Traditionally, just before you go to bed, you would take off your watch and place it on your nightstand or bedside table, but has this behavior changed?
The answer to the age old question, should I wear my watch to bed? Has become more complex in recent years due to the prevalence of smartwatches and features such as sleep tracking.
In this blog, we will be looking at if you should be sleeping in your watch, the benefits of wearing a Smartwatch to bed, and why you should not wear traditional or digital watches when you sleep.
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Sleeping With a Smartwatch
As we all know, there has been a massive boom in the popularity of Smartwatches, creating a whole new lease of life on the watch industry as a whole.
With these improvements in technology have come a host of different features and uses for our watches, from fitness tracking to messaging, to sleep functions.
So, is it a good idea to sleep wearing your Smartwatch? Aren’t they designed to be worn at all times of the day? Well, we are going to look at a few of the reasons to sleep in your Smartwatch.
Reasons for Sleeping with a Smartwatch On
Sleep Tracking
Quite a few Smartwatches have a lot of different technology features that can help you determine how well you are sleeping and get a better read of how to improve your sleep.
They can be used to identify when you are in your deepest sleep and even help you set the right bedtime due to your sleeping habits.
They are specifically designed with this purpose in mind, so despite what people think are fine to wear to sleep, they will not harm you.
Alarm on Your Wrist
Depending on how deeply you sleep, this can be a really useful feature, everyone knows someone who sleeps through anything and needs multiple alarms to wake up.
Having a Smartwatch on your wrist when you are sleeping will mean you get the noise and vibration right next to you, making it much easier to wake up.
To put this into context, take, for example, the Apple Watch, which has a lot of different settings and customization. This makes it a market leader in the sleep watch industry.
Check the Time
This seems like a fairly obvious reason, but it is more important than you think. The majority of people charge their phone next to the bed and often look at it to check the time.
You might end up getting distracted by a message and then stay up for a few minutes replying or scrolling through your notifications.
There are two easy solutions to this, wear your Smartwatch to bed to quickly and easily check the time, and put your phone on airplane mode overnight to remove the temptation.
Sleeping With Traditional Watches
As we alluded to above, it is more usual to take off your traditional style watch when you are going to sleep.
As a rule of thumb, traditional and luxury watches are not designed to be worn when you are asleep, they are often bulkier and more intricate.
Aside from potentially damaging your watch, you will have a worse night’s sleep due to being uncomfortable, which will reduce your sleep quality and duration.
There are not really any benefits or reasons to wear your traditional style watch to bed, and with the lack of light or other features, it is unlikely you will need it for anything other than the time.
If this is the case get yourself a digital clock or something next to your bedside or within your direct view.
Sleeping With Digital Watches
There is a slightly different argument to be made when you are wearing a digital watch to bed. It can be argued that the case for and against sleeping in a digital watch is not as black and white.
As there is normally some form of light or illumination on a digital watch, people are more inclined to wear these to bed.
With this being said, some studies show that watches are not advised to be worn to bed and can be detrimental to your health.
As with traditional style watches, there are not really any good reasons to wear your digital watch to sleep, and the drawbacks outweigh the benefits in a big way.
Reasons to Start Tracking Your Sleep
There are a few reasons why you might want to use this wearable technology to track your sleep, here are a handful of reasons people start tracking their sleep.
This is not a full list but gives you a rough idea of why people start sleep tracking via their Smartwatches and apps. Click here to read more about the tech behind how a smartwatch tracks sleep.
- You Feel Overly Tired During the Day
One reason people turn to sleep tracking is that they are feeling groggy and tired throughout the day. Although there can be a lot of different factors that affect this, sleep is often at the crux of it.
- You Want to Improve Your Sleep
Call it curiosity or call it optimization, some people look at Smartwatch sleep tracking to find a problem or just improve their sleep. Sometimes you might not even know that you sleep badly, so this could find a solution to an issue you never knew existed.
- You Are Trying to Fix Your Cycle
Having a ‘broken’ sleep cycle can cause ripple effects into other areas of our life, and identifying the issue is the first step towards solving it. Working out a cycle that works for you and gets you the right amount of sleep is important to a healthy lifestyle.
- You are Restless at Night
There could be a few roots to this problem, everything from room temperature to external noise, to your pets. If you are restless, it might be a good idea to start sleep tracking and get a better idea of your sleep schedule.
Wearing a Watch to Bed Summary
This should give you a better idea about wearing a watch when you go to sleep and the differences between the model types.
The short version is that it is up to you, and whatever you feel comfortable in, but typically speaking it is not advised to wear a watch to sleep, regardless of what features it has.
We as humans have slept for thousands of years without watches on our wrists and we have got this far, so there is no reason to start now.
A Smartwatch can not solve your sleep issues but it might help shed some light, if you are concerned about your sleep pattern, look for more holistic or medical solutions and discuss it with your doctor.
