The Best Sleep Trackers Help You Improve Your Sleep Habits

Type: Wearable | Accompanying app: Yes | Battery life: 6+ days | Monthly subscription: Yes

Buy if:

• You’re interested in tracking more than just sleep stats
• You’re already in the habit of wearing a watch
• You’re looking for recommendations to improve your sleep based on your data

Skip if:

• You’re solely interested in sleep stats

Fitbit pioneered an entire genre of wearable fitness trackers and was among the first companies to offer sleep tracking on consumer devices. The Fitbit Sense 2 is brimming with sensors that can measure heart rate, temperature, stress, blood oxygen levels and sleep quality. (It can even perform electrocardiograms now.) The Sense 2 is designed to collect all this information for a comprehensive picture, not just of your fitness, but also your overall wellness.

The Fitbit Sense 2 delivers detailed sleep reporting with a nightly “Sleep Score,” which is calculated based on your heart rate, time spent in light versus heavy sleep and your sleep stages. It combines all that information with other data that’s not found on many other sleep trackers, including your stress level, which the device measures throughout the night using ten different factors related to responsiveness, exertion, sleep patterns and blood oxygen levels. You can view some of these stats on the watch itself, and get more detailed info on the accompanying mobile app. There, your “Sleep Profile” breaks down your monthly sleep data and highlights ways to improve your sleep based on specific metrics, such as “time before sound sleep,” “nights with long awakenings” and “deep sleep.” 

What the reviews say: There are over 4,200 reviews for the Sense 2, and customers have great things to say about its sleep tracking ability. As one customer puts it, “Fitbit excels at sleep tracking.” Another writes, “I had no idea how sleep deprived I truly was until I started wearing the FitBit Sense 2.”

Type: Wearable | Accompanying app: Yes | Battery life: 18+ hours | Monthly subscription: No

Buy if:

• You’re interested in the versatility of a smartwatch
• You’re good about charging devices

Skip if:

• You’re looking for extensive sleep stats

Sleep tracking on the Apple Watch has come a long way. The company waited years before adding sleep tracking to the device, in part because of the watch’s previously abysmal battery life. Now, the watch has a longer battery life—though it’s still on the short end—and reminds you when it needs to be charged in advance of bedtime to work through the night.

Battery limitations aside, Apple’s sleep-tracking software is quite good, if a little less detailed than what you find with other sleep trackers. Apple’s Sleep app gives you the freedom to create multiple schedules (weekends and weekdays, for example). You can also customize a handful of sleep-related settings, like sleep goals, bedtimes and wake-up times. Overnight, it provides estimates of time spent in different sleep stages (core sleep, REM and deep sleep), plus it notes when you may have woken up in the night. The watch also tracks your nighttime breathing rate, which can be an insight into your health as a whole. Abnormal respiratory rates can give you a clue when it’s time to seek professional care, as they sometimes indicate sleep apnea.

The Sleep app shows your total sleep for the previous night and sleep trends for two weeks. Of course, any smart watch runs the risk of disrupting your sleep by notifying you of messages or calls—fortunately, Apple thought of that. Simply turn on Sleep Focus, and it limits distractions overnight.

What the reviews say: The Apple Watch Series 8 is a fan favorite, and for good reason. Many customers speak highly of its sleep-tracking function in particular. “The watch itself isn’t causing me to sleep better, but I can identify the times I’m awake during the night and make adjustments with my sleep schedule to get more sleep,” says one. Another writes, “The sleep tracking is spot on; so good that I know how long it takes me to get out of bed in the middle of the night to concede to the obvious fact that I need to pee.”

Type: Under-mattress pad | Accompanying app: Yes | Battery life: N/A | Monthly subscription: No

Buy if:

• You don’t like wearables in bed
• You prefer to keep devices out of the bedroom

Skip if:

• You nap in bed; nap detection is no longer offered and can affect your data

Not everyone wants to wear a fitness watch or fitness band—especially to bed. If you’d rather de-gadget yourself at bedtime, consider the Withings Sleep Tracking Pad, which plugs into the wall and slips under your mattress. It doesn’t require you to wear or recharge anything for it to gather data about your rest.

The pad has sensors that can detect heart rate, snoring and sleep cycles, so it creates graphic displays of your light, heavy and REM sleep cycles, and also notes when you wake or your sleep is disturbed during the night. All the results are sent to the Withings app on your phone.

It’s also compatible with the IFTTT (If This Then That) automation app, so you can configure it to automatically turn off the bedroom light when you climb into bed or change the thermostat when you wake up in the morning.

What the reviews say: Customers are generally pleased with the Withings tracking pad—many note that it does its job nicely. “I have been using the Withings Sleep Monitor and Scale for a few years and highly recommend it,” says one reviewer. “The feedback I receive on my sleep has encouraged me to develop better sleep habits and improve my overall sleep. I really like the Health Mate app and how it provides me with a record of my sleep and synchronizes with Apple Health.” Another says, simply, “This sleeping mat really impressed me.”

