A sleep tracker might not get you to sleep quicker, make your slumber longer, or keep you asleep for the entirety of the night, but it will help you understand your sleep better. That's what a good sleep tracker should do, anyway. Once you can see how well (or poorly) you slept you can make goals to improve it, change aspects of your routine or diet, and maybe even get enough exercise throughout the day to be tired enough to fall asleep before midnight -- talk about a dream.
Experts recommend that adults get at least seven hours of sleep every night (though everyone is different). Even with seven hours of sleep, there's no guarantee that we wake up well-rested. To determine how you've actually slept throughout the night, sleep trackers and wearables come in handy. While not perfect, sleep trackers can measure heart rate, skin temperature, and time spent in each sleep phase.
There are smartwatches, smart rings, and earbuds that track your sleep to provide a greater picture of your sleep health. Your sleep data will differ depending on which product you use, and some products perform their sleep-tracking duties better than others. The ZDNET team has carefully tested sleep trackers to find the best one based on features, affordability, and availability.
We found that the Oura Ring 4 is the best sleep tracker on the market for its comfortable, lightweight fit, impressive battery life, discreet build that makes it perfect for sleeping. Plus, it offers a plethora of sleep data on the app. But the Oura Ring isn't the only sleep tracker to consider. Here, we explore the most popular options, as well as some you may not have heard about, to help you choose the best sleep tracker for a better night's sleep.
The Oura Ring 4 is a competitive sleep tracker, with insights into everything from sleep efficiency, restfulness, readiness, latency, and more. I've been using the Oura Ring for a while now, and it's not only given me deeper insight into my sleep but also supplements those data points with explanations behind the numbers. Oura claims to accurately track sleep cycles, total sleep time, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and movement.
These features have been enhanced through the rollout of the fourth-generation Oura Ring, which hit the market in October. The Oura Ring 4 has smart sensors, allowing more accurate and continuous data capture. It's also more comfortable than the Oura Ring 3 and has flattened sensors that make it easier to wear over time.
Every morning I get a sleep score for last night's sleep and view my heart rate, my sleep efficiency, and my suggested bedtime range for the day. The sleep score helps me understand my energy levels for the day and my activity bandwidth, like whether I should exercise or rest. But it's not just deep sleep that it can track and point out; the Oura Ring can detect the shortest of naps and factor those into your sleep score for the day. Plus, the sleep tab on the app offers information on sleep efficiency, restfulness, REM, deep sleep, latency, and timing, so you can dig deep and go beyond viewing only a sleep score and your time spent in bed.
As if there aren't enough sleep-friendly features through the Oura Ring, Oura also unveiled a body clock feature that teaches you more about your circadian rhythms and body clock. The feature measures my sleep chronotype, calculated by my body temperature, sleep-wake cycle, and physical activity, and through this data gathered that I'm most productive during the late morning.
Also: The best smart rings
The battery life is masterful. It charges quickly and stays charged for around five to six days. Oura says that the new generation's battery life lasts eight days, but I haven't found that to be the case in my testing. The one downside to the ring is the extra $72 you spend on the Oura subscription a year, on top of the $350 you just spent on the ring itself.
Redditors also agree that the Oura Ring, as a sleep tracker, is worth it. "If you struggle with sleep quality, overtraining, or anything else that affects recovery, I'd say it's worth it," one user wrote in a thread. However, one Best Buy reviewer noted that the ring doesn't offer half sizes, which could be an issue if your fingers swell.
Oura Ring Gen 4 specs: Up to 8 days battery life | Sleep cycles | Bluetooth | Up to 100m water resistant | Blood oxygen, skin temperature sensor, heart rate monitoring | iOS and Android compatible
I've tried to sleep with an Apple Watch around my wrist, and while the tech does a fairly good job at tracking my sleep, even the lightest smartwatch pales in comparison to a smart ring for sleep-tracking functionalities. That being said, I know there's a lot of people who live and die by their Apple Watch, and if that's you, the Apple Watch Series 10 is the best you can get for sleep-tracking.
The Apple Watch Series 10 offers many improvements from its Series 9 predecessor. Not only does the watch come with a bigger display, but it's also brighter and thinner. One key new feature of the Series 10 is Apple's FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection. People can wear the Series 10 to bed and get information about breathing disturbances throughout the night, then take that data to the doctor for a diagnosis. This data can be viewed on a one-month, six-month, or one-year timeline, available in the Health app.
