With all the new advances in technology, it’s almost impossible not to be tempted to buy products! One thing that has been a recent hit in the world of electronics are fitness trackers. These devices can range from a tiny clip-on for your waistband, to a smart watch that can read out loud your text messages to keep you on the go.  Along with reading text messages, these gadgets can monitor your heart rate and track your sleep.  Therefore enabling you to be the healthiest you can be…well, that’s if you actually know what to do with all the information provided!

Let’s be honest here, most people follow trends (I’m guilty as charged!). So when a nifty-little-wristband-styled-with-fancy-colorful-patterns advertises it can greatly enhance your healthy habits, people tend to want to know more (I definitely did!). However, are we really using the important information collected on these devices as they were intended? We think “Hey, doctors track our heart rate and do studies on sleep to gauge our health, so this fitness tracker must be good!” But most of us buy these well advertised devices without knowing what to do with the results. Let’s take a look at some of the ways we can actually put all that collected information to use.

Tracking sleep is tricky. There are so many different factors that affect your sleep (a topic for discussion another time). However, if you’re tracking your sleep patterns correctly, then it can have the ability to improve your sleep. If you leave your nifty-mint-colored-chevron-patterned-wristband on in bed, you’ll wake up in the morning with a chart on your smartphone that details your sleep trends that night. Now, those graphs are neat and all, but what is it really telling you?

According to FitBit it’s technology will calculate the efficiency of your sleep each night. When worn on your wrist, the FitBit senses when you are moving while awake and when you are completely still while asleep. The more you move throughout the night, the more “time awake” the FitBit will report. You can use this to compare how well you slept one night as compared to another.

The Jawbone Up is similar to the FitBit because it tracks your movement throughout the night. The Jawbone’s report includes your peak times where you are in your deepest sleep. It also tracks what time you go to sleep each night, how long it takes to fall asleep, and calculates your average slumber time. This information can be useful to track what factors made you fall asleep later than usual, or kept you up past your average bedtime.

These are just two examples of the many different gadgets out there that can help track your sleep. No matter which technology you use, tracking the way you sleep is just a stylish wristband away. Now that you’re equipped with some guidance on what to do with the information, you can effectively put to use that nifty-little-wristband-styled-with-fancy-colorful-patterns to good use!

Photo credit: www.jawbone.com and www.fitbit.com