After several years of religiously wearing my smartwatch to bed, I’ve finally stopped. It all began during a recent trip to Portland. Determined to minimize battery charging hassles, I decided to take my Garmin Fenix along. However, the Fenix’s substantial size made it uncomfortable to wear while sleeping. So, on Friday and Saturday nights, I left it on the nightstand in my Marriott hotel room.
Initially, I rationalized that missing out on two nights of sleep tracking wouldn’t be a big deal — and it wasn’t. Those two nights turned into a revelation. I realized that sleep tracking wasn’t providing as much value as I had believed.
The primary reason I used sleep tracking was to log the exact time I experienced grand mal seizures at night. Smartwatches track your heart rate constantly; during an attack, my BPM suddenly jumps over 100 and I wake up gasping for breath. By checking the heart monitor the next morning, I am able to make an accurate estimate of the time of the attack.
While having precise timestamps was neat for my logs, it didn’t serve a practical purpose. Moreover, the reliability of the AutoSleep app (which I had paid for) had been increasingly questionable. It failed to accurately report elevated heart rates on several nights when I vividly remembered experiencing seizures. My memories were clear, and the muscle soreness the following morning confirmed an episode, yet AutoSleep reported a normal heart rate.
Choosing to sleep without my smartwatch is mainly for comfort. Even smaller models like the Apple Watch feel intrusive during sleep. Not wearing a smartwatch also allows me to schedule sound alarms through Apple Health. It’s a simple but helpful change that forces me to get out of bed on time.
PS: reached my Concept2 rowing machine goal of 20min
