Sleep data - Comparing Hello Sense, Fitbit Charge and Bellabeat Leaf

Thought it might be fun to run a comparison of sleep logging on a few of my devices.  

For reference, I wore the Fitbit Charge on my left (non-dominant) wrist, the Bellabeat Leaf clipped to the neckline of my night vest and the Hello Sense is of course clipped to my pillowcase. I sleep primarily on my side/smushed partially face-down and I'm quite a light-sleeper.

In terms of data points I've recorded, here's a break down:

• Sleep score - This is a number the software gives, generally a percentage of total sleep time.
• Total sleeping time - The time the software said I was asleep in some way (with caveats, see next item).
• Deep sleep - This seems to vary by system, some counting what I presume they're inferring to be REM time, but it looks like Fitbit is counting this as all the time I was "asleep" with "total sleeping time" being time in bed total, asleep or not.
• Times woken - Exactly what it says.  I wake at least once a night, every night, for sure.
• Fell asleep - The time the software believes I, well, fell asleep.
• Wake up - The time the software believes I was first awake in the morning.
• Out of bed - The time the software believes I physically got out of bed.
• A ? indicates - The software doesn't offer a value that fits the category.

So, let's have a look at the numbers!  

I've got 3 full days of data, and one partial. Why so little? I forgot to record the Sense data each morning for a few days and it turns out you can't go back and look at previous nights.  Major fail for the Hello Sense right there.  I'm also missing a night of the Leaf's data because I forgot to put it on. Update: The friendly Hello Sense people just emailed me to let me know I can go back and see previous nights data! The gesture was a little non-obvious - but a slide right will go backwards. 

		Fitbit Charge	Hello Sense	Bellabeat Leaf
Monday	Sleep score	96%	77	-
	Total sleeping time	7h54m	6.7h	-
	Deep sleep	7h2m	2.5h	-
	Times woken	2	0	-
	Fell asleep	23:56	0.31	-
	Wake up	07:56	07:12	-
	Out of bed	?	08:35	-
Tuesday	Sleep score	93%	81	97%
	Total sleeping time	10h11m	8.9h	9h24m
	Deep sleep	8h49m	2.7h	?
	Times woken	2	0	1
	Fell asleep	22:41	23.58	23:07
	Wake up	08:51	8.52	08:42
	Out of bed	?	8.48	?
Wednesday	Sleep score	97%	78	98%
	Total sleeping time	9h36m	9.9h	8h58m
	Deep sleep	8h56m	4.8h	?
	Times woken	3	0	2
	Fell asleep	23:39	23:17	00:19
	Wake up	09:14	09:13	09:39
	Out of bed	?	09:24	?
Thursday	Sleep score	95%	81	76%
	Total sleeping time	10h7m	7.6h	5h32m
	Deep sleep	9h35m	3.1h	?
	Times woken	2	0	0
	Fell asleep	22:43	23:06	01:36
	Wake up	08:49	06:42	07:08
	Out of bed	?	09:01	?

On Wednesday, the Sense alarm failed and didn't wake me up, so I overslept and on Thursday only 1 of two Sense alarms went off (I reported the outage, and I think they know what it was and fixed it). Thursday night I *definitely* got up at least twice.  I had a Leaf alarm set every morning, and although I felt it go off once (because I was already awake), it was never the thing to wake me up. The Fitbit alarm works well and has yet to not wake me up when used.  For reference, my first alarm in the morning goes off at 8:00am (lucky me) and then a second to get me up at 8:25 if I haven't shifted by then.

Which feels more accurate?  

Based on what I know about my own sleep habits and routine (don't judge my lazy ass), the Fitbit Charge data fits best and I'd take that one as feeling most accurate - not having any proper professional equipment strapped to me, I can't be certain, of course.  

Comparing the BellaBeat Leaf to the Fitbit data, it does seem to be pretty far off the mark - often not noticing that I've fell asleep until after the other systems.  It was also the weakest in terms of the amount of data and breakdowns in the 3 systems. 

The Sense seems intermittently accurate and is prone to believe I'm awake a lot earlier than I generally am.  I'm very surprised that the Sense hasn't noticed when I've been out of bed at night, but I wonder how much bed sharing effects that (it often just notes "you and your partner were both restless" at certain times that I suspect may be when I've been up or awake).  

Having said that, I don't think any of them are accurately recording how much time I spend in quality sleep, but I don't particularly expect a system that relies solely on tracking movement to be able to do that.  Make of this data what you will , but the bottom line on sleep data by fitness trackers should probably be to take what they tell you with a large pinch of salt.

Bellabeat Leaf activity tracker review

Finally, I'm writing up a review.  I thought I'd have one ready after a week, but I've been having trouble getting to use it.  But first, let's take a look at what this pretty little thing does.

