Unless you connect the Rise Science Sleep Tracker to a wearable device, the type of data it collects is more limited than many other sleep trackers. After an initial trial period, you have to pay a monthly subscription fee to keep using the Rise app. Sleep quality visibility – before getting a Whoop, the quality of your sleep can be quite subjective. The Whoop completely changes your ability to see the quality of your sleep and recovery. Tracking your rest periods ensures that you don’t sacrifice recovery in the pursuit of working harder. By finding the optimal balance between work and rest, you can continue to make progress without overwhelming your body.

Sleep Data Collected

By Jennifer Zeltwanger, ACSM-EPJen Zeltwanger, ACSM-EP, is a Verywell Fit writer who has worked at the brand since 2022. The clear, intuitive display is easy to customize and it provides robust workout metrics for a wide range of sports and activities. We also love the watch’s auto-workout detection feature, which automatically detects and tracks our activities in case we forget to start a workout manually. Plus, the watch helped motivate us to move with streaks, encouraging messages, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/water-balance challenges, and rewards.

We liked the watch’s daily feedback on sleep, movement, and other health metrics, which included recommendations on balancing workouts with recovery. It also features on-device menstrual tracking, which helped us easily monitor cycles. It seamlessly connects with other Google products, making it easy to view our Google Home camera right on the screen.

• Jen Zeltwanger, ACSM-EP, is an ACSM-certified exercise physiologist and Verywell Fit writer.
• Wearable tech has become a staple in many of our lives, and that’s no different for fitness enthusiasts.
• When we compared it against a heart-rate sensor during sleep, it also proved to be the most accurate of the trackers at measuring heart rate and heart-rate variability.
• The SLEEPON Go2Sleep 3 Tracker is our favorite sleep tracker for monitoring your blood oxygen level continuously during sleep.
• After six weeks, his deep sleep increased from 12% to 22% of total sleep time, and his daytime energy levels significantly improved.
• Each morning users wake up to a recovery score which informs how much strain they should take on that day for peak performance, i.e. how hard they should push themselves in a workout (if at all).

I Tested A Bunch Of Sleep Trackers To Help Me Get A Full Night’s Rest

There’s a more expensive membership option at $25, but the main difference is an extended warranty. Compared to the Oura Ring, you’re going to get better exercise-tracking capabilities with the Pixel Watch’s built-in GPS. Although Oura has beefed up its exercise tracking, it’s still barebones. And the Pixel Watch is handier in day-to-day life because you can set silent alarms, use it for contactless payments, and receive notifications.

Methodology: How We Picked the Best Sleep Apps of 2025

Sleep trackers can be a helpful learning tool, but they don’t replace medical care. If you have insomnia, sleep apnea, or any other kind of sleep-related disorder, see a medical professional. If your doctor says that using a sleep tracker is a good idea, go for it. Sleep trackers typically log the time and duration of your sleep, how much time they see you spending in each sleep phase (such as REM or deep sleep), and how often you wake or move during the night. Oura’s accuracy in tracking specific activities, such as walking or swimming, has improved since we tested this model’s predecessor, the Oura Ring Gen3.

In most cases, you’ll also get the best price by comparison shopping online. In order to fully access Oura Ring 4’s features, you must download the Oura App and pay for a monthly membership. Most people treat rest like an afterthought a weekend escape, a vacation reset, a reward for exhaustion. Join the world’s biggest running newsletter, and wake up every day to the latest running tips, reviews, and stories.

The durable titanium design can withstand rough conditions, including rain, dust, and ocean swimming. For a versatile, straightforward device that you can use to track a variety of activities, we love Garmin’s Vivosmart 5 Fitness Tracker. During testing, we found it provided very precise and helpful metrics for high-intensity interval training (HIIT), treadmill runs, hikes, and more. With a sleek, lightweight design, the tracker feels comfortable and unobtrusive, even when we wear it to monitor our sleep patterns. Without a subscription, the Fitbit app provides your total sleep time and your time spent in each sleep stage, which are two components of your Sleep score.

Watch Series 9

I mean, there’s an argument for ignoring any metric a watch gives you, at least some of the time. If you still want to get your workout in, and you feel up to it, feel free to ignore the recovery numbers. This is probably the biggest misconception about the feature (and it explains why the recovery times can be so long—up to four days). It’s just that, between now and when the timer hits zero, you’ll be operating with at least a little more fatigue than usual.

Product Research Manager

For hypertrophy, or muscle growth, rest periods tend to be shorter, typically 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes. The rationale behind this is that shorter rest periods increase the time under tension and metabolic stress in the muscles, leading to greater muscle fiber recruitment and, ultimately, muscle growth. Tracking these shorter rest periods ensures you’re hitting that sweet spot without losing focus or endurance. The big losers of the study were the other two apps, SleepScore (ultrasound reflection) and Pillow (accelerometer). The Google Nest Hub 2 was also consistently poor, which tallies with our own testing, and the Withings Sleep Mat proved surprisingly bad at determining sleep stages but did quite well with sleep efficiency. Fitness trackers come in all shapes and sizes, and you’ll want to choose one that feels comfortable and best meets your needs.

