Wearable self sufficiency

Hello, if I use a wearable, do I still need to keep the phone monitoring me directly? Or can it just (as I hope) use the data coming from the wearable in order to track my sleep phases (via, for ex, ECG)?

Because I’d like to wake up in the most comfortable phase of my hypnogram without keeping the phone too close and just wearing the device on my wrist

It will be kinda disappointing if the integrated wearable is used just as a vibrational alarm and not as a primary source of data

I’d be interested in this as well - anyone could confirm?

On top of that - could anyone recommend any wrist-wearable that would be actually soft (that is NOT rubbery/plastic thing - something with material)? That would be very comfortable to wear during sleep?
In general watched (by day) annoys me, and I can’t imaging having to sleep with something on my wrist…

To my understanding, yes, when using a wearable you don’t need to keep the phone next to your pillow. You do need to keep it within Bluetooth range however, about 10 meters.

You also get vibration, depending on the wearable itself, but I do have vibration on alarm on my LG Urbane 2, and both my Mi Bands (2+3).

@wojtek I would suggest the Mi Band with the stock band, it’s extreme comfortable and light, not sleep intrusive at all. You do need an extra app for it to work with Sleep as Android but it’s worth it. There are also replacement bands which could be more comfortable for sleep, but I haven’t tried any, I never had issues with mine.

However there’s also the option to track sleep using sonar, if your device supports it. You can still keep your phone in close proximity to your bed (not next to pillow, on the night stand for example) and get tracking without even wearing a band. Haven’t tried it myself, but from what I’ve read it works great.

@akpe

I was pondering MiBand but I generalny (recenly) have some issues with wrist-gadgets (mostly watches) - after about 1-2h I simply can’t stand it on my wrist (even thoug they have comfortable straps) hence my qualm with all available currently smart-bands, which are rubbery… I just went online and found that there are nylon band so that my work for me - thanks!

Could you explain a bit on the sonar bit? I’m currently trying to leave phone as far as possible from bed (to not use mid-sleep unconciously) so distance may be a factor…

Hello,

You can learn more about sonar here: https://sleep.urbandroid.org/introducing-sonar-as-sensor/

Sadly I haven’t used it personally, so I can’t comment on how well it works, others though swear by it. The device still needs to be within arm’s reach though, so it might be not ideal for you.

A little bit of an update.

So in the end I bought MiBand4 and… tried it at first and was very annoyed - turns out that default rubber band is quite rigid so after a couple of nights I decided it won’t work for me… being annoyed with having device that I can’t use properly I decided to go for a search for nicer bands and after a bit of digging I found textile/nylone ones. Got one just the other day and oh boy - they are super comfortable, allow exact adjustment of the length and are easier to put on. If someone is searching for same topic or considering MiBand as sleep monitor I definitelly recommend getting one of those textile bands!

As you have your wearable now you will see that it adds many more data points to your sleep tracking. I find when i am wearing my watch (Tickwatch E) it detects awake an movement much better and in greater detail compared to sonar. Of course it’s tracking your HR and using this combined data to detect your current state of sleep/awake.

from the website:

“Sleep as Android supports a lot smartwatches. Instead of having your phone on the bed, you can use a smartwatch for tracking your movement and heart rate.”