Type: Wearable ring | Accompanying app: Yes | Battery life: Up to 7 days | Monthly subscription: Yes

Buy if:

• You value style as much as function
• You’re looking for comprehensive sleep and fitness tracking

Skip if:

• You don’t want to rely on an app to check your data

The Oura Ring is a tiny tracker that’s packed with just about as many sensors as the fitness bands that wrap around your wrist. The Gen3 version of this undeniably discreet and stylish wearable (it really does look like jewelry) is the company’s most advanced yet. The ring tracks body temperature trends, respiration, sleep, activity, recovery and stress. It combines these factors for powerful fitness and sleep tracking and insights.

Its small, light and unobtrusive form means you might find it much more comfortable to sleep with than a smart watch or fitness band.

When it comes to monitoring sleep, the ring tracks your sleep cycles and gives you a sleep score based on data for total sleep time, duration of each sleep stage and other metrics. It even has an automatic nap-detection feature that records naps and adjusts your daily sleep score based on them. After a nap, the device’s bedtime guidance, which is designed to help improve your sleep, is also adjusted accordingly. New to this generation of Oura Ring is blood oxygen sensing—which can identify breathing disturbances in the night, which can reveal illness or physical changes, such as being at high altitude. The small size comes with one compromise: It doesn’t have an on-device interface, so you need to refer to your smartphone for everything it tracks. With an impressive battery life that lasts seven days and can charge in 20 to 80 minutes, you can worry less about keeping it charged.

What our testers say: Forbes Vetted contributor Jason R. Rich is a fan of the Oura Ring. “What I love about this device is that it provides a tremendous amount of insight without annoying beeps, vibrations, notifications or visible LED lights that are common in smartwatches and fitness trackers,” he says. “By following the advice offered by the app (that’s based on my personal data), I have noticed an improvement in my nightly REM sleep and deep sleep.”

Type: Bedside device | Accompanying app: Yes | Battery life: N/A | Monthly subscription: Yes

Buy if:

• You want a versatile device that can be paired with other smart devices
• You’re interested in sleep recommendations

Skip if:

• You’re looking for detailed data

The Nest Hub from Google is a smart home platform designed for busy households, according to the company. You might be surprised that a screen on your nightstand is able to track sleep, but one of the device’s newest features is automatic sleep tracking that kicks in the second you hit the hay. Sensors are built right into the display, so you just need to aim it toward you from a bedside table. It uses motion and sound to monitor your sleep—no wearables required. The Nest Hub detects your respiratory rate and picks up nighttime disturbances, like sneezing or coughing. When you wake up, it generates a sleep summary with personalized insights that can help you adjust things like temperature, ambient light and noise for a better night’s sleep. It also has weekly suggestions to help you move toward more consistent sleep habits.

The Nest Hub’s Sleep Sensing feature was designed for convenience and privacy—there’s nothing to wear, and your data doesn’t leave the device, either (it’s not sent back to Google). You can also review and delete it whenever you want. All in all, the Nest Hub is a robust device. Just know that data and insights may not be quite as detailed as some other options, which track things like blood oxygen and heart rate. 

What our editors say: “Its sleep sensing is one of my favorite features,” says McKenzie Dillon, a Forbes Vetted mattress and sleep editor who reviewed the Google Nest Hub. “I used to wear a Garmin watch through the night to track my sleep, but as a stomach sleeper, the watch itself was becoming a deterrent to my beauty rest.” She adds, “You can also set a morning routine that’s triggered by a customized sentence of your choice (mine is ‘good morning, Google’), which can turn on lights, your thermostat, read your calendar, share the weather and more.”

Type: Wearable | Accompanying app: Yes | Battery life: Four to five days | Monthly subscription: Yes

Buy if:

• You prefer a discreet wearable that can be worn in multiple places
• You don’t mind wearing your device around the clock

Skip if:

• You don’t want to rely on an app to check your data 

With its comfortable, flexible knit band and unobtrusive tracker, the Whoop 4.0 was designed to be worn around the clock. But your wrist isn’t the only option—try it on your biceps or slip it into an integrated pouch sewn into every clothing item in the company’s new line of athletic apparel, which includes sports bras and underwear, swimwear, arm and leg sleeves, leggings, shorts and tops. Even the battery is designed for portable use: Slide it onto the Whoop and you can wear it while it’s charging. These options make it easy to wear any Whoop device, including the Whoop 4.0, around the clock, which is key for accurate data.

For its small size, Whoop 4.0 covers a lot of ground. It monitors recovery, sleep, training and health, all of which are available for review in the accompanying app, along with insights for optimizing it all. In terms of sleep, Whoop 4.0 tracks all four sleep stages and monitors total sleep to identify potential sleep debt, respiratory rate, sleep efficiency and nighttime wake-ups. Whoop 4.0 is also equipped with a personal sleep coach, which offers recommendations for how much sleep you need in a given night based on how physically strenuous your day was. It also automatically tracks naps and readjusts your total sleep needs at night based on that information. 

What our editors say: “The Whoop truly can do so much. I especially thought the sleep tracking was really helpful,” says Forbes Vetted’s senior mattress and sleep editor Bridget Chapman. “I enjoyed seeing the connection between my strain, recovery and sleep levels—and thought the information was easy to digest and use to improve my sleep habits. It also is a great device overall for tracking exercise and health, from its metrics to helpful articles. Another perk? I found it comfortable to wear and often forgot I had it on.”

Type: Mattress cover | Accompanying app: Yes | Battery life: N/A | Monthly subscription: Yes

Bu