Review: Apple Watch Series 10
With the Sleep app on Apple Watch, you can create goals for how long you'd like to sleep each night and adjust them for weekdays and weekends, use the Sleep Focus mode, which limits distractions before bed, and track your sleep through the motion detectors on the watch. It estimates how long you spend in each sleep phase -- REM, core, and deep -- per night. Note that Sleep Focus needs to be on to begin tracking your bedtime activity.
My least favorite thing about the Apple Watch is that you don't get a sleep score or summary that helps evaluate your night's sleep. A number rating is far easier to understand than a heart rate graph, so hopefully, one day, Apple will catch up to the competition with a reliable sleep and readiness score system.
Apple Watch Series 10 specs: Up to 18-hour battery life | Sleep cycles and sleep apnea-tracking | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and/or cellular options | 42mm and 46mm models | IP6X dust and water resistant | Blood oxygen, body temperature sensor, EKG, irregular heart rate alerts | iOS only
Android owners looking for a sleep tracker on a smartwatch should look no further than the Google Pixel Watch 2. Google improved its heart rate sensors in its newest iteration of the Pixel Watch, which ZDNET contributing writer and resident smart watch expert Matt Miller confirmed when he tested out the watch himself.
On top of that, the Google Pixel Watch 2 further integrates Fitbit into the wearable with improved stress tracking, a daily readiness score, ECG, sleep scores, and six months of Fitbit Premium for free. Some of Fitbit's sleep tracking features include nightly trends and trends over time, a silent alarm that vibrates to wake you up during your most optimal sleep stage, bedtime reminders, sleep goals, and more. One Best Buy reviewer said that the watch's silent alarm makes it easy to wake up without waking her husband, and a handful of reviewers pointed out the watch's accurate sleep tracking.
If you're wearing a piece of tech to bed, it needs to be lightweight and compact. The Pixel Watch 2 is much lighter than its predecessor, ideal for comfortable sleep. "Google's continued focus on sleep and stress tracking means having a lighter, smaller watch makes more sense," Miller writes in his review.
More: Google Pixel Watch 2 Review
While the 24-hour battery life isn't nearly as competitive as other smart watches, the faster charging rate takes your 0% battery to 50% in less than 30 minutes. Miller says it's still one of the most accurate Fitbit-powered wearables for heart rate and GPS tracking, so what you lack in battery life you gain in sublime accuracy.
Google Pixel Watch 2 specs: 24 hours battery life | Sleep stages | 41mm | Up to 164 feet of water resistance | Accelerometer, Altimeter, Compass, Multi-path Optical Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen Sensor, Skin Temperature, Barometer, cEDA, Gyroscope, Light Sensor | Android compatible
If you're an athlete or fitness junkie shopping around for a new smart watch, you've probably heard about Garmin's smart watches and their suite of health tracking features, like the body battery, workout benefit and recovery time, and perceived exertion data. Most runners I know use one of Garmin's watches for their half marathon and marathon training, and our resident smart watch expert, Matt Miller, loves them for their rugged build. So if you're all-in on your workout regimen, a Garmin watch that's already giving you accurate sport insights that pairs with special sleep capabilities might be your sleep tracker of choice.
Out of all the Garmin watches, the Venu 3S might be the brand's best for sleep tracking due to its lighter and smaller build and its sleep coach feature, which provides you with a sleep score, tracks your sleep stages and naps, and monitors your heart rate variability and skin temperature during rest. All this sleep tracking data impacts your body battery, which Garmin delivers to you in a score out of 100.
The sleep coach combines your age, daily and longer-term activity levels, recent sleep history, naps taken, and heart rate variability (HRV) to offer you a recommended nightly sleep need.
The Venu 3S is of a smaller build than other Garmin watches, which works wonderfully for sleep. The smooth silicone band of the watch also resembles that of the Apple Sport band, according to Miller. Miller's daughter, an avid hiker and napper, tried it out and enjoyed the nap tracking feature on the watch.
The only downside of this sleep tracker is how it significantly drains the watch's battery, some Amazon reviewers have complained. But even if the battery is drained, its long battery life still out competes many sleep trackers on this list, and is great for anybody who wants to improve their fitness quality through sleep tracking.
Garmin Venu 3S specs: Up to 10 days battery life | Sleep score and insights | Bluetooth | 41mm or 45mm | 5 ATM water resistant | GPS, heart rate, pulse oximeter blood oxygen monitor, barometric altimeter, accelerometer | iOS and Android compatible
If you want a lightweight, screen-less band that effortlessly tracks all your activity and sleep data, your best bet could be the Whoop 4.0. Countless professional athletes have used the smart band, given its focus on measuring strain and recovery. But where it really shines is in its sleep tracking.
