Popular sleep apps tested: do they work or not?

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Published on Nov 14, 2024

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Monitoring your sleep with an app: how reliable is it really? Mai tests four popular sleep apps and finds out which information is useful and which might actually cause stress. It seems harmless to map your sleep pattern with a sleep app and thus work on better sleep quality. But the use of sleep apps can sometimes be counterproductive. Too much attention to sleep data via sleep apps can lead to a condition called orthosomnia. Constantly analyzing sleep data can cause so much pressure to sleep well that it actually has a negative impact on your night's rest. Mai tests the sleep apps Sleep Cycle, Pillow, SleepWatch and Snorelab. These sleep apps register how many hours you sleep and when you are awake, by detecting sounds with the microphone of your phone. For a more extensive analysis, you can also connect these sleep apps to a smartwatch, but that is optional. Merel van Gilst, researcher and neuroscientist at the Eindhoven University of Technology, is researching the reliability of sleep apps. She explains that sleep apps are less accurate than many people think. Sleep apps use a standard algorithm based on the sleep patterns of young, healthy individuals. This general model is slightly adjusted based on your sleep data, but remains limited because it is not tailored to personal sleep patterns or disorders. Although sleep apps record movement and sound, this remains a limited method. By connecting a smartwatch to the sleep app, the measurement becomes more reliable, because the smartwatch also measures your heart rate, which provides additional information about your sleep phases. However, Mai notices that tracking her sleep via these sleep apps sometimes actually disrupts her night's sleep. She sleeps worse with the apps than without, and she notices that her own feeling about her night's sleep often does not match the data that the sleep apps show. For example, she has nights when the app says she has had enough rest, while she herself feels like she has slept far fewer hours. Kassa asked the companies behind the sleep apps that Mai uses for a response. Two of the four developers responded, and their answers can be read at the bottom of this article: https://www.bnnvara.nl/kassa/artikele... ― Kassa is the consumer platform of BNNVARA. Problems with insurance companies and banks, but also issues such as laughing gas, fillers, phishing and ransomware are discussed. We handle individual complaints in the Belbus and we regularly test various products & services. Kassa has been around since 1989 and is presented by Amber Kortzorg and Mai Verbij. Every Saturday at 19:15 on NPO 2. Or every Thursday at 16:00 on this channel! The latest consumer news, help articles and the consumer forum Questions & Answers can be found on our website: https://kassa.nl. Also follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram & TikTok: / bnnvarakassa / kassa_bnnvara / bnnvarakassa / bnnvarakassa

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