Review of the Sleeptracker Watch: Does This Innovative Timepiece Deliver What it Promises?

Notorious for my inability to get up early, my husband bought me the Sleeptracker Pro watch in the hopes that I could wake up happily in the mornings. Upon opening the gift, I was thrilled. I hoped my days of sleeping late were over.

The Idea Behind the Sleeptracker Watch
Essentially, the Sleeptracker watch tracks a user's sleep cycles and knows when he or she is in the lightest phases of sleep. When a user wants to get up by a specific time, they choose the latest time they want to wake up and the earliest time they'd like to rise. This sleep window can be as short or as long as a user likes. During this window of sleep, the Sleeptracker waits for you to go into a light sleep cycle, then wakes the user up. Users can choose between the watch softly vibrating to wake them or the typical beep, beep of the watch's alarm.

In addition to this feature, the Sleeptracker allows users to connect the watch to their computer through a USB port and record their sleep cycles throughout the night. On one screen, users can also note what may have affected the quality of that night's rest. With this functionality, Sleeptracker aims at helping users have longer periods of REM sleep.

The Watch's Appearance
The first criticism I had of the Sleeptracker was the size of the watch. The Sleeptracker watch doesn't come in different sizes for men and woman. The face is made of metal and is large both in size and thickness. This, added to a wrist band that wasn't small enough to fit snugly on my wrist, made sleeping awkward. Some nights, the discomfort of having the watch twist on my arm and press against my bones made me restless. I also prefer to wear a watch that I can leave on throughout the day but, given Sleeptracker's clunky appearance (it looks like something out of Tron), this was not an option.

Waking Up with the Sleeptracker Watch
Appearance and comfort issues aside, my first night with the alarm was pretty good. I didn't sleep well because I was too concerned about whether or not the Sleeptracker watch would work. Eventually, I did get into a deep sleep phase and was awoken by the watch's soothing vibration right in the middle of my wake-up window. I was pleased to find it woke me in a lighter sleep phase; I felt alert and ready to meet the day. Over the course of the next several days, I found myself up on time or even early (which is rare for me).

But, something gnawed in the back of my mind. Part of my love for the Sleeptracker watch was the idea that it was a scientific breakthrough in waking alarm technology. I assumed the Sleeptracker must measure my sleep with some kind of electronic sensory device which measured my brainwaves or something futuristic like that. For some reason, this appealed to me a great deal. When I noticed that the Sleeptracker watch picked up on light sleep phases because I moved my body, the scientific breakthrough was no more. The mystery of Sleeptracker's ability to track my sleep cycles was shattered and the watch's ability to wake me up lessened significantly.

Now, when I entered a light sleep phase, my subconscious didn't move a muscle. Barely awake enough to realize that I was undermining the Sleeptracker's ability as an alarm clock, I held my arm still and the watch did not go off. When I tricked the Sleeptracker watch in this way, the alarm went off at the end of my sleep window, whether I was in a light sleep cycle or not. This led to me waking groggy and grouchy and my old, sleepy self returned.

Tracking Sleep Cycles with the Sleeptracker
When my enthusiasm for the Sleeptracker watch was still intact, I religiously connected the watch to my computer to see what the night's sleep was like. In the beginning, the watch uploaded its information into the Sleeptracker software easily. I enjoyed seeing what my sleep cycles were like and finding that I didn't get a good night's sleep until around 2:00am.

The habit of tracking my sleep cycles wore off with time, too, however. The first problem was that, after about a week, the watch stopped uploading its information into my computer automatically. I had to manually enter the times of each light sleep phase, which was stored in the Sleeptracker watch. It was time consuming and my interest in my sleep cycles wasn't strong enough to keep me going. That, added in with the mystery of the watch being revealed and my being able to trick it, made tracking sleep cycles less appealing and I eventually stopped altogether.

While I was tracking my sleep cycles, I did not find that knowing what influenced my sleep helped me to sleep more efficiently during the night. Many of the distractions during my sleep, like sound, came from sources I could not control. I cannot say with confidence that, if I had kept tracking my sleep cycles, I would have had a better or worse night's sleep.

One thing I Love about the Sleeptracker Watch
I do still use my Sleeptracker watch from time to time as an alarm because I love it's vibration feature. For me, there is nothing worse than a beeping alarm clock in the morning. Sleeptracker's vibrating function is gentle , barely makes a sound, and is still able to wake me up. It is this--and this alone--that keeps the Sleeptracker as my sole alarm clock when I need to get up in the morning. That said, this feature by itself doesn't justify the hefty price tag.

The Least You Need to Know
The Sleeptracker could be a great alarm clock for someone who actually wants to get up in the morning. For those of us that don't, we will find a way to outsmart it.