectable physical signals of sleep, rather than basing it on brain activity and eye movement as they do in some formal medical tests.
Most sleep trackers look at heart rate and respiration rate, which are closely linked to sleep stages. Additionally, tracking respiration can help show potential breathing issues, like snoring and sleep apnea. Many trackers also use a small built-in movement-detecting device called an accelerometer to assess how much you move while sleeping, thereby analyzing sleep time and quality.
Some sleep trackers may use a microphone to pick up snoring, movement noise, and ambient noise to judge how well youre sleeping. Others contain a thermometer to provide data on how room temperature may affect your sleep.
Wearable and non-wearable sleep trackers are available. While theyre usually similar in what sort of data they collect, they may use different methods to do so. Since a wearable device touches the body, it can monitor heart rate, respiration, and movement more directly. Many non-wearable devices rest on or under the mattress and monitor vibrations to gather data. As long as theyre well-calibrated, either device should capture valuable information.
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The Best Sleep Apnea Apps You Might Not Know About
Do you wake up in the morning after a long nights sleep and wonder why you still feel tired? Do you feel unfocused, drained, and have difficulty concentrating on tasks during the day? Has your partner complained about loud snoring or woke you up to let you know you sounded like you were choking or gasping for air while asleep?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, its possible you have sleep apnea. If youre not familiar with itsleep apnea occurs when a person is asleep, and the muscles of their tongue and throat relax and expand to a size larger than they are when the person is awake. The relaxed muscles take up extra space, and as a result, airflow to the lungs is blocked. With the airway blocked, air from the nose and mouth cannot reach the lungs, and the person wakes up often gasping and choking for air.
Since this process happens repeatedly throughout the night, a person with sleep apnea rarely gets the rest they need to function at their highest levels throughout the day. The American Sleep Apnea Association estimates that 22 million people in the U.S. are living with sleep apnea today, and 80 percent of them have undiagnosed moderate to severe untreated Obstructive Sleep Apnea one of the three types of sleep apnea.
OSA is manageable through continuous positive airway pressure therapy. Additionally, your smartphone or wearable sleep tracking device can also help you better manage your sleep and in some cases, even help uncover if you have sleep apnea.
Check Out Fitbit Charge 3 On Amazon Here
Fitbit, the leading global wearables brand, has been working for years to develop technology that can read sleep patterns and understand their impact on customers health.
Take for instance their Alta HR heart rate wristband. The device uses sensitive motion detectors to determine how much time a user spends in each sleep stage, a telltale sign of ones sleep quality. Over the past nine years, the company has built one of the largest databases of sleep, with more than 7.5 billion nights tracked.
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How Smartwatches Help With Detecting Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea and lack of sleep can have serious health consequences. Luckily, digital health gadgets and smartwatches can be helpful. Discover all they have to offer.
Sleep is mandatory for everyone to maintain physical and mental health. Even animals will ultimately die they are sleep deprived. Maintaining good sleep patterns is critical to avoid critical illnesses. People tend to think that working out and eating healthy is enough for general wellness despite being helpful, thats not the only way.
Sometimes ensuring you get enough sleep will take you a long way on your wellness journey. However, thanks to technology, there are sleep tracking devices available to help you get back to restful nights. They include smartwatches and bedside monitors.
How Do Wearables Track Sleep
A 2018 study published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine assessed the use of home Sleep Apnea testing devices for assessing Sleep Apnea. These devices included smartphones, smartwatches, and other wearables. The rapid development and application of a sleep apnea tracker is largely due to the increasing prevalence of Sleep Apnea.
The reference standard for the diagnosis of Sleep Apnea remains cardiorespiratory polysomnography , which is a multi-parametric sleep study of heart and lung functions. However, the testing capabilities of HSAT devices have been getting more accurate and specific to Sleep Apnea. The SCOPER scheme has been developed to evaluate and categorize HSAT systems by validating the most important functions for diagnosing Sleep Apnea.
This acronym indicates these functions as follows:
- Sleep
- Respiratory effort
- Airflow
The SCOPER process checks the functions needed to characterize Sleep Apnea rather than simply merely counting individual apnea events. For example, it evaluates an HSATs ability to distinguish between central and obstructive apnea, which is vital for developing an effective treatment plan. This evaluation scheme thus allows new sensors and software to meet the criteria for a successful diagnosis of Sleep Apnea. HSAT systems also need to evaluate the severity of the Sleep Apnea when reporting measurements.
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Fitbits Software Could Become A Medical Device
The Fitbit database has led to some interesting discoveries that could prompt customers to change their sleep behaviors for the better and improve sleep quality. One valuable finding? One in four people try to make up for the lack of sleep during the week by getting more shut-eye on weekends. In the long term, this strategy can have serious health consequences.
We can deliver insights to these users and suggest how to set up a sleep schedule. In the future, we hope to provide more guidance to our users to reduce the risk of disease, said Shelten Yuen, VP of Research at Fitbit.
The SpO2 feature included in the Fitbit Charge 3 is one important step in reducing the risk of heart conditions.
It will track breathing disruptions to predict users risk of health issues such as allergies, asthma, or sleep apnea and alert them when they should see a doctor.
Fitbit is one of nine companies in the FDAs digital health software precertification pilot program. At the end of the program, Fitbits software could be validated as a medical device for various health conditions including sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation.