Studies found consuming caffeine even six hours before bed (yes, that means afternoon coffee) can decrease total sleep. The app proved that for me—on days I ignored my caffeine window, the time it took me to fall asleep was longer and my deep-sleep score dropped. While Sleep Cycle offers a library of soothing sounds, music and meditations to help users fall asleep, the app aims to take users’ sleep health a step further. This sleep app uses the data it collects as a person sleeps to help educate them about their sleeping patterns and make personalized recommendations they can implement throughout the day to help improve their sleep. Additionally, the app features an alarm clock that gently and gradually wakes users at an ideal time based on the app’s analysis of their sleep.

Whether you’re looking for nutrition guides, simple workouts, or honest product reviews, you’ll find everything you need here to take the next step toward a healthier, happier you. Most people underestimate how much the daily choices in your waking hours affect your sleep. After a few weeks, you start noticing how your choices—coffee after 3 p.m., scrolling before bed, a late workout, alcohol—shift your sleep score. Your body may feel the effects of these things more than your mind anticipates.

Optimize your sleep

Especially if your real goal in improving sleep is to enhance athletic performance. There are dozens of Garmins to pick from, but if you’re on a budget, we really like the $179.99 Vivomove Sport or the $249.99 Venu Sq 2. The $449.99 Forerunner 265S is also another excellent midrange option for runners or triathletes. One question to ask yourself is how well a device fits your lifestyle. If you want to monitor your trends, the Oura Ring and Whoop 4.0 have some of the most source in-depth sleep and recovery tracking around.

Best Non-Wearable: Withings Sleep

A streamlined interface allows users to analyze this data and use it to make changes to their sleeping habits, according to the company. The main reason to consider going to a retail store is that you can see how a wearable device actually feels in real life. That said, if you buy online with free returns, you’ll have a much longer period to test out a sleep tracker for yourself. If you want to learn more about your sleep, you have plenty of sleep trackers to choose from. Knowing about the types of trackers and the different features and benefits can help you find a model that will be easy for you to use and give you the information you’re looking for. Just remember that your sleep tracker’s findings are not the end-all, be-all.

Are Sleep Trackers Accurate?

It’s important to keep in mind that some companies charge monthly subscriptions for access to your sleep data (Oura), while others offer lifetime access for free (Ultrahuman). Think about ongoing costs before committing—the last thing you want is to buy a great tool you don’t want to pay to renew. If you’re happy to strap a gadget to your wrist, great—that’s the easiest way to wear a Whoop. It will look like a watch, except with no screen (the fabric band covers the spot where the screen would be).

Jen Zeltwanger, ACSM-EP, is an ACSM-certified exercise physiologist and Verywell Fit writer. She has lots of experience with in-home and outdoor fitness and tracks it all wearing an Apple Watch. Jen knows what works and what to look for when shopping for fitness products, and she prioritizes products that are easy to use, versatile, and of high quality. Fitness trackers support your physical and mental well-being by helping you stay on track with fitness goals, says McKenzie. By tracking progress, offering prompts to move, and providing motivation, they can encourage more movement.

Neurological and Mental Health Conditions

My two top picks both require a subscription to make the most of your data. Whoop sells the subscription as its primary product, with the band as a thing thrown in to go with it. Oura, meanwhile, will sell you a ring and give you sleep and recovery scores for free; but to get the detailed information you probably came for, you’ll need to pay up. Whether you are a sprinter, middle-distance runner, long-distance athlete, hurdler, or field event competitor, there are specific strategies tailored to your event category. Cooling down, hydrating, and replenishing nutrition are fundamental aspects of recovery that apply to all athletes.

Best for users seeking a budget-friendly fitness tracker with in-depth sleep insights and basic fitness metrics. Garmin’s Instinct 2 Smartwatch is on our list because the brand is known for reliability and accuracy. Thanks to its reinforced case and scratch-resistant lens, it’s water-resistant to 100 meters and also thermal— and shock-resistant. Best for fitness enthusiasts who want a lightweight, comfortable, and precise tracker to measure a variety of workouts. While some may say recovery trackers take away the intuitive nature of listening to your body and how you feel, for numbers-driven people, measurable scores are appealing. Each morning users wake up to a recovery score which informs how much strain they should take on that day for peak performance, i.e. how hard they should push themselves in a workout (if at all).

This is because lifting heavier weights requires more recovery time for the muscles and nervous system. Longer rest also gives you the ability to lift more weight for fewer reps, which is essential for building raw strength. Rest periods refer to the amount of time you take to recover between sets of exercises. During this brief recovery phase, your body replenishes its energy stores, clears metabolic waste products like lactic acid, and prepares for the next set of effort. While these rest intervals might seem like downtime, they are an essential part of any training session. Think about how a prospective tracker might fit into your digital ecosystem, how easy it is for you to use, and how comfortable it is to wear during sleep.