Can Sleep Technology Improve Sleep and Performance?

I was recently honored with the opportunity to speak at the Sleep Technology Summit, a conference put on by the National Sleep Foundation exploring recent innovations and future projections in sleep technology.

While there, my conversations centered on two parallel themes: (1) can new technologies accurately measure sleep at a level worthy of displacing Polysomnography, the decades-old gold standard, and (2) why bother?

The first theme I was prepared for—we get asked this all the time and frankly, most of my job is working to enable us to truthfully answer "Yes." However, given the audience of sleep professionals, the second major theme came as more of a surprise. People were skeptical as to whether or not consumer sleep monitoring devices could offer their users value.

So, for those of you who weren't there, this is a summary of some of the research and anecdotes I shared, mixed with some supplementary musings.

What do sleep trackers monitor

Most modern wearables measure a combination of movement and heart rate to determine when you fall asleep and wake up. Advanced devices go further, monitoring your heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, and respiratory rate to identify specific sleep stages like REM, light, and deep sleep. By continuously collecting this physiological data, sleep trackers provide a detailed picture of your sleep architecture.

Do sleep trackers really work

The short answer is yes, but the value depends entirely on the quality of the data and what you do with it. While early wearables simply guessed your sleep based on wrist movement, today's advanced trackers use continuous heart rate monitoring to deliver highly accurate sleep staging. The most effective sleep trackers decode that information, offering personalized recommendations to help you adjust your habits and improve your sleep quality over time.

Navigating a "medical" problem with a non-medical device

In one of my first conversations, the following question was posed: "As a non-FDA approved device, federal regulations prevent you from diagnosing sleep disorders. If you can't do that, what good do you provide?"

As is tradition, I began my answer with "Great Question," but the truth is, it was surprisingly parochial. There is tremendous room for non-medical sleep tech in healthcare that is fully kosher with the FDA as a case-finding and conversation-prompting tool.

For example, imagine a doctor-patient conversation in which the patient expresses the following frustration: "I'm tired all the time, but get 8 hours of sleep per night." As we reported earlier in a white paper examining the value of sleep stage tracking, 8 hours in bed usually only means about 7 hours of sleep, and the person-to-person variability in actual sleep efficiency is huge. People usually don't know where they fall on this distribution, so two patients both honestly reporting that they believe they are getting 8 hours could actually be getting extremely different amounts of sleep.

Furthermore, two people both getting similar amounts of total sleep could be losing sleep to different culprits—some people have trouble falling asleep while others have trouble staying asleep. If doctors knew more about how much sleep we were getting and where we were losing sleep, better-informed conversations could follow.

Just one more hour

In a retrospective analysis conducted this spring, we found that athletes who joined WHOOP averaging fewer than 7.9 hours of sleep per night added 52 minutes in bed per night by their 129th day on the platform. Previous research has shown that adding an additional hour of sleep per night positively alters gene expression for over 500 genes, including genes implicated in diabetes, cancer, inflammation, and stress.

Another study linked an hour of additional sleep to a reduction in blood pressure in the hypertensive. So in addition to improving free throw accuracy for basketball players, by prioritizing sleep, WHOOP athletes are also prioritizing health. They are creating in their 20s and 30s sleep habits that will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Getting personal

At the conference, it seemed like a wide-spread criticism of the wearable sleep-tech industry was that while vast amounts of data were being generated, the data doesn't actually benefit the user. I think this is a fair criticism of first-generation sleep tech which generated "data" alone but is significantly different from what WHOOP is doing now generating "actionable data."

Data tells us that people on the western edges of their time zones go to bed later than people on the eastern edges, but it doesn't tell you what to do if you're a sleep-deprived western-edge dweller. WHOOP's business model from day 1 was about personalized, actionable feedback, initially targeting elite athletes as outliers, though the platform has since expanded to help the mass market optimize their daily performance.

For example, common lore is that it takes one day per time zone traveled to adjust to jetlag—a decent rule of thumb that doesn't actually work for everyone and vastly oversimplifies the complex dynamics of our circadian rhythm. Before the Olympic trials, athletes like Connor Jaeger—who went on to win an Olympic silver medal in the 1500 meter freestyle race—have used sleep and recovery data to better understand how long it takes them to adjust to time zone changes.

Starting young

In the summit's opening event, I learned that the average person who reports an interest in improving sleep is in their 40s or 50s, presumably because that's when a lifetime of bad sleep habits are catching up to them. Because of our focus on the relationship between sleep and athletic performance, WHOOP is positioned to educate a younger population on the importance of sleep. This means that we have the opportunity to improve behavior before health consequences emerge, something we hope translates to fewer sleep-related issues down the road.

Because of the tremendous value of our data to both athletes and non-athletes, WHOOP has been publicly available since 2016 and currently offers a subscription-based membership model with a free trial to help you understand what truly tracking your sleep can do for you.

How to view your sleep trends

Understanding your sleep requires looking beyond a single night. By monitoring your sleep trends over weeks and months, you can identify patterns and see how daily behaviors impact your recovery. Reviewing your long-term data allows you to pinpoint exactly what helps you achieve restorative sleep and what holds you back.

Frequently asked questions about sleep tracking

What is the most accurate sleep tracker?

The most accurate sleep trackers rely on continuous, high-frequency heart rate monitoring rather than just movement. Devices that measure your physiology 24/7 and are validated against clinical gold standards provide the most reliable insights into your sleep stages and overall recovery.

Can I track my sleep with just my phone?

While some phone apps attempt to track sleep by listening for movement or sound, they lack the ability to measure your actual physiological signals. A wearable device that continuously monitors your heart rate, HRV, and respiratory rate directly from your body will always provide a more accurate and complete picture of your sleep architecture.

What is the 3-3-3 rule for sleep?

The 3-3-3 rule is a general sleep hygiene guideline suggesting you stop eating three hours before bed, stop working three hours before bed, and stop using screens three hours before bed. While individual needs vary, establishing a consistent wind-down routine helps signal to your body that it is time to rest. This ultimately improves your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.