Whoop measures your four sleep stages (slow wave, awake, REM, and light) and suggests optimal sleep times based on the sleep data it collects. You can also set alarms that go off at a specific time, once you hit your sleep goal, or once you've hit a recovery period. One of the best sleep features Matt Miller, who reviewed the Whoop 4.0 pointed out, was the sleep coach that not only informs you when to go to bed but tells you how much sleep you will reach if you go to bed past that time. Plus, the Whoop calculates how much sleep you'll need based on the energy you exert on physical or mental tasks.
You get all your health data through the Whoop smartphone app, given the fact that this band is screen-less. Launching the app displays data on strain, recovery, and sleep. To go deeper into your sleep data, you can get a by-the-minute plot of your heart rate and other sleep metrics during the night, along with some words that describe the data presented for added clarity.
You can analyze your daily, weekly, and monthly sleep patterns through the detailed sleep trends Whoop offers and calculate your true sleep need, the amount of time you should be sleeping a night. "At first, I thought the Whoop was just an advanced sleep-tracking device that offered more than my GPS sports watches, but it's more than that. It does track the details of your sleep but is also measuring other key metrics of your body throughout the day," Matt Miller writes in his review of the Whoop 4.0.
Customers agree and say the Whoop is worth the money. Many Amazon reviewers said they initially bought the Whoop 4.0 to track their sleep but found themselves improving other areas of their life thanks to the detailed data and health metrics that Whoop offers.
Review: Whoop 4.0
Whoop 4.0 specs: Up to 5 days battery life | Sleep cycles | Bluetooth | 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.45 inches | IP68 water resistant | Blood oxygen, skin temperature sensor, heart rate | iOS and Android compatible
The best sleep tracker overall is the Oura Ring 4 thanks to its suite of features that help you understand your health data behind your sleep score. It's more comfortable to wear compared to a smartwatch and offers the most in-depth summaries and recommendations of your night's slumber.
| Best sleep tracker | Cost | Battery life | iOS/Android | Sleep cycles | Subscription needed? |
| Oura Ring 4 | $350 | 8 days | iOS and Android | ✔ | Yes |
| Apple Watch Series 10 | $399 | 18 hours | iOS only | ✔ | No |
| Google Pixel Watch 2 | $350 | 24 hours | Android only | ✔ | No |
| Garmin Venu 3S | $450 | 10 days | iOS and Android | ✔ | No |
| Whoop 4.0 | $240 | 5 days | iOS and Android | ✔ | Yes |
That depends on what you need. Do you want something with a screen or no screen? Are you an athlete looking to combine your sleep data with your training data or someone who's casually interested in their sleep score night by night? We've compiled a list of picks that will suit all sorts of needs and use cases.
| Choose this best sleep tracker... | If you want... |
| Oura Ring | The best sleep tracker overall, with a battery life that lasts nearly a week, comprehensive sleep data, and a form factor you won't ever notice. |
| Apple Watch Series 10 | The best sleep tracker for Apple users with easy Apple integration, sleep cycle information and sleep apnea detection, and a larger, thinner, and brighter display. |
| Google Pixel Watch 2 | The best sleep tracker for Android users, with Fitbit integrated sleep tech, a daily readiness score, and a lightweight build that makes the Pixel Watch 2 easy to sleep with. |
| Garmin Venu 3S | The best sleep tracker for athletes or fitness junkies. It's a smart watch, so you can take calls on it, check your mileage as you run, and get in depth data on your sleep. The Venu 3S has the highest battery life on this list, and can even detect the shortest of naps. |
| Whoop 4.0 | The best sleep tracker for athletes who don't want a screen on their wrist. Get insights and recommendations through Whoop's personalized sleep coach, and learn how you can recover from your workouts with the right amount of sleep that Whoop calculates for you. |
Poor sleep quality can lead to an increased risk of dementia, obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, and even certain types of cancer. Sleep has never been more important.
To find the best sleep trackers, ZDNET relied on hands-on testing and thorough research into product quality as well as sleep studies on these devices. Additionally, we considered the following factors:
Sleep Tracking: Sensors in your sleep tracker are capable of collecting a variety of data, such as your heart rate, heart rate variability, time asleep, sleep stages, and even how much you snore. All of this data is collected and analyzed, and the best sleep trackers present this information to you with clarity.
