16 ms·

Apple acquires sleep tracking company Beddit

206 points by sidcool 10y ago

jbyers 10y ago
One of the factors holding me back from buying an Apple Watch is the need to charge overnight. I wear a Fitbit overnight for sleep quality and duration tracking - imperfect as it is. An iPhone- or iWatch-integrated solution would push me over the edge.
- culturestate 10y ago
  For what it's worth, the Apple Watch charges surprisingly quickly. I often forget to put it on the charger when I go to bed, so I just throw it on when I wake up in the morning – it'll easily get through the day on the juice it picks up while I'm in the shower.
  - mulletbum 10y ago
    Yeah, I have the same situation. I charge it when I am laying in bed watching TV or something before going to sleep. Wear it through the night, then throw it on for a shower. I've never actually "charged" mine for a significant period of time.
- sillysaurus3 10y ago
  I wear a Fitbit overnight for sleep quality and duration tracking Are any of these overnight sleep trackers effective? I'm curious if they cause any changes in your life, or if it's mostly just fulfilling curiosity.
  - mahyarm 10y ago
    The sleep tracking is definitely fairly accurate. You get a fairly close measure of how much sleep you got that night. As for what you do with that data is up to you. It's like a weight scale, seeing the number may or may not help you keep a healthy weight.
  - brlewis 10y ago
    Read the "Sleep Insights" section of https://blog.fitbit.com/sleep-stages-and-sleep-insights-announcement/ https://blog.fitbit.com/sleep-stages-and-sleep-insights-anno...
  - droopyEyelids 10y ago
    It certainly changed my life, and it's the only reason I keep wearing this decaying fitbit. I did a bio major in college and had researched as much as I could about sleep, so I went into it informed, but could never really 'figure out' anything to my satisfaction. That all changed when I got the fitbit, which tracks your sleep 100% automatically. I was able to piece together my complete story about sleep debt, the effects of drinking, caffeine, anticipation, and exercise on my sleep quality, and exactly how much sleep I actually need in a night. (All of which had elements of mystery to them before) This has put me FAR more in tune with my body and mind. It explains the ADD-like symptoms I've coped with, as well as other negative effects that I now realize are due to sleepiness, but had believed were natural variance in life. It gave me control of my life by allowing me to figure out exactly what I need to do to regain my sleep balance when I lose it- something that seemed like an art or even magical before. I think a skeptic's first thought might be along the lines of "How could someone not be able to tell their body's sleep situation- sounds like a high tech solution to a non-problem." If you've studied sleep, you should know that after a few hours sleep debt (even before you go to bed) your body compensates by increasing the release of dopamine in your head, which provides stimulation and euphoria that inhibits your ability to sense your own disability That should explain the benefit of an objective robot that tells you whats up, and if you're a true skeptic, it should make you wonder a bit about the accuracy of your own self perceptions.
- apahwa 10y ago
  you should give the withings watch a shot. the battery lasts a month and they look like normal watches
  - rimliu 10y ago
    Seconded. I am very happy with mine.
- abritinthebay 10y ago
  If you charge it for 30mins in the morning, while you get ready, you'd easily be able to wear it overnight. source: I do this.
- sanswork 10y ago
  I wear my Apple watch at night and just charge it in the mornings when I'm in the shower. I have a fairly active lifestyle too so it gets a lot of work tracking activities. For sleep tracking I use Autosleep though it's not fantastic it's usable. I've been hoping for a built in one for a long time.
  - josh64 10y ago
    I use Autosleep too. Like you said, it's not fantastic but it does the job and it's nice that you can fine-tune it based on how restless you are normally at night etc.
- pdn 10y ago
  You are overestimating how long it takes to fully charge an Apple Watch. 20-30' while you're showering and/or having breakfast is enough
- calvinbhai 10y ago
  I use the first version of the Watch all day and all night. Charges in the morning when I go for shower, and during the before sleep routine (brush / meditate). Thats been more than enough. I'd assume Series 2 is much better in battery capacity
