The tie up between Misfit Wearables and Beddit has given birth to the Misfit Beddit sleep monitoring system. Developed in cooperation with Helsinki Sleep Clinic, VitalMed Research Center and professor Markku Partinen; an expert in the field of sleep research. You can be assured there’s some hard science behind the sleep monitoring.
Let’s see if our snooze quality improved.
Look and Feel
Misfit Beddit sleep monitoring system. Strangely mine came without the Misfit logo even though I purchased my unit directly from Misfit Wearables.
The sensor strip is made of plastic with double sided tape on one side. It’s hard to imagine all the science is in this shiny white (or black) tape. The strip of plastic sensor is to be pasted flatly across the bed under the bed sheets, preferably at the chest level where you sleep.
The double sided tape is replaceable. This is what holds the sensor strip to your bed.
The instructions state that the double sided tape can be removed and replaced should the need arise; have a roll ready. I personally found the strip a tad short to cover the entire length of the bed but a representative from Beddit has assured me that sleep monitoring is uninterrupted even if I’m not on the sensor strip throughout the night.
The sensor strip was too short for my liking. The Misfit Beddit was placed on the bed for photography purpose; normally under the sheets.
The Misfit Beddit sleep monitoring system runs on direct power via a USB plug so a source of power near the bed is a must. The system syncs with an iOS device which is required to run through the duration of operation so that’s two USB ports required.
Data presentation
Various tracked stats. Restful and light sleep. Average heart rate. Snoring duration. Time to bed. Time to sleep. Time woken up.
Instead of merely tracking the body movement during sleep and correlating that with light and deep sleep, the Misfit Beddit system tracks a few other parameters to quantify the quality of sleep. With the system you get a lengthy list of stats to help you make sense of your sleep. And all these are wirelessly synced to your iOS devices, ready for you to view over morning coffee or your commute to work.
List of tracked stats:
- Restful and light sleep
- Time to fall asleep
- Time to wake
- Snoring
- Average heart rate
Plenty of information but useful only if you can make sense of it. Not for everyone but I thought it’d be much more useful if the trend over time for the tracked stats was summarised so I can make more sense out of it.
Anything Else?
Besides sleep tracking, the other key function of the Misfit Beddit is its ability to wake during a light sleep cycle. You can choose from a list of sounds to fall asleep to and wake up from and the list is pretty extensive; including favorites like rain and thunderstorm to forest in the night. The customisation goes as far as programming how long the sleep sounds should play.
Thunderstorm in tropical Singapore.
I get about 6 hours of sleep on a daily basis and I still feel tired despite waking up during my light sleep cycle. Perhaps the full effects will be felt over time with prolonged usage of the Misfit Beddit. Phone speakers do not do justice to the list of sounds to fall asleep to. If you can afford to, a pair of small speakers might aid your journey to slumberland.
Snoring tracking is via the microphone on the iOS device, probably one of the reasons why the iOS device must be synced to the Misfit Beddit and switched on through the night.
I’ve gotten used to waking up with the vibration from my Jawbone UP24 and I wished that feature was incorporated into the Misfit Beddit but I know that’s a tad too much to ask.
In a Nutshell
Pros:
- Small and un-intrusive
- Smart alarm clock
- Sleep and wake up sounds
- Syncs wirelessly
Cons:
- Android version of the Misfit Shine app featuring sleep tracking though Misfit Beddit not available for now.
- Trend data over time would be a bonus.
Physical activity, a sensible diet and good quality sleep are factors that affect how we function throughout our lives for most of us. As we try to cramp more to-dos into the limited 24 hours, sleep is normally compromised. There’s a multitude of research out there stressing that sleep is the period of rest the body needs in order to function properly.
If you’re serious about getting better quality sleep , the Misfit Beddit system does offer capabilities, backed by research, beyond most fitness trackers out in the market. The identical sleep monitoring system sold by Beddit supports both Android and iOS platform and I’ve attached screen captures of the Beddit app runnning on Android.
This is what the Android version of the Beddit app looks like.
Due to the length of the screen capture, I’ve split it into 2 portions. The Beddit app was running on a Nexus 5.
And at the price of $119.99, it’s just a third the price of the just released Withings Aura sleep tracking system.
Misfit Beddit is available in black or white here.
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