Charge 3 gives existing users a compelling reason to upgrade, while also allowing us to reach new users who want a sleeker, more affordable wearable in a tracker form factor, CEO Fitbit James Park said in a statement.
Agree To Continue: Withings Scanwatch
Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it contracts that no one actually reads. Its impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people dont read and definitely cant negotiate.
In order to pair the Health Mate app with your watch and to set up the device, you need to give it access to your phones Bluetooth.
You can set up an account through Withings using Apple ID, Google, or an email address. Using Google or Apple ID prompts you to allow the app to use your Google or Apple ID information to sign in.
The ScanWatch requires that you agree to the Withings Terms and Privacy Policy. You also have to agree to let Withings process your personal data, described in the Privacy Policy.
But I could also turn them all off and limit any notifications to a quick buzz when I hit my activity goal. I set it to 8,000 steps a day which in normal times would be an easy target, but the pandemic means I didnt hit it as often as Id like. The app didnt yell at me when I only walked 200 steps in a day, though, which kept it low stress. I liked the workout feature: I took the watch on a few runs, and it gave me the basic stats on the duration, distance, and my heart rate.
I checked the watch against my fingertip pulse oximeter, and the watch wasnt reliable.
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An Update On Wearables With Sleep Monitoring
Whether worn for function or fashion, wearables arent going away anytime soon. If anything, companies are investing in the long-term use of wearable technology and enhancing the user experience.
With each new year, companies have gone from considering sleep tracking technologyin their devices to now including, and marketing, sleep apnea detection and analytics in their devices. But what does this mean for the future of sleep and what updates to wearables should you and your patients keep an eye on in the next few years?
There Are Two Main Types Of Sleep Apnea
When left undiagnosed and untreated, Sleep apnea can result in major health issues. People with Sleep apnea can develop cardiovascular issues and also have a higher risk of early death .
When examining, quality measures of care for adult patients with obstructive sleep apnea, the journal of clinical sleep medicine focussed on three key areas, that were thought to provide the most value.
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Oximeters Dedicated To Sleep Monitoring
Sleep trackers such as the O2ring by Wellue keep track of your oxygen levels while youre asleep without being intrusive. It features a pulse oximeter that measures oxygen saturation. The O2ring is designed to fit anyone perfectly as they sleep at night without coming off while sleeping. It measures oxygen saturation between 70-99 percent and a pulse rate between 30-250 BPM. It also monitors your heart rate and heart rate variability every second. Theres also an app available for both Android and iOS. The ring synchronizes with the app through Bluetooth once you take it off. You can adjust vibration levels using the app to wake you up when your heart rate is at an abnormal rate, and your oxygen levels are too low.
You get metrics on your sleep patterns through the app thats integrated with the sleep tracker. All the data is recorded at night while you sleep, and it includes the lowest level of SpO2 and the average HR and SpO2. For convenience, it is even possible to share the metrics with your physician as a PDF/CSV file.
The Technology Behind Wearables
Recently, Firstbeat Technologies, Ltd., the analytics company for many industry giants, released a whitepaper on sleep analysis. The whitepaper covers the sleep analysis method Firstbeat developed from a unique sleep detection and assessment methodology various aspects of sleep from sleep stages to ANS function using HRV to measure physiological recovery during sleep, the ultimate effect of sleep. Overall, Firstbeats sleep analysis, based on autonomic nervous system function and heart rate variability measurements, indicates it can be used for health and performance purposes such as tracking a persons sleep-wake cycle and understanding the restorative effects of sleep all from a wearable.
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Google Nest Hub : The Best Bedside Sleep Tracker
Unlike the Withings Sleep, the Google Nest Hub cannot track your sleep stages. But using its built-in Soli sensor combined with its temperature sensor and ambient sound and light sensors it can track a variety of other things, such as your total time asleep, total time in bed, sleep efficiency , and respiratory rate. It can also keep track of sleep disturbances like snoring, coughing, and changes in your rooms light.
We found the Nest Hubs sleep tracking accurate compared to wrist-worn devices like the Oura Ring 2 and Fitbit Sense.
Theres a big caveat with the Nest Hubs Sleep Sensing feature, though: its only free until 2022. In the new year, Google will start charging Nest Hub owners to use Sleep Sensing. However, it has not announced pricing details for that yet, so proceed with caution.
- Unknown sleep tracking subscription fee in 2022
- Missing sleep tracking metrics compared to wearables
- Google Fit is simple to a fault
Check out our full review to learn more about the Google Nest Hub .
Can You Track Sleep Apnea From Your Current Fitness Tracker
Most Fitbit watches and other devices are able to detect how many times your body is restless during the night.
This might provide you with some guidance around how many apneas you may be suffering in a night.
Apnea is an event in which your body suddenly stops breathing during sleep. While 10 to 30 periods of restlessness are normal during the night, between 5 to over 30 an hour may point to severity of sleep apnea.
If your current fitness tracker detects SpO2 , the blood oxygen level reports may give you some clues around sleep apnea related issues.
Reductions in blood oxygen levels are usually the key metric. A normal blood oxygen level is usually 96 97%.
Reductions to not less than 90% usually are considered mild. Dips into the 80 89% range can be considered moderate, and those below 80% are severe.
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