PC Mag recently reviewed hugOne, an app that tracks children’s sleep.
Getting the sensors in place and synced with the app (iOS, Android) was easy. Keeping them in place? Not so much. If you have kids who jump on their beds occasionally (*cough* not that I know anyone like that *cough*), you will find that the sensors frequently migrate to other parts of the mattress. It’s not a huge deal, but a frequent annoyance.
When the device stays put, however, it collects some interesting data. I recently learned that flu viruses have a harder time surviving at higher humidity levels, for example, so I am loving the fact that the sensors tell me the humidity level in the kids’ room. A light on the hugOne base also glows/pulses pink when the air quality could be improved. You can also check the temperature, whether bedtimes have been consistent, and how your kids’ sleep patterns have been affected by these variables.
Read the rest at www.pcmag.com
Sleep is a very complex bio-behavioral phenomena. Measurement of sleep requires careful and expert analysis of multiple physiological phenomena. A movement, heart rate and breathing sensor are not sufficient to determine quality and amounts of different sleep stages (light versus deep). Current algorithms and devices provide at best very rough and sometimes grossly inaccurate measures of total sleep time, but nothing more. Safe sleep practices are paramount, and snoring should be evaluated, but other sleep disturbances require careful evaluation by a trained professional.