- pawelkomarnicki 10y ago
  My Apple Watch lasts over 2 days on a charge, and it charges pretty quickly ;-) Where did you get that "charger overnight" stuff?
  - ErikHuisman 10y ago
    Apple's keynote
- dancryer 10y ago
  Good news - The next Apple Watch will be thinner! Oh, you didn't ask for it to be thinner?
  - freehunter 10y ago
    To be fair, it could stand to be a bit thinner IMO. As a smartwatch it's a nice size, but as something that's always attached to my wrist, I wouldn't mind if they figured out a way to make it thinner without sacrificing any more battery life.
thedz 10y ago
I read this as "BBEdit" at first and thought wow, they pivoted to sleep tracking?
- VonGuard 10y ago
  Apple buying BBEdit would make me soooo happy... A return to their roots. Very, very old roots.
- flashman 10y ago
  I read "Apple acquires... Reddit"
  - gallerdude 10y ago
    The humor is, someone else probably read it that way, but had to do something else and is thinking about it now...
dchuk 10y ago
Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist. I want to be able to wake up early for stuff without having to wake up my wife and dogs. I want an alarm app on my Apple Watch that: 1) Wakes me up when I'm in light sleep rather than REM 2) Only vibrates on my wrist at first (let's say for 5 minutes) and then falls back to a traditional alarm sound so I get my ass up just in case I've gotten to the point of almost buying some Udemy courses on Apple Watch development to build the damn thing myself. Only thing really holding me back is figuring out the algorithm for sleep tracking, but I'm sure that wouldn't be really hard to do. Maybe I'll just do it still.
- rockshassa 10y ago
  i'm an iOS engineer, i'll write it for a case of beer. did not plan on rhyming that..
- schainks 10y ago
  You might be interested in Garmin Vivosmart HR+ (I have one). While Garmin's app is a horrible walled garden (no google fit integration, or integration with other Android APIs, like alarms), it does let you set an alarm that syncs to the watch. The watch vibrates with increasing intensity in order to wake you up. Works as advertised.
- BoorishBears 10y ago
  I'm shocked that doesn't exist, even my old Pebble had an app for that
  - saagarjha 10y ago
    A big part in this comes from the fact that most people take off the watch when they sleep to charge it, making it useless for sleep tracking.
    - icanhackit 10y ago
      With gen 2 Apple Watch that shouldn't be necessary - I wear mine diligently and interact with it frequently yet the battery never gets below 70% at the end of the day, often only getting down to 90%, and the charge time is quite rapid. Stick it on the charger when going for a shower or some other short routine and you should have it back to fully charged when you're done. Get the Milanese Loop band and it'll be even less of a pain because you can quickly put the watch on and take it off because it's magnetic. A lot easier than a buckle or pin fastener. For anyone interested the sleep tracking app I use, Sleep Watch, automatically figures out when you're sleeping and awake so you don't have to manually initiate the app. I guess it interprets movement data from the accelerometer and can tell the difference between slight movements in a sleeping state and respite during wakeful periods.
DashRattlesnake 10y ago
I was thinking of getting one of these, but now it's only a matter of time before they remove Android compatibility.
SirensOfTitan 10y ago
The Sleep Cycle app does a pretty good job at sleep analysis and gentle waking and you don't have to wear anything.
- calvinbhai 10y ago
  I was a first adopter for this app, and I have seen way too many scientific journals / papers by PhD candidates or from researchers saying that the Sleep Cycle app is not anywhere close to identify the correct sleep cycles. After using it for a few years, I stopped using it because how I felt in the morning had no correlation to what the app was saying how my sleep was.
josep2 10y ago
I have had a Beddit for many years now. It's a great device and hope they can make some waves with Apple.
- gumby 10y ago
  Do you sleep alone? I have GF, cat, dog all of whom move differently. Can it filter one person from the noise? There's also the kid-jumping-on-bed problem but that is pretty rapidly an "awake" case.
  - discohead 10y ago
