The document reviews five different sleep tracking devices, evaluating their comfort, accuracy, and user experience during a single night of sleep. It highlights significant discrepancies in the devices' sleep data interpretation and user comfort, while questioning the overall benefit of sleep tracking for average users versus those with sleep disorders. The author raises concerns about data privacy related to one device and reflects on whether these devices might affect sleep quality psychologically.

1. 1 night sleep tracking
Group Test: 5 different products
Maneesh Juneja
17th May 2015
@maneeshjuneja
Maneeshjuneja.com

2. Disclosure
• I have no commercial ties to any of the manufacturers
of devices in this test
• All devices were purchased with my own funds
Purpose of test
• To compare and contrast the user experience & results
of using these 5 different devices to track my sleep
during 1 night

3. Devices used in the test
Top: Sleepace sensor that goes
under bedsheet
Bottom Left: Basis Peak (far left),
Amiigo – both worn on left arm
Bottom right: Microsoft Band (far left),
Mi Band – both worn on right arm

4. How comfortable are the straps?
Basis Peak: Bulkiest of all, feels like wearing a watch to bed (which I dislike)
Amiigo: Very light, and less noticeable, but the clasp doesn’t always stay closed
Microsoft Band: Second most bulky, but way more comfortable than the Basis Peak
Mi Band: Lightest of the bunch and least intrusive when wearing in bed

5. How much did each device cost?
Device Price Country of origin
Basis Peak £169.99 USA
Microsoft Band £169.99 USA
Sleepace £93 China
Amiigo £66 USA
Mi Band £17.69 China

6. Overall results
I went to bed at 11.02pm, and woke up at 3.51am
Let’s see how accurate the devices are.
Device Phone OS I used for app
Automatic detection of sleep
by device
Start time of sleep –
from device
What time I woke up –
from device
Time to fall asleep - from
device
Sleepace Android No (start/stop in app) 11.02pm 3.51am 15 minutes
Basis Peak Android Yes Midnight 3.52am
58 minutes (inferred since
device says I slept from
midnight)
Amiigo iOS No (start/stop in app) 11.02pm 3.53am 4 minutes
MS Band iOS Yes 11.33pm* 3.45am** 26 minutes
Mi Band Android Yes 11.06pm 3.48am 4 minutes
Note:
*Actual time in app was 10.33pm (I was walking around at that time!)
**Actual time in app was 2.45am
I suspect there is an issue with the app not estimating sleep in terms of Daylight Savings time,
so I added 1 hour myself to these times for the table

7. Overall results – further data from app
Device Light sleep Deep sleep Restful sleep REM Sleep Awake for Overall Score
Sleepace 33% 21% n/a n/a 18% 75 (Sleep score)
Basis Peak 62% (2 hours 23 minutes) 11% (26 minutes) n/a 27% (1 hour 1 minute) n/a 33% (Sleep score)
Amiigo n/a n/a 2.3 hours n/a n/a B (Sleep Quality)
MS Band 3 hours 2 minutes n/a 0 minutes n/a n/a 72% (Efficiency)
Mi Band 3 hours 41 minutes 1 hour n/a n/a 1 minute n/a
The Basis Peak has the most advanced sleep staging analysis of all the devices, even
highlighting REM sleep. REM sleep is when people do their most active dreaming.
As a user, I wonder whether light sleep & deep sleep is defined the same way across
all devices? How can one device say 0 minutes of restful sleep and another say over 2 hrs?
The overall score that is presented to the user in each app is different too.

8. Screenshots from each app

9. Sleepace

10. Sleepace
Tach-what? Never
heard of it before
Prompted
me to search Google
for further details
Is this information
really helpful or
will it cause
unnecessary worry?

11. Sleepace

12. Basis Peak

13. Basis Peak

14. Amiigo – can I actually interpret this biometric data on my own?

15. Microsoft Band

16. Mi Band

17. Screenshots from web
dashboard

18. Basis Peak
At 1.19am
my skin
perspiration
peaked.
What do I do
with this
information?

19. Basis Peak

20. Microsoft Band

21. Microsoft Band – People like me?

22. Microsoft Band – fun to see average stats by week

23. Initial thoughts - 1
• Automatic sleep tracking works well for determining wake up time
• Some of the information might be generate unwanted anxiety in
users
• How do devices define deep, light, restful sleep etc? Seems to vary.
• Overall sleep metric for each device for comparing trend over time
• Why did Basis Peak show me sleeping almost 1 hour after I went to
bed? (I don’t think it’s right)
• The Mi Band may offer the ideal combination of comfort, value for
money & performance (30 day battery life) – it shows very basic
data, but maybe that’s a good thing for the average user?

24. Initial thoughts - 2
• Wide differences in how the information is presented back to user
• (Personally I liked the Sleepace app)
• Questions on how do I act on this data?
• Would my doctor be familiar with output from each app?
• I don’t know if I (or my doctor) could trust the accuracy of the data
• When I tried the Sleepace sensor before, I could ‘feel’ the sensor as I
slept. On this occasion, I didn’t notice it whilst sleeping.
• Comfort of wrist devices could be better (both day & night)
• The Microsoft web dashboard might be very useful for seeing changes
over time

25. When I shared this data with a friend
Their reply was;
“You must sleep harder! Yeah, I stopped wearing my
FitBit One to bed when I realized that sleep is impacted
by so many variables that I couldn't possibly optimize it.”
For the average person, is sleep tracking of any benefit,
or is this technology useful only for those with sleep
disorders who want to track changes in their sleep
patterns?

26. One concern
Looking through terms & conditions of app for Mi Band, I noticed
my data may be processed, stored and backed up in Beijing or Singapore.
The app has got my phone number, email address, date of birth,
height, weight. Would that be enough to commit identity fraud?
Given there have been reports in 2014 that Chinese based hackers have
stolen personal data from US health insurers, I’m just curious if there
are additional risks to users of the Mi Band.
I’m sure Xiaomi is a reputable company, but it’s not one I’ve ever
interacted with until now.
If you could choose, would you prefer your personal data from your
wearable technology to be stored/processed in the USA or China?

27. Further reflections
• I wonder if ‘knowing’ I’m wearing a device to track my sleep
subconsciously disturbs my sleep or introduces a level of anxiety in
any way?
• Does strapping a device to my wrist for sleep impede my mind’s
ability to truly relax before bed?
• In that case, maybe the sensor under the bedsheet is a preferable
solution?
• Will mattresses one day be ‘smart’ enough to automatically track
sleep without any additional devices?
• Do we even want ‘smart’ mattresses?

28. What’s next? (More testing)
• I’ll be getting this device soon, and it auto detects, doesn’t need a
phone or wristband during sleep, and works seamlessly in the
background!