Comfort: If you're wearing a device to bed, it should be easy to sleep with. We've tried to consider smart watches, bands, and rings that are lightweight, compact, and unobtrusive.
Subscription: In order to access some features, you may need to subscribe to a plan. Some subscriptions may require a one-time fee, while others may require that you pay an ongoing monthly fee for the service. Be sure to check out the terms of the subscription before you buy. Although they are generally pretty affordable, this is an additional cost that you will need to factor into the total price.
Price: Sleep trackers can be reasonably priced, but they start to get pretty pricey once you start to add extra features. I found that the cost of the best sleep trackers range in price from $80 to $400, depending on the model you choose.
User sentiment: We read the customer reviews on each product to see what other people were liking and disliking about each sleep tracker. You should too.
We know how much of an investment any type of personal tech can be. That's why when we pick products to include on a list like this, we give these products careful consideration. We do this by rigorously testing them for days and weeks on end, reading customer reviews, and evaluating whether they live up to their value and cost.
The ZDNET team is constantly testing and ranking products, swapping one old model on the list for a new model, and getting rid of products that are no longer competitive with the others on the list. We take this testing seriously because whether a product costs $30 or $300, we want you to get your money's worth.
A sleep cycle is comprised of three different stages: light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement, or REM. On a typical night, when you first fall asleep, you'll enter either light or deep sleep, likely one after the other, and enter a REM phase.
This cycle will last about 1.5 hours, then repeat itself in intervals closer to two hours, maybe with a few awake minutes in between, but always ending with REM sleep. As the night progresses, you'll likely experience less time in deep sleep, while the REM stages will become longer.
A regular night of sleep should be about 50% light sleep, 20% REM sleep, 20% deep sleep, and 10% awake.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends improving your sleep by practicing certain habits throughout the day and before bed. Following a consistent bed routine, that is, waking up and retiring at around the same time, is one way to signal to your body to ease into sleep. Dimming the lights a few hours before bed, limiting screen time, and creating a cozy, dark, and cold bedroom environment are all ways to improve your sleep schedule. Regular exercise and limited alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine consumption can also help keep you asleep.
Nearly a quarter of your sleep should be REM sleep, according to health experts. So if you're sleeping eight hours a night, the recommended average, two hours of REM each night should be ideal.
If you need your sleep analyzed, doctors will usually order a polysomnography, which analyzes a person's oxygen level, heart rate, breathing, eye movement, and leg movement while simultaneously running an electroencephalogram (EEG).
An EEG shows your brainwaves through different stages and cycles of sleep. A wearable smartwatch or fitness tracker on your wrist, however, is far from your brain.
The most popular wearables by Fitbit, Apple, Garmin, and Samsung collect a combination of the following measurements: heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), movement, breaths per minute, and skin temperature. Devices that track sleep cycles use an algorithm to hypothesize your sleep cycles based on the data.
A 2017 study compared a polysomnography with the performance of a Fitbit Charge 2 in 35 adults. Researchers found the Fitbit device detected sleep onset with 96% accuracy but overshot time spent asleep by 9 minutes on average. In the study, the Fitbit detected light sleep with 81% accuracy, deep sleep with only 49% accuracy, and REM sleep with 74% accuracy.
A newer study published in April of 2022 compared the performance of Fitbit Alta HR to results of an EEG conducted simultaneously on 40 college athletes while sleeping. This study found FItBit data to satisfactorily track sleep onset, time spent asleep, and sleep cycles. Fitbit can be a useful tool for athletes' sleep management.
While not 100% accurate, the Fitbit data had a strong correlation with polysomnography data.
There are several types of sleep trackers that you can choose from. Smartwatches, rings, and under mattress nearables are the three most popular options.
Rings: This is another wearable sleep tracker but far more basic. It uses sensors along the inside of the ring to collect data and track your sleep.
Under mattress or nearables: There are some models, like the Withings Sleep Tracker Pad, that simply slide under your mattress for an unobtrusive solution to sleep trackers.
The Apple Watch Series 9, Google's Pixel Watch 2, and the Garmin Venu 3S are all impressive smart watches that offer great sleep tracking capabilities -- subscription free. If you're a casual sleep tracker, I'd recommend the Apple Watch for people within the Apple ecosystem and the Pixel Watch 2 for those in the Android ecosystem. If you're an athlete or someone who's training for a marathon I'd suggest the Garmin Venu 3S.
With so many sleep trackers available, there are many alternatives worth considering. Here are our top picks for alternative sleep trackers that we have tested and can recommend if the picks above don't suit your fancy.