    Their FAQ says it can: Absolutely, Beddit 3 is designed for sleep tracking in a shared bed. However, this requires one sensor per person, per phone. You may track sleep one or two-at-a-time http://www.beddit.com/faq/ http://www.beddit.com/faq/
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
free2rhyme214 10y ago
I miss Apple's innovation.
tmsldd 10y ago
We've tracked down in all sort of ways while awake ... now are we going to be tracked also while sleeping? We should try to figure out how to not be a data source without being paid for..
perseusprime11 10y ago
Before going to bed, try telling yourself to wake up at a particular time and you will be amazed.
iplaw 10y ago
Since sleep tracking dramatically increases the need for robust battery life without having to resort to very specific charging rituals, I hope this means that Apple will finally debut an Apple Watch strap which utilizes the electrical contacts hidden away in the lower strap retention channel. Officially, the contacts make up a diagnostic port, but it's been proven that the contacts support charging. Apple has been expected to release a segmented battery strap for quite a while, but it's never materialized. Even in the sport band, where the portion of the lower retention strap usable for battery placement is severely limited by the clasp-holding punctures, you can easily double or triple the battery capacity of the Apple Watch and maintain flexibility of the band by using a dozen or so interconnected segmented batteries. [1] The pleated leather loop bands do not have punctures since they utilize magnetic retention, and can easily be adapted to hold one battery segment per pleated portion. As many as two dozen battery segments can be sewn into the loop, assuming that a magnet and a battery can coexist in a single pleat. [2] [1]: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLKX2ZM/A/38mm-midnight-blue-sport-band-s-m-m-l https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLKX2ZM/A/38mm-midnight-b... [2]: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLHL2ZM/A/42mm-midnight-blue-leather-loop-medium https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLHL2ZM/A/42mm-midnight-b...
ctz 10y ago
Did beddit actually ever make a product that worked? Certainly the indiegogo version I got never worked in any useful way.
- onion2k 10y ago
  Is it possible for a sleep tracking app to work in a useful way? It could tell you that your sleep is interrupted a lot, restless, rarely goes in to deep sleep - but is that actually useful information? How could you use what it's telling you? It's not enough to only know what's happening. You need to know why it's happening in order to affect changes that might improve things, else you could make things worse, or just waste any time/money you're spending trying to improve, or miss an underlying cause that indicates something is seriously wrong..
  - darkstar999 10y ago
    At the very least, sleep tracking can be used to wake you up at the best time.
  - adrianN 10y ago
    Gwern uses a sleep tracker for self-experimentation: https://www.gwern.net/Zeo https://www.gwern.net/Zeo
    - johnfn 10y ago
      This article is amazing. Thank you for reminding me about gwern.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    When I reviewed it, my take was that it might be a low cost way for someone who felt tired a lot to collect some basic data before deciding to go in for a sleep study or other medical tests.
- ghaff 10y ago
  Yes. I have both the now unsupported original model and the new one. Seemed to work as advertised. I'm honestly not sure how useful collecting that info is but it does work for me.
DonHopkins 10y ago
Not to be confused with BBEdit.
ismail 10y ago
What I really really want is: a fitness tracker that does not look like a watch and can be worn with a normal watch. I prefer wearing classic watches, surely I cannot be the only one out there with this need? Do not care about notifications, viewing messages etc. So something that has HR and great sleep tracking.
- brlewis 10y ago
  Is the Alta HR slim enough? https://www.fitbit.com/shop/altahr https://www.fitbit.com/shop/altahr To get anything on your wrist slimmer than that you'll have to give up heart rate tracking.
- dennyabraham 10y ago
  I used to wear a jawbone up3 for this very reason, but it seems like they are discontinued. Someone mentioned the fitbit below but it might be too much to sit next to a normal watch.

