SleepWatch - Top Sleep Tracker Ratings and Reviews

SleepWatch Review

My combination Apple Watch and my SleepWatch application are my favorite health and athletic performance evaluation tools. I have found that a balanced program of biking walking my dog, swimming and biking maximize my nightly SleepWatch score.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea almost a year ago and my Sleep Doctor prescribed nightly use of a CPAP machine. My first reaction was that the CPAP machine was a giant pain in the neck. I got great SleepWatch scores without the CPAP machine. After a few weeks without using the CPAP I reasoned that if I continued my athletic program in combination with nightly use of my CPAP machine my Sleepwatch score should be even higher. I was delighted to find out that my highest Sleepwatch scores were obtained when I continued my daily workouts in combination with nightly use of my CPAP machine. The net benefit was that I now had a method of monitoring my sleep quality combined with monitoring my athletic performance in combination with the performance of my CPAP machine. I was so excited with this discovery that I made an appointment with my Sleep Apnea Doctor to share my SleepWatch Data. MY DOCTOR WAS IMPRESSED AND AGREED WITH MY ANALYSIS.

Bottom line - I am “HAPPY AS A CLAM” and my cardio vascular health health as measured by my “doctors” is outstanding.

Developer Response ,

This is awesome! It's amazing what we can do when we really step up and take responsibility for our own health and well-being. A gold star from SleepWatch and your Doctor! :)

Confusing and inconsistent reports

I’ve been using this app for close to a year, I like that it tracked my oxygen levels and my pre-bedtime behaviors. I think it identified clearly that I sleep better after I’ve had physically active days. Other behaviors seem less important after tracking.

But I’m confused with the number scoring system. I can have a similar number of hours of sleep, both restless and restful, with a similar change in heart rate and interruptions, and my score will vary between 200 and 500. I don’t understand the wild swings in the score after similar data in the various categories. It is frustrating when I wake after 8 hours, feeling rested and ready to tackle the day and then see my sleep score was “poor”. I am discontinuing my subscription, because, while I did learn that physical activity makes me sleep better, no surprise there, I don’t like the negative feedback even when I “feel” like I got a good night sleep. I have gotten some of my best scores when I neglected to wear my watch to bed. Or when the battery died partway through the night and it recorded only three hours of sleep for which I got a 600 score rather than seven hours sleep, and a 300. I am going to work on consistently increasing my daily physical activity and quit tracking my sleep.

I did try it briefly for the snoring function, but it picked up our dog’s snoring, so not effective for us.

Developer Response ,

Hi there!

There are many factors that factor into your SleepWatch score. You can learn a bit more about SleepWatch Score here- https://www.sleepwatchapp.com/blog/sleepwatch-score-guide/

If you care to reach out to our technical support team directly we can look at your specific account and perhaps give you some additional insight into the reasons for the fluctuation in your SleepWatch Score. Use the "feedback and support" under the "help" section in the "more" tab to reach our team directly.

Like it but need to fix issue..

Update: After trying so many time to get the app to show the reports on my watch it finally worked. I had to make sure I download the UPDATED version and that it’s the one for the watch NOT the phone. (When you search in the Apple store for the app, next to it should say Apple Watch) So I reinstalled it again, it started working. Still keeping at 3 stars due to me being patient enough to keep trying to get it to work on my own.

I like this app it. I have tried a few and this seems to be the most accurate one that tracks my sleep with me wearing my watch to bed. My only issues with the app this is that I can’t see my reports on my Apple Watch (series 5), hence the only 3 stars. It still say “Setup Required. Complete setup on iPhone to continue.” I even uninstalled and reinstalled every way possible and restart my phone and watch still nothing. I even gave it two days before writing this review just so it can show up on my watch. I have tried everything that they recommended on the website for it to work but nothing. I even try clicking on the “feedback and support” in setting and it said that I don’t have an account, which is weird because I do and I’m logged into it. So I’m out of options. Please, please fix issues so I can fully get the best experience and report with this app. Thank you.

Developer Response ,

Hi there! Please use the "feedback and support" option in the "account" tab of SleepWatch app. That will put you in contact with our technical support team and provide them with the details they need for your account to assist in troubleshooting this issue.

Great app. 1 suggestion

I really like the sleep app, and it’s really help me improve my sleeping patterns by building awareness. I have no issues with would it does or how it works, but I do have one suggestion: it seems that it takes a while to generate the report, and one additional thing I would like is an instant reference in the morning, right on my watch, as to how many hours of sleep I got, rather than having to wait a while to get the report generated after I get up. The reason I want that is that I have a relatively dynamic lifestyle, and I work with clients in different parts of the country in different time zones, so sometimes, I have the option to sleep in a little longer and just want to know right then and there “how many hours of sleep did I get.“ when I scroll over to the sleep app on myApple Watch, it can’t give me that instantly, but instant access to how many hours I’ve slept would let me know whether it would be a good idea to sleep an extra hour on the days that I can. But by the time I go through the effort that it takes to generate the report, I’m wide awake. Usually this app presents the information at around noon.

Developer Response ,

Your report should be available almost immediately upon waking if all connectivity is good and permissions are set up correctly.

