The past couple of years has seen an explosion in fitness trackers, many with sleep tracking capabilities. But for all of the data, there is a lack of information or actions coming from all of these trackers. Now Runtastic introduces the ‘Sleep Better’ app to help you track your sleep and wake up more rested.
Runtastic has authored a white paper on sleep, talking about things many of us know but that always bear repeating:
• Sleep has a major influence on our physical and mental fitness
• Physical activity and sleep influence one another and, at the same time, sleep, nutrition and being overweight are linked to each other
• Sleep is essential for cell regeneration, metabolism and memory
• Lack of sleep leads to reduced performance and changes in metabolism and appetite
• Sufficient sleep decreases the risk for diabetes and heart conditions, improves concentration and reaction times, and benefits our memory
• By tracking one’s sleep, individuals can figure out whether a certain trigger is responsible for bad sleep
How does the Sleep Better app do all that? Here are some of the features:
• Tracks different sleep phases – awake in bed, light sleep, and deep sleep
• Allows users to track certain factors that influence sleep (caffeine, workouts, late dinners, stress, alcohol consumption, etc.)
• Visualization of the selected variables (stress levels, workouts details, alcohol and caffeine consumption, etc.) allows for a detailed analysis of the variability of individuals’ sleep behavior (sleep duration, bedtime, sleep efficiency, etc.) based on the unique behaviors of the given day
• Being woken in a light sleep phase can facilitate getting up in the morning and improve one’s general well-being. When woken up in a deep sleep phase, a feeling of fatigue may prevail. With Sleep Better, an individual wake up window can be defined. If you want to get up by 7 am, the app will wake you up during a light sleep phase within the selected time frame.
If you have the Runtastic Orbit fitness tracker (review coming soon) you know that you can track your sleep using that device, which can be informative and help you see what you are doing as you sleep. But this app takes things further, and seems to really have the potential to help develop better sleep habits. I haven’t put it to full use yet, but it is definitely intriguing.
The app is available for iOS and Android devices for free, so grab it now!
Here is an overview video the Runtastic team put together:
