Amazon's Halo Rise wants to revamp your sleep. (No thanks.)
New Halo Rise studies your body and breath and rates your rest from "poor" to "excellent". Who needs this?
Is there any technology more ironic than sleep tracking? Tech companies say their wearable devices and apps that study your body while you sleep can help you sleep better at night. But many sleep experts, and the companies themselves, say the technology itself is to blame when you don't sleep well.
Our smartphones and our Highly lit social networking apps create distractions that can keep us up at night and contribute to poor sleep. So one of the most common tips you'll read for better sleep, including in sleep tracking apps, is to stop using technology a few hours before bedtime.
So why are we adding more technology to our sleep routine?
The latest attempt to solve the sleep problem comes from Amazon. Last week, the company began selling the $140 Halo Rise, a ring-shaped alarm clock with built-in sleep tracking. It uses motion sensors to study your movement and breathing patterns to assess your sleep. To wake you up, the device includes a light that can be programmed to get progressively brighter.
In hopes of solving my own sleep issues, I have tested sleep tracking technology for several years, including products made by Fitbit and Oura and apps available for the Apple Watch. I felt disappointed on several occasions because the data collected from the devices merely confirmed that I was resting poorly and sometimes made me even more anxious about it.
Still, I was curious to sleep next to the Halo Rise for a few nights to see what it would offer. Again, I was disappointed: it provided questionably accurate data, and while I liked being woken up by the yellow light, the same result could be achieved with a light bulb plugged into a timer. Also, the benefits weren't great enough to justify giving even more of my data to Amazon.
The most useful information derived from all the sleep tech hype isn't the tracking itself. These are the practical tips found in sleep tracking apps for how to get a better night's sleep - tips I can share with you. (More on that later.)
For starters, the Halo Rise plugs into a wall outlet, and its smartphone app walks you through it. its connection to the Internet. From there, you place the tracker on your nightstand, pointing its face towards your upper body as you sleep.
Once you wake up in the morning, the app displays a chart illustrating your sleep stages, including light sleep, deep sleep, and R.E.M. (for rapid eye movement). It corresponds to a rating, such as "Poor" or "Excellent".
This is where I became skeptical. During four sleep sessions, during which I didn't feel like I slept well, the Halo app rated my sleep "Good." On each of those nights, my Labrador, an elderly female dog with special needs, woke me up at an odd hour to go...
New Halo Rise studies your body and breath and rates your rest from "poor" to "excellent". Who needs this?
Is there any technology more ironic than sleep tracking? Tech companies say their wearable devices and apps that study your body while you sleep can help you sleep better at night. But many sleep experts, and the companies themselves, say the technology itself is to blame when you don't sleep well.
Our smartphones and our Highly lit social networking apps create distractions that can keep us up at night and contribute to poor sleep. So one of the most common tips you'll read for better sleep, including in sleep tracking apps, is to stop using technology a few hours before bedtime.
So why are we adding more technology to our sleep routine?
The latest attempt to solve the sleep problem comes from Amazon. Last week, the company began selling the $140 Halo Rise, a ring-shaped alarm clock with built-in sleep tracking. It uses motion sensors to study your movement and breathing patterns to assess your sleep. To wake you up, the device includes a light that can be programmed to get progressively brighter.
In hopes of solving my own sleep issues, I have tested sleep tracking technology for several years, including products made by Fitbit and Oura and apps available for the Apple Watch. I felt disappointed on several occasions because the data collected from the devices merely confirmed that I was resting poorly and sometimes made me even more anxious about it.
Still, I was curious to sleep next to the Halo Rise for a few nights to see what it would offer. Again, I was disappointed: it provided questionably accurate data, and while I liked being woken up by the yellow light, the same result could be achieved with a light bulb plugged into a timer. Also, the benefits weren't great enough to justify giving even more of my data to Amazon.
The most useful information derived from all the sleep tech hype isn't the tracking itself. These are the practical tips found in sleep tracking apps for how to get a better night's sleep - tips I can share with you. (More on that later.)
For starters, the Halo Rise plugs into a wall outlet, and its smartphone app walks you through it. its connection to the Internet. From there, you place the tracker on your nightstand, pointing its face towards your upper body as you sleep.
Once you wake up in the morning, the app displays a chart illustrating your sleep stages, including light sleep, deep sleep, and R.E.M. (for rapid eye movement). It corresponds to a rating, such as "Poor" or "Excellent".
This is where I became skeptical. During four sleep sessions, during which I didn't feel like I slept well, the Halo app rated my sleep "Good." On each of those nights, my Labrador, an elderly female dog with special needs, woke me up at an odd hour to go...
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