Physical design

The BellaBeat Leaf is a small-ish wearable tracker.  It's quite pretty, if it's your style - a nice leaf motif in silver (actually stainless steel), soft wood nicely complimented by some turquoise highlighting.  Really, it's quite decorative and I commend the designers for taking a strong direction on the look and feel of the device - it's a refreshing departure from the usual utilitarian approach of most of the other wearable vendors.

The device comes with a chain to wear it as a necklace and a leather strap to attached it to wrists.  I opted not to use either of these, however, which I'll get to in a moment.  There's no charger because it runs on a coin-cell battery that should last around 6 months.  Apparently there's a second necklace on it's way to me along with a small special screwdriver to take the back off the Leaf to change the battery (not sure why it needs a special one).

Functionality

The Leaf is toted mainly as a "women's health" wearable.  Both through it's branding and the app itself, it's pretty clear that it's designed with women of child-bearing-capabilities in mind - it offers features such as menstruation and ovulation tracking, for example.  But, if you don't menstruate and you like the design, there's no reason that it has to be restricted to that group of people, both of those features are ignorable.  And, you probably should ignore both of those features, since the period tracking is done by inputing cycle length and period length - which is fine and dandy if you're like clockwork, which a number of us are not. If you're trying to get pregnant (hell no), or track your regularity, there are many better apps out there for such things, allowing you to input specific dates over time for averages and patterns to be noted.

Anyway, moving on.

The Leaf's other features are more traditional of that of a wearable.  It tracks sleep and activity (steps) along with a slightly odd addition of breathing, meant to help you do something about stress, and it'll alert you to inactivity and has optional additional alarms.

I definitely find the step counter is under-reporting compared to the Fitbit Charge, and the sleep tracking is all over the place.  I've compared the data for sleep with my Hello Sense and Fitbit Charge and it seems totally off - regularly thinking I've gone to sleep hours after I actually have, and rising earlier than I do.  The quality of the data is also a bit lacking - the graphs of sleep data don't allow you to see more than peaks and troughs - no total amount of either deep or light sleep.  Additionally, the alarm feature is completely useless. The Leaf's alarm consists of 4 short buzzes over the space of about a second with the ferocity of a dying hummingbird's last breath. Completely ineffective to wake me up on any day.

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I definitely walked more and slept more than these screens convey

A quote from one of Bellabeat's press releases:

It tracks activity and stress levels in relation to breathing while providing lifestyle data and recommendations for a healthier living through the LEAF app.

The stress levels part is basically nonsense. Yes, it tracks your breathing - but only if you go into the breathing section of the app and follow one of the breathing exercises.  It's not tracking stress levels and then encouraging you to do an exercise - the act of stopping to do a breathing exercise probably would help you to feel less stressed - but you could do that without the Leaf and the Leaf isn't going to try and tell you "Hey, you seem a bit stressed, maybe take a breather?". Quite disappointing.

The app is fine, if data light.  It feels very much like a work in progress.  There's no API yet, but the FAQ suggests there's one in the pipeline.  You also can't export any of the data or access it in any way except via the app.  

The most frustrating thing about the app is it does not do a background sync, so to update your data you have to open the app - and then 9/10 times you need to double tap the Leaf itself to get the sync to begin. That'd be fine except it takes me more than 1 double-tap to get the damn thing to start syncing (which only increases stress levels for me - I hate finicky things like that - plus I look like a mad person repeatedly tapping some part of my body).

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Why it took me so long to review

So, I started this post talking about how I'd had trouble using it.  Here comes the real crux of the problem with the Leaf and me: It's a pain to wear.

The Leaf is very versatile, you can wear it in a huge number of ways - on your wrist, around your neck, clipped to a collar or trouser pocket - I even clipped it to the side of my bra one day when I had no suitable clothing-edge to attach it to.  The fact that I had to find somewhere to wear it every day meant I just didn't bother.  The design itself is too much of a statement piece for me, which coupled with the weight (18g - not a ton, but enough to bug) meant I did not want to wear it in a highly visible way, or around my neck or wrist. It's thickness pulls the neckline of dresses and shirts away from my body in a way that I just don't think looks good. Additionally, certain activities require you to move it's position - the breathing exercise must be done with the device clipped against my tummy, sleep tracking had to be attached to my night vest.  It's just too much of a hassle.

Compare it to my Fitbit Charge with a band that is an innocuous, but functional (thanks to the clock display) that I wear at all times except in the shower, and occasional charging at my desk. It's one position is good for all activities it wants to track. I can just ignore it.  Now, the Leaf needs me to take it off for showers (it isn't even water-resistant), clothing changes, bedtime, various activities - I put it down so many times and just forgot I owned it or couldn't be bothered to find a nice way to wear it.  Consequently, my data has been spotty at best. It looks like jewellery and I treat it as such - occasional wear when it suits what I'm wearing and a nuisance the rest of the time.

Conclusion

If you love the look of the Bellabeat Leaf and would like to wear it as a piece of jewellery only, by all means go ahead and get one.  It's not the best tracker out there in terms of data quality, but it's pretty and it might just be the thing for you.  

