In October of this year, Phillips announced it was discontinuing the Actiwatch, a go-to tool for sleep researchers the world over.
The end of the Actiwatch was sudden but not altogether shocking. As the news broke, sleep researchers seemed to move from disbelief to acceptance and in some cases, even excitement about the future:
Similar perspectives were also shared this month during a Sleep Research Society-hosted webinar, aptly named “No More Actiwatch: Now What?.” In that hour and a half, researchers discussed how consumer wearables as they exist currently can fill the gap left by the Actiwatch and answered questions about their potential future in the research world.
There is some hope within the community that consumer wearable manufacturers may one day partner with scientists in sleep or other research realms to develop standardized metrics and algorithms. Until that day, the round table of sleep researchers shared keys to using consumer wearables like Fitbit and Garmin devices, with the biggest takeaways being to always knowing the why behind what you’re wanting to measure and to know your chosen device’s limitations.
At Fitabase, we know how seriously researchers take device selection. To support them best, we integrate only with devices that we view as being reliable data-wise, cost-effective and participant-friendly. Fitbit and Garmin device families, both of which we have integrations with, support gathering of sleep metrics. Here’s what you can expect to see in Fitabase where sleep is concerned:
FITBIT:
- 30-seconds level sleep data
- Sleep stage log information (whether manually logged or detected)
- Daily sleep summary
GARMIN:
- Minute-level sleep details
- Daily sleep summary
- For more on interpreting sleep data generated by Garmin devices, check out our Knowledge Base article dedicated to working with that information.
You can view much of this data in charts on our platforms, as well as export this data on an individual and batched basis.
We also have filter-able research library you can use to find validation, and other sorts of studies, using Fitbit devices. You can filter based on study category, device type, population and data types. Find sleep validation studies at this link.
To check out any of the above sleep metrics, as well as other activity datasets available via Fitabase, get in touch with us at hello@fitabase.com. We can't wait to hear from you!