206 points by sidcool 10y ago

One of the factors holding me back from buying an Apple Watch is the need to charge overnight. I wear a Fitbit overnight for sleep quality and duration tracking - imperfect as it is. An iPhone- or iWatch-integrated solution would push me over the edge.

culturestate 10y ago
For what it's worth, the Apple Watch charges surprisingly quickly. I often forget to put it on the charger when I go to bed, so I just throw it on when I wake up in the morning – it'll easily get through the day on the juice it picks up while I'm in the shower.
- mulletbum 10y ago
  Yeah, I have the same situation. I charge it when I am laying in bed watching TV or something before going to sleep. Wear it through the night, then throw it on for a shower. I've never actually "charged" mine for a significant period of time.
sillysaurus3 10y ago
I wear a Fitbit overnight for sleep quality and duration tracking Are any of these overnight sleep trackers effective? I'm curious if they cause any changes in your life, or if it's mostly just fulfilling curiosity.
- mahyarm 10y ago
  The sleep tracking is definitely fairly accurate. You get a fairly close measure of how much sleep you got that night. As for what you do with that data is up to you. It's like a weight scale, seeing the number may or may not help you keep a healthy weight.
- brlewis 10y ago
  Read the "Sleep Insights" section of https://blog.fitbit.com/sleep-stages-and-sleep-insights-announcement/ https://blog.fitbit.com/sleep-stages-and-sleep-insights-anno...
- droopyEyelids 10y ago
  It certainly changed my life, and it's the only reason I keep wearing this decaying fitbit. I did a bio major in college and had researched as much as I could about sleep, so I went into it informed, but could never really 'figure out' anything to my satisfaction. That all changed when I got the fitbit, which tracks your sleep 100% automatically. I was able to piece together my complete story about sleep debt, the effects of drinking, caffeine, anticipation, and exercise on my sleep quality, and exactly how much sleep I actually need in a night. (All of which had elements of mystery to them before) This has put me FAR more in tune with my body and mind. It explains the ADD-like symptoms I've coped with, as well as other negative effects that I now realize are due to sleepiness, but had believed were natural variance in life. It gave me control of my life by allowing me to figure out exactly what I need to do to regain my sleep balance when I lose it- something that seemed like an art or even magical before. I think a skeptic's first thought might be along the lines of "How could someone not be able to tell their body's sleep situation- sounds like a high tech solution to a non-problem." If you've studied sleep, you should know that after a few hours sleep debt (even before you go to bed) your body compensates by increasing the release of dopamine in your head, which provides stimulation and euphoria that inhibits your ability to sense your own disability That should explain the benefit of an objective robot that tells you whats up, and if you're a true skeptic, it should make you wonder a bit about the accuracy of your own self perceptions.
apahwa 10y ago
you should give the withings watch a shot. the battery lasts a month and they look like normal watches
- rimliu 10y ago
  Seconded. I am very happy with mine.
abritinthebay 10y ago
If you charge it for 30mins in the morning, while you get ready, you'd easily be able to wear it overnight. source: I do this.
sanswork 10y ago
I wear my Apple watch at night and just charge it in the mornings when I'm in the shower. I have a fairly active lifestyle too so it gets a lot of work tracking activities. For sleep tracking I use Autosleep though it's not fantastic it's usable. I've been hoping for a built in one for a long time.
- josh64 10y ago
  I use Autosleep too. Like you said, it's not fantastic but it does the job and it's nice that you can fine-tune it based on how restless you are normally at night etc.
pdn 10y ago
You are overestimating how long it takes to fully charge an Apple Watch. 20-30' while you're showering and/or having breakfast is enough
calvinbhai 10y ago
I use the first version of the Watch all day and all night. Charges in the morning when I go for shower, and during the before sleep routine (brush / meditate). Thats been more than enough. I'd assume Series 2 is much better in battery capacity
pawelkomarnicki 10y ago
My Apple Watch lasts over 2 days on a charge, and it charges pretty quickly ;-) Where did you get that "charger overnight" stuff?
- ErikHuisman 10y ago
  Apple's keynote
dancryer 10y ago
Good news - The next Apple Watch will be thinner! Oh, you didn't ask for it to be thinner?
- freehunter 10y ago
  To be fair, it could stand to be a bit thinner IMO. As a smartwatch it's a nice size, but as something that's always attached to my wrist, I wouldn't mind if they figured out a way to make it thinner without sacrificing any more battery life.

