Unveiling the Secrets of Sleep: What Will Sleep-Tracking Devices Reveal?

The sleep tech industry has caught the fever of a new obsession—our beloved slumber. Remember that powerful earthquake that shook New South Wales recently? Well, while the tectonic plates were doing their dramatic dance and households quaked in reproach, a curious phenomenon unfurled across Sydney's tender landscapes. Yes, data scientists in Sweden noted a restless stir among sleepers. It seems an above-average number of people jolted awake at the moment of the quake, all thanks to a delightful little sleep-tracking app called Sleep Cycle. Suddenly, it became apparent that our sleep isn't just a personal affair, but an event that can be measured, categorized, and yes, even quantified.

With sleep-tracking applications booming like a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven, researchers find themselves swimming in a sea of sleep data—millions of hours, in fact! And when calamity strikes—be it a natural disaster, a pesky COVID variant, or the inevitable chaos of the holiday season—we're now privy to a breathtaking and widespread alteration in sleep patterns. Michael Gradisar, Sleep Cycle’s charismatic head of science, summed it up perfectly: “Sleep is one of the first things to go wrong in a person’s health. It’s the canary in the mine.” Can you imagine? Our sleep habits are now the heroic early warning system, flashing neon signs to alert us about our wellbeing.

Let's have a little history lesson, shall we? Our saga kicks off in 2015 with a Sydney computer scientist who, motivated by a toxic mixture of curiosity and obsession, created the first-ever sleep-tracking app for the Apple Watch. David Walsh, a name you may not recognize unless you hang out in developer circles, committed himself to understanding the science of sleep like a college student the night before their finals. “I just read tonnes and tonnes of scientific papers... Everything under the sun,” he recalls. Who knew that such determination would spark a global phenomenon?

When Apple launched its first smart watch sans any sleep-tracking features, Walsh promptly dove into the rabbit hole. He spent months dissecting the science to create an app that ingeniously inferred when the wearer was asleep, simply by tracking their movements and heart rate. A casual after-work beer for him? No biggie—except it significantly shrank his sleep time. “It just makes you very, very aware of the consequences and what you’re doing to yourself,” he reflects.

But humans have never been particularly skilled at estimating our sleep quality, have we? We can meticulously count calories and measure our running times, but assessing our sleep quality often involved a night at some sterile sleep lab, tangled in an array of electrodes that said: “Welcome to the future of anxiety!” Enter AutoSleep. Fast forward a mere eight years, and this little app now boasts over 5 million users. That’s quite the leap!

But, alas, sleep scientists were not so easily entranced. With skepticism fitting for a noir detective novel, figures like Gabriel Pires, a researcher from Brazil, approached this new consumer tech warily. “Be careful with these new technologies; they don't work well,” he warned. It took a global pandemic for many, like Mike Gradisar, to shift their opinions on wearables. With people needing a pick-me-up and armed with disposable income, sales of health-maximizing gadgets soared, leading to a cascade of investment and an upswing in device accuracy.

As smart watches got slicker and swankier—adding features to track heart activity, blood oxygen levels, and body temperature—the sleep-tracking revolution unfolded spectacularly. Data flowing from users, especially during the onset of the Omicron variant, was nothing short of a goldmine for researchers. Gradisar and his colleagues observed a distinctive spike in night-time coughing just before the confirmed cases of Omicron soared. Talk about being ahead of the curve! It’s almost as if these sleep devices have become our unassuming sentinels, watching over our health.

The latest twist in this tale arrived with Samsung’s smartwatch, now waving a shiny banner of approval for sleep apnea detection, a condition affecting nearly a billion people worldwide—yet so many aren't even aware they have it. And while some may fret about the surveillance state—can we say “Big Brother”?—the convenience of these devices could mean millions will finally have access to critical health tests without having to jump through hoops at a sleep lab.

Yet, as we hover over this brave new world of sleep monitoring, one must tread cautiously. The dark underbelly of the industry reveals itself: Jen Walsh paints a picture of a dystopian future where employers demand records of our sleep as proof of productivity. “Is your boss going to insist you get seven hours of sleep?” she warns, as we ponder the perils