The 7 Best Sleep Trackers To Help Maximize Your Eight Hours

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There's nothing worse than struggling with your sleep. Even after buying the buzzy new mattresses, plush pillows, and crazy soft sheets, you're tossing and turning, waking up feeling like you just got hit with a truck. You tried cutting back on drinking, smoking less (or more) weed, and working out to exhaustion, but nothing's working. It's getting to the point where you're having to ratchet up your daily coffee intake, and that's just going to create bigger problems.

So, what do you do? These days, there's a pretty clear answer: bring tech into your bedroom. Sure, it can seem weird giving up this most sacred data to some app, but what are they going to do with it? Sell you another pillow? Good fucking luck. Unless you've straight up got sleep apnea or like something that a psychologist can treat, tracking your own sleep is all you've got.

That's not bad news, though! These days, there's a huge market of sleep trackers, and they all get the job done, more or less. They give you insights into your tossing and turning, R.E.M. (not like the band) cycles, and they offer you solutions to get your sleep working for you again. To help you out, we tested a handful of the options on the market, and decided which ones are really worth the investment. These are the seven best sleep trackers we stand by.

Oura Ring

Oura makes a wearable that's far less obtrusive than your standard fitness watch, and to be totally transparent, we love this little ring. By sensing body temperature, pulse, and body movement throughout the night, it can provide a treasure trove of info about your sleep cycles and create healthy bedtime guidelines for you to follow. If you wear it throughout the day, it'll track your activity, steps, calories burned, heart rate, and more, making it a great all-around wellness tool.

There is a drawback, though. To get all the advanced metrics—anything beyond general sleep activity and readiness scores—you do need an Oura membership. The membership is $6/month, not insane, but it ain't nothing, either.

Ring Air

If you want a smart ring without the pressure to buy a subscription, Ultrahuman's Ring Air is a great option. It does all the same smart tracking as an Oura ring, without the standout fitness tracking you get from the Oura Ring.

That sounds like a step down, but honestly, if you want a wearable specifically for sleep tracking, I'd suggest the Ultrahuman, as it's way less commitment.

4.0 + 12 Month Membership

Whoop is on the way to being the most popular option on this list, mainly because it's so damn good. This little screenless band does some of the most detailed bio-tracking on the market. It's thin and lightweight enough that you can sleep or work out without ever being encumbered.

The only downside is the membership cost, which you pretty much need to use this thing. The cheapest option, a 24-month membership, is about $17/month, with a year-long membership being $20/month. But if you're serious about your sleep tracking and your fitness, this is the best option.

vívosmart 5

Want something slim and lightweight like the Whoop, but a bit less intense? Garmin's vívosmart 5 is an incredible option. It's affordable, and it does all the fitness and sleep tracking most people—bar pro athletes—need. Track your heart rate, breath, hydration, etc. Plus, the Garmin App gives you all the smart sleep tracking and coaching you really need. No need to get complicated.

Tomorrow Sleeptracker

If you're not really into wearables, try an under-mattress tracker. Tomorrow's under-mattress sleep tracker comes in two options—for a single person or for couples—and gives you all the basic feedback you need through its intuitive app: heart rate and breathing rate, and graphical representation of when you're in deep, REM sleep or lighter sleep. It also choses the best time to set an alarm so you wake up feeling fully rested, gives you tips on improving your sleep quality, and pairs with smart home devices.

For comprehensive features at a good price, this was our favorite option, far and away.

Withings Sleep

Withings' Sleep tracker is pretty basic. You slide the pad under the mattress and check your stats on the app, which monitors sleep duration and quality, snoring patterns, and interruptions.

Unfortunately, it doesn't give you advice on how to sleep better, nor does it come with an alarm to wake you up at the optimal time in your sleep cycle. But it does pair with some smart home devices.

Beautyrest Sleeptracker

Beautyrest's sleep tracker is as one of the most accurate under-mattress trackers, which is pretty insane, given it's low price point. On top of that, it pairs with Alexa for ease of use. The two paddles go under your bed and can track two sleepers at once. And the data Beautyrest beams to its app is easy to digest, with sleep scores, charts, clocks, and trend reports spanning days, weeks, and months.

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