I'm 53 and have had severe refractory RLS and PLMD for over 30 years now. As you can imagine, or probably know yourself, lack of sleep has been a nightmare for a long time.
I'm looking for recommendations for sleep trackers as my doctors want to know when and how long I sleep. Because of the distinction between when I go to bed to try to sleep vs. when I actually get sleep, it has always been difficult to manually log my sleep hours [more like minutes] by hand. Now that I'm on methadone, it is even more challenging as I'm not really mentally focused before sleep finally comes. And, of course, I often sleep in little dribs and drabs - when my legs finally calm down enough to sleep, they still wake me up soon after, often within minutes. Moreover, even though the methadone helps tremendously in terms of reducing the intensity of the RLS sensations and thus reduces my suffering, I'm often still up the entire night and only get sleep during the day when the circadian rhythm of RLS is at its lowest point.
All of which is to say that I need a tracker I can wear - as I'm just as likely to nod off on the couch as in bed and because my legs and nightly up and down plus his snoring makes sleeping next to my partner impossible, my bed is a another couch, one that folds out lengthwise, so that the room can also be used as a den. So, the old tracker I used that sat on the night stand across from where I slept on my side is impossible.
Do you think a fitbit would work? Do you have any experience with any of the numerous body worn trackers on the market?
Thanks!
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Rezcat11
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If your doctor wants to know, s/he should refer you to a sleep clinic or specialist. Commercial activity trackers are ok, but professional assessment of sleep patterns is far superior. I had several 'polysomnigraphs'. Wires on head, upper body and legs and O2 consumption at night. Wired etc in the hospital, and then I went home for the rest of the day and night. Your situation with sleep during the day will require an adjusted setup as the standard is aimed at assessing sleep during the nighttime. You need at least 24h. A good commercial activity tracker will only give a very first impression. But I found that my fitbit could not distinguish well between laying still and sleep. The quality may have improved since then (2019) but since your doctor wants to know, and because of the gap between activity trackers and a proper sleep assessment, I think you and your doctor should opt for the latter.
I agree with LotteM. Use a Fitbit. It is not capable of measuring sleep issues like RLS or sleep apnea. It is like anecdotal information. It often overstates my sleep because of my lying still.
I've been using an app called autosleep with my iwatch (6)/iphone(13). Its reasonably good but from reading reviews its not the best one can get. I get information on length and quality of sleep, deep sleep, time to get to sleep, time awake, efficiency, sleep rating, heart rate, oxygen and more. Its good enough for my purposes and i don't want to spend more $ for yet another device and software. Try a search "reviews of sleep trackers". You will find quite a number of options to choose from. Of course none of these are as good as a sleep study.
HiTanker1,Thanks for your reply. I am having a sleep study done - but also want to be able to track how things change especially in response to changes in routine, diet, etc. - always searching for the elusive key to less RLS/better sleep.
I’ve been using Sleep Cycle for years. It seems reasonably accurate to me. You can feed in category data such as if you’ve got a headache, drank alcohol, feeling ill etc and create your own, so I’ve created RLS as a tick box category, amongst others. It records noise and analyses that too - can be interesting listening to sleep talking sometimes! Actually it’s mostly me moaning if my legs are playing up.
It’s not free, but it’s only something like £6.99 per annum I think. Gives you a lot of data and feedback on your sleep. I just run the app on my mobile which is next to me on a bedside table.
Whatever you do, I would recommend against a Biostrap. I purchased one and it gave me readings suggesting low O2. I went through two tests using professional-grade equipment, including a full overnight sleep study, and my O2 was just fine. When I tried to bring this to the attention of Biostrap, I got what I consider to be a run-around. While their web site implied that health care providers were turning to Biostrap, they could not provide me with the name of a single sleep doctor familiar with their device.
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