thedz 10y ago

I read this as "BBEdit" at first and thought wow, they pivoted to sleep tracking?

VonGuard 10y ago
Apple buying BBEdit would make me soooo happy... A return to their roots. Very, very old roots.
flashman 10y ago
I read "Apple acquires... Reddit"
- gallerdude 10y ago
  The humor is, someone else probably read it that way, but had to do something else and is thinking about it now...

dchuk 10y ago

Oh please please please make a smart alarm that will make me up by only vibrating on my wrist. I want to be able to wake up early for stuff without having to wake up my wife and dogs. I want an alarm app on my Apple Watch that: 1) Wakes me up when I'm in light sleep rather than REM 2) Only vibrates on my wrist at first (let's say for 5 minutes) and then falls back to a traditional alarm sound so I get my ass up just in case I've gotten to the point of almost buying some Udemy courses on Apple Watch development to build the damn thing myself. Only thing really holding me back is figuring out the algorithm for sleep tracking, but I'm sure that wouldn't be really hard to do. Maybe I'll just do it still.

rockshassa 10y ago
i'm an iOS engineer, i'll write it for a case of beer. did not plan on rhyming that..
schainks 10y ago
You might be interested in Garmin Vivosmart HR+ (I have one). While Garmin's app is a horrible walled garden (no google fit integration, or integration with other Android APIs, like alarms), it does let you set an alarm that syncs to the watch. The watch vibrates with increasing intensity in order to wake you up. Works as advertised.
BoorishBears 10y ago
I'm shocked that doesn't exist, even my old Pebble had an app for that
- saagarjha 10y ago
  A big part in this comes from the fact that most people take off the watch when they sleep to charge it, making it useless for sleep tracking.
  - icanhackit 10y ago
    With gen 2 Apple Watch that shouldn't be necessary - I wear mine diligently and interact with it frequently yet the battery never gets below 70% at the end of the day, often only getting down to 90%, and the charge time is quite rapid. Stick it on the charger when going for a shower or some other short routine and you should have it back to fully charged when you're done. Get the Milanese Loop band and it'll be even less of a pain because you can quickly put the watch on and take it off because it's magnetic. A lot easier than a buckle or pin fastener. For anyone interested the sleep tracking app I use, Sleep Watch, automatically figures out when you're sleeping and awake so you don't have to manually initiate the app. I guess it interprets movement data from the accelerometer and can tell the difference between slight movements in a sleeping state and respite during wakeful periods.

DashRattlesnake 10y ago

I was thinking of getting one of these, but now it's only a matter of time before they remove Android compatibility.

SirensOfTitan 10y ago

The Sleep Cycle app does a pretty good job at sleep analysis and gentle waking and you don't have to wear anything.

calvinbhai 10y ago
I was a first adopter for this app, and I have seen way too many scientific journals / papers by PhD candidates or from researchers saying that the Sleep Cycle app is not anywhere close to identify the correct sleep cycles. After using it for a few years, I stopped using it because how I felt in the morning had no correlation to what the app was saying how my sleep was.

josep2 10y ago

I have had a Beddit for many years now. It's a great device and hope they can make some waves with Apple.

