Measuring Sleep with Wearables – Common Mistakes in Using Sleep API
- Written by: Thryve
- 5 minutes
Why Accurate Sleep Tracking Matters
Sleep is a critical pillar of health, influencing everything from cognitive function to immune response. With the rise of wearable health tracking devices, individuals and healthcare providers rely on these tools to assess sleep quality. However, these devices often come with inherent limitations, leading to inaccurate or misleading data. Many wearables have varied definitions of what constitutes “sleep,” leading to discrepancies and confusion when comparing sleep data and working with and building experiences on data sets from different data sources.
By understanding the common pitfalls of sleep tracking with wearables, digital healthcare and wellness providers can interpret their user’s sleep data more effectively. Below, we discuss five major mistakes that can distort sleep analysis and explain how Thryve’s Sleep Evaluation ensures more accurate insights.
Ignoring Time Zones in Sleep Tracking
Many wearables fail to correctly adjust sleep data for time zone changes, especially for frequent travelers. If a device doesn’t account for the local time, it might register sleep at incorrect hours, disrupting sleep trend analysis.
For example, if a user sleeps at 11 PM in Germany and then travels to New York, their wearable might still record sleep in their previous time zone. This can distort long-term sleep tracking, making it appear as if the user has irregular sleep patterns when, in reality, their schedule remains consistent. Thryve’s Sleep Evaluation ensures accurate time zone adjustments, maintaining consistency in sleep records.
Failing to differentiate the Main Sleep Cycle and Naps
Many wearables either fail to recognize sleep cycles or incorrectly categorize them, creating misleading insights into the user’s overall rest.
Thryve’s Sleep Evaluation enhances incoming sleep data, identifying the main sleep cycle. By providing clear distinctions between sleep periods, users and businesses can access a more meaningful sleep analysis.
Conflicting Data from Multiple Sources
Many users wear multiple devices or synchronize data across various platforms, leading to inconsistencies. For example, a smartwatch might track six hours of sleep, while a dedicated sleep tracker on a smart ring reports seven hours. Without a standardized approach to resolving discrepancies, users may be left confused about their actual sleep quality.
Thryve’s Sleep Evaluation unifies and harmonizes sleep data, ensuring a harmonized and reliable metric for assessing sleep health.
Misaligning Bedtime vs. Actual Sleep Time
One of the most common misinterpretations in sleep tracking is equating going to bed with falling asleep. Many wearables assume that once a user is in bed and motionless, they are asleep. However, factors such as reading, using a smartphone, or simply relaxing can result in significant discrepancies between time in bed and actual sleep onset.
Thryve’s Sleep Evaluation introduces new metrics such as Sleep Latency (time taken to fall asleep) and Sleep Interruptions to differentiate between bedtime and actual sleep duration. These refinements ensure a more realistic and actionable sleep analysis.
Introducing Thryve Sleep Evaluation
To address these challenges, Thryve Sleep Evaluation enhances sleep tracking accuracy by:
- Adjusting for time zone changes to maintain consistency in sleep records.
- Reconciling conflicting data into a single, harmonized sleep metric.
- Introducing the Thryve Main Sleep concept for a harmonized approach to defining sleep periods.
- Providing additional metrics such as Sleep Latency and Sleep Interruptions to distinguish bedtime from actual sleep onset.
- Measuring Sleep Efficiency, which assesses the percentage of time spent asleep versus total time in bed.
- Evaluating Sleep Stability, analyzing wake events and interruptions to assess sleep continuity.
Tracking Wake After Sleep Onset (WASO), which measures the duration of wakefulness after initially falling asleep, and many other sleep metrics.
Future-Proof Your Sleep Tracking with Thryve
Inaccurate sleep data can lead to poor health decisions, making it crucial to rely on advanced sleep tracking solutions. With Thryve’s Sleep Evaluation, businesses and healthcare providers can integrate high-quality sleep insights into their applications, ensuring users receive accurate, actionable sleep data.
📅 Book a demo today to learn how Thryve can enhance your sleep tracking capabilities and provide more reliable sleep metrics for your users.