If you like the style and you want better data, I'd wait for the next version.

Bellabeat Leaf Unboxing

My BellaBeat Leaf arrived today. The device is designed to track movement, sleep quality and breathing.  Here's what it looks like straight out of the box.

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The box itself is meant to be used to store your device in, apparently.

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The leaf comes with two ways to attach it to your human meat body - a leather bracelet and a simple chain.  For certain features the device is supposed to be worn clipped directly to your clothing.

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Up close, you can see that the leaf is made up of a wooden box - housing all the accelerometers and bits and bobs - and a metal leaf motif that acts as a clip.  The package came with a rather stern additional sheet of paper warning not to extend the clip past 4mm (the maximum thickness of material it will fit on to is 2mm), which I assume means it will break if overstretched and the additional after-box warning means they've been having issues with that. 

The reverse is a very shiny metal back, where you can more easily see the small loop on the lower side intended to attach the leather strap as it's wrapped around your wrist, and some fairly functional looking screws to allow you into the device to change it's battery (which should last round 6 months).

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I had to look at the instructions to work out how on earth to wrap this thing around my child-like wrist.  I think it looks ridiculous.  I'll be trying it out over the next few days most likely as a pendant and clip. 

Back soon with a review!

Wearables wearing out their welcome

I had a draft of a post ready to go where I was going to do a comparative test of the sleep tracking of the Hello Sense, the Misfit Flash and the Fitbit Charge this week, but in the last 2 days the button has snapped off the Charge and the Flash no longer syncs (have tried on both android and iOS, multiple installs and wipes, new battery, no idea what's up with that thing). So, that plan is probably a bust, therefore I have no choice but to declare the Sense the winner of my little sleep contest due to forfeits... For now.

Something has broken on every single "wearable" I've had.

• 2nd Generation Jawbone UP - had 3, all died. One had the button break, the others had internal faults. First one was bought in May 2013, none lasted more than a few weeks. Retailed $129.95.
• Fitbit Flex - Band split apart after 2 months, had to get a replacement. Retails $99.95.
• Fitbit Force - Non-replaceable band split apart within a year, and then they withdrew them for sale because of skin irritation complaints. A gift, was retailing at $129.99.
• Misfit Flash - Unknown syncing fault. Bought November 2014 for half price during their Black Friday sales. $49.99 retail.
• Fitbit Charge - Button snapped off while I was asleep. Got that January 2014. Bought for $110 with a discount code from my broken Force, retail $129.95. Currently in a back and forth with customer support to hopefully get it replaced.

I'm 7 for 7.  Seven wrist-wearable devices in 2 years!  (Just to be clear - I only wear them one at a time.)

I feel like a mug. I don't treat these devices badly - I don't wear them in the shower like some heathens do, asking for trouble. These relatively expensive toys appear to just expire.  Sure, they pretty much all have a 1 year warranty and mostly thoughtfully die within that window, but that doesn't really make it OK - it's a pain in the ass to keep chasing up tech replacements for things that really shouldn't be keeling over within their warranty period.

Am I just unlucky?

A simple command and control dashboard

I'm still plugging away on my very simple dashboard for the house.  This is the current state.

It's a fork of a project created by Florian using Shopify's Dashing project, displaying the status of some of the things in the house, plus interactive buttons to control a few of them.  It's a doddle to add new things to, and at some point I'd like it to look a bit nicer (it's very "designed by an engineer" looking right now). I host it on Heroku.

The nice thing about having a screen like this is it's a convenient way to give guests access to the smart features without having them download an app or create an account. It has a manifest, so it can be added to a home screen and opened as a tab-less web page directly, like an app but without the installing. Giving guest access to smart home features seems like a missing piece in a lot of the setups today - they really assume a finite, familiar set of users who all have direct access to the systems and give very little consideration to house guests who stay for more than a few hours or at your home alone.

The dashboard lives on an old Android tablet I have set up on the kitchen counter for the most part. The tablet screen comes on with a motion sensor as you walk in front of it, giving you immediate access to all those buttons and switches. A pretty simple but decent start, I think.

My house calls me

It's a small thing, but my house sometimes calls me.

Our apartment block uses the type of intercom that you can answer and speak to people on, as well as buzz them into the building, but it only works over a phone line with a local area code . Not having a landline, it's inconvenient for us to have the intercom only connect to one of our personal phones to let people into the building, and my cell phone has an area code for an entirely different state anyway, so we needed a way to have the intercom ping either of us at any time.

To get around the issue, we use a shared Google Voice number. Google Voice lets you pretty much pick your phone number, so it's trivial to get a local area code.  You can then forward calls to the new number to multiple other phones, or pick up the calls via the browser.  It's a surprisingly seamless fix.

I could have not added this number to my contacts - but giving the number a name denoting who it belongs to (it's Wodehouse's number) and a way to talk to us is part of the theory I have around making the house seem smarter.

I don't say there's "someone at the door" anymore, I say "Wodehouse is telling me someone is here".