gumby 10y ago
Do you sleep alone? I have GF, cat, dog all of whom move differently. Can it filter one person from the noise? There's also the kid-jumping-on-bed problem but that is pretty rapidly an "awake" case.
- discohead 10y ago
  Their FAQ says it can: Absolutely, Beddit 3 is designed for sleep tracking in a shared bed. However, this requires one sensor per person, per phone. You may track sleep one or two-at-a-time http://www.beddit.com/faq/ http://www.beddit.com/faq/
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

free2rhyme214 10y ago

I miss Apple's innovation.

tmsldd 10y ago

We've tracked down in all sort of ways while awake ... now are we going to be tracked also while sleeping? We should try to figure out how to not be a data source without being paid for..

perseusprime11 10y ago

Before going to bed, try telling yourself to wake up at a particular time and you will be amazed.

iplaw 10y ago

Since sleep tracking dramatically increases the need for robust battery life without having to resort to very specific charging rituals, I hope this means that Apple will finally debut an Apple Watch strap which utilizes the electrical contacts hidden away in the lower strap retention channel. Officially, the contacts make up a diagnostic port, but it's been proven that the contacts support charging. Apple has been expected to release a segmented battery strap for quite a while, but it's never materialized. Even in the sport band, where the portion of the lower retention strap usable for battery placement is severely limited by the clasp-holding punctures, you can easily double or triple the battery capacity of the Apple Watch and maintain flexibility of the band by using a dozen or so interconnected segmented batteries. [1] The pleated leather loop bands do not have punctures since they utilize magnetic retention, and can easily be adapted to hold one battery segment per pleated portion. As many as two dozen battery segments can be sewn into the loop, assuming that a magnet and a battery can coexist in a single pleat. [2] [1]: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLKX2ZM/A/38mm-midnight-blue-sport-band-s-m-m-l https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLKX2ZM/A/38mm-midnight-b... [2]: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLHL2ZM/A/42mm-midnight-blue-leather-loop-medium https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MLHL2ZM/A/42mm-midnight-b...

ctz 10y ago

Did beddit actually ever make a product that worked? Certainly the indiegogo version I got never worked in any useful way.

onion2k 10y ago
Is it possible for a sleep tracking app to work in a useful way? It could tell you that your sleep is interrupted a lot, restless, rarely goes in to deep sleep - but is that actually useful information? How could you use what it's telling you? It's not enough to only know what's happening. You need to know why it's happening in order to affect changes that might improve things, else you could make things worse, or just waste any time/money you're spending trying to improve, or miss an underlying cause that indicates something is seriously wrong..
- darkstar999 10y ago
  At the very least, sleep tracking can be used to wake you up at the best time.
- adrianN 10y ago
  Gwern uses a sleep tracker for self-experimentation: https://www.gwern.net/Zeo https://www.gwern.net/Zeo
  - johnfn 10y ago
    This article is amazing. Thank you for reminding me about gwern.
- ghaff 10y ago
  When I reviewed it, my take was that it might be a low cost way for someone who felt tired a lot to collect some basic data before deciding to go in for a sleep study or other medical tests.
ghaff 10y ago
Yes. I have both the now unsupported original model and the new one. Seemed to work as advertised. I'm honestly not sure how useful collecting that info is but it does work for me.

DonHopkins 10y ago

Not to be confused with BBEdit.

ismail 10y ago

What I really really want is: a fitness tracker that does not look like a watch and can be worn with a normal watch. I prefer wearing classic watches, surely I cannot be the only one out there with this need? Do not care about notifications, viewing messages etc. So something that has HR and great sleep tracking.

brlewis 10y ago
Is the Alta HR slim enough? https://www.fitbit.com/shop/altahr https://www.fitbit.com/shop/altahr To get anything on your wrist slimmer than that you'll have to give up heart rate tracking.
dennyabraham 10y ago
I used to wear a jawbone up3 for this very reason, but it seems like they are discontinued. Someone mentioned the fitbit below but it might be too much to sit next to a normal watch.