For a bit over three years I’ve been tracking my sleep mostly with a an Apple Watch and great little app called AutoSleep. I’ve been suspecting for quite a while that the tracking was not really sufficient. My legs and muscles twitch a lot, and I wake up a lot. Because the Apple Watch sleep tracking is mostly an accelerometer movement is likely to get misinterpreted.
About two weeks ago I decided to buy a consumer grade brain-wave sleep tracker: Dreem. It is fairly pricey, $500 (you can get 10% off with my code: SOOSEKOIS).
Two weeks of data
I’ve been tracking with both for the past 10 days. Here is a comparison of what each is telling me.
| Date | Dreem Asleep Hrs | Apple Watch Asleep Hrs | Dreem Awake Min | Apple Watch Awake Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 4 | 6.7 | 4.5 | 53 | 105 |
| Aug 5 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 21 | 45 |
| Aug 6 | 7.5 | 4.8 | 13 | 45 |
| Aug 7 | 6.6 | 5.9 | 56 | 60 |
| Aug 8 | 6.4 | 4.5 | 149 | 225 |
| Aug 9 | 7.6 | 5.7 | 26 | 135 |
| Aug 10 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 9 | 135 |
| Aug 11 | 7.7 | 5.2 | 32 | 180 |
| Aug 12 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 295 | 270 |
| Aug 13 | 0 (*) | 3.6 | 0 (*) | 75 |
| Aug 14 | 8.7 | 6.5 | 12 | 150 |
| Aug 15 | 8.0 | 6.0 | 10 | 135 |
| Aug 16 | 7.5 | 6.1 | 27 | 75 |
(*) In too much pain to fall asleep. Eventually fell asleep at 2AM and woke up at 5:30, but pulled off the Dreem headband apparently.
Not surprising given the sensors involved, but Dreem is pretty hands down more accurate. I am certainly not at all normal though since my muscles involuntarily twitch due to the spinal cord damage. But having more accurate tracking certainly feels better since I try and use this data to adjust how I am doing my rehab.
CBT-I
Possibly the more interesting aspect is that Dreem walks you through a cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia routine for trying to correct sleep problems. I’ve only just started. I am exhausted from it, but I do feel like I have had fewer problems falling asleep and waking up at the right times. So I guess it may be working at resetting my sleep rhythms.
The App
The only real disappointing part is that the app is not particularly good for long term tracking.
Dreem just doesn’t use the space on the screen well for visualizing the data. There are a few places where you can graph individual results, but it isn’t great for analyzing. They both let me export the data at least.
Anyways, the data from Dreem is too good to not keep going with it, and I currently am fairly hopeful that the CBT-I over the next 6 weeks will pay off. It lines up with some of the things that sleep doctors have had me try also.
greg.blog 
If the CBT-I program continues to improve your sleep cycle…. YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep at it, Sweetie! The Dreem feedback seems informative… you data wrangler, you!
Love = Mom
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