Review: Sleeptracker Pro Elite Sleep Monitor Watch

I’ve recently had a chance to try out the SleepTracker Pro Elite Sleep Monitor Watch. What this digital watch does is track your sleeping habits and wakes you up at just the right time so you are refreshed and awake in the morning. While I was a bit skeptical about the watch it does actually do that. However are there are some conditions and caveats to it.

The watch has a sporty design and a relatively large display that’s easy to read. Setting the watch is simple and intuitive using the side buttons. The watch can track subtle vibrations to determine your sleep patterns while you sleep. You can even hook it up to your PC via USB to track your sleep.

The Sleeptracker works to wake you up refreshed by monitoring your sleep cycles throughout the night and then waking you up via vibration or alarm at an optimal time in your cycle when your body is nearly awake naturally. I found that it did wake me up at good times and I felt less groggy and less in a daze than normal. And that may be sufficient for some people but here’s the problems:

First off you have to wear a relatively large size watch while you sleep. That might be a dealbreaker for many right there. It’s not uncomfortable but it’s there. Secondly you have to remember to set it when you go to sleep so it knows you’re going to sleep. It’s not like a normal alarm that automatically is just set- for it to work it needs to know you are starting to go to sleep. Third you have to set a window of wake up time in the morning. This window can range from 20 minutes to an hour (you set it yourself). This might be the biggest issue- most people don’t have the luxury of getting up at any time during a large window of time. There’s so many factors that go into your wake up time- from catching a train, getting to your job on time, getting kids ready for school, sharing bathroom schedules, etc etc.

I figured I would simply set it for 20 minutes before I normally get up and it would be great… and then for a week straight one of my kids woke me up before the alarm did. Then the next day I got a text message- at 6am (and it was spam!) Then I woke up myself before the alarm. But when I finally got a full night’s sleep in, it did wake me up at what seemed like a good time where I was relatively refreshed.

So while I will say that the Sleeptracker watch does work at getting you up at optimal times (and the vibration feature is good), you have to be wiling to wear a watch to bed, remember to set it nightly and you really need to have a level of flexibility in your wake up times to get the full effect. The price might be prohibitive to some people but for many with sleep issues, you can’t put any price on a good night’s rest. It comes in both male (pictured) and female styles.