Please use the "feedback and support" under the "help" section in the "more" tab to contact our technical support team for assistance in troubleshooting this issue.

What’s in it for me?

Like so many businesses / products / services today, we are often asked for our feedback. Human nature is to be helpful; we obligingly fill out surveys or answer a few brief questions. To what end? I’m giving my time and opinion for their benefit. I don’t mind doing this occasionally — on my terms.

DAILY alerts to “tell us more about yourself” besides the “how rested do you feel today?” All while, I do not see a reward of my participation in these queries for the data crunchers and bean counters. Of course (I assume), if I pay for the extra features, I might gain some insight from my routine do-gooder helpful and honest responses.

Please add a setting / option to opt out of the survey pool.

On to a fresh complaint: the sleep detection is losing accuracy, reporting far less sleep than I actually get. Nearly every day for this week, I’ve needed to manually set my sleep times. What gives?

One more thing, if I fail to charge my watch or just plain forget to wear it for one night, then comparison data returns “ not enough info, please wear your watch at night” when there is clearly 783+ days of info on me with only random single night gaps” surely a trend greater than 3 days would yield a far more accurate picture off sleep health. Can you compensate for the occasional fall from grace wherein the user bares all (wrists) in the boudoir?

Developer Response ,

You should know that SleepWatch is designed to empower you to achieve better sleep habits through self-collection and AI-powered analysis of your own personal health and lifestyle data. This is core to the service we provide to you and we appreciate that you trust us with your information. We would like you to know that we value the importance of safeguarding your privacy and being transparent about our data practices.

We use the information we collect in service to you and other users for the following purposes: 1) to provide and maintain the SleepWatch services, 2) to personalize, improve, and develop the services, 3) to communicate with you, and 4) to promote security and safety.

If you need additional assistance please use the "feedback and support" option under the "account" tab in SleepWatch app and we'll assist you in troubleshooting.

Privacy concerns; not recommended for trans people

Claims to "value your privacy" and then buried about ten pages into the privacy policy, reveals "Cookies and similar technologies help us to recall things about you [...] to enable our partners to serve ads for products and services". The attempt to hide this by burying it pages and pages down did not impress me. Granted, this portion is for the website and may only be referring to using Google Analytics, but if they are so committed to privacy they should find another analytics solution that doesn't potentially give users' private medical information to Google. The app itself also says it "may" use IP address as a proxy for location even if you deny the app access to your location data, which is not something a company truly committed to privacy should be doing, ever.

And an unrelated issue for trans people, the app requires you to input your biological sex (fine in itself, it's potentially medically relevant) but then gives no option for people on HRT to indicate so despite testosterone level being more important than birth sex for heart measurements, and then continues to list the user as their biological sex on their profile. The word choice of "biological sex" on the signup screen also seems to imply the devs are fully aware transgender people exist but feel they should be referred to and medically treated as their birth sex.

I’m Impressed

It is rare for me to give a 5 star rating as there is almost always room for improvement. Having said that, I’m so impressed with the accuracy and data this app provides that I also bought an annual membership. I couldn’t care less where/how I rate with other users, but do care that people who have done a good job at something get rewarded.

I use this app a bit off script in that I’m not using it to learn how to improve my sleep, but to learn about how my sleep patterns affect my chronic pain. For example, just in the last month I’ve proved a theory that I’m much more rested, awake in less pain, and maintain deep sleep longer when I don’t sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time. When the pain would awaken me I’d stay in bed and try to sleep more. Now I know I’m much better off if I get up for a couple few hours and go back to bed for more deep sleep.

Support folk have been very patient with me in my attempts to get the app to work for my abnormal needs (although I think I may have made them a bit defensive) so kudos to them! My fingers are crossed that they may implement an enhancement request I recently made. Regardless, I’ll continue to use this app and tell my friends.

Developer Response ,

Glad to hear SleepWatch is helping you out. We appreciate the kind words!

One of the best apps. I hope the new update problems can be fixed.

I’ve loyally used this app for several years now and these guys are awesome. I know what developers have to deal with when Apple updates things and I am certain that the recent bugs from Apple’s update are a real challenge to circumvent.

I might need to temporarily delete the app and check back later, but this does not warrant a “one star” review — these guys have been consistently too good for that. I guess I’ll check back later, you don’t have to give them low ratings to hold them accountable. Trust me, they’ll get it fixed, and it’s not their fault — Apple tends to really throw developers under the bus when they redesign iOS and also want to push their own app of the same function.

Their stats are way better and far more thorough than the sleep app Apple just introduced, and Apple doesn’t allow you to compare your stats to other users. This app is just too good to fail. I wish the developers great luck with overcoming this problem, and I’ll definitely check in later.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the support, we REALLY appreciate you!

Some users (including you it sounds like) have had issues with iOS14 Apple is working on a fix but they have some troubleshooting steps listed here that may help you in the meantime- https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865

It’s good

I tried it last night for the first time. Make sure you give it full permission to access your health setting for it to work with your watch. I couldn’t figure out this morning why it didn’t work but then I realized I hadn’t done that. It seemed to work okay. I woke up when my husband went to work though and it didn’t register that at all so it makes me wonder how well it is calculating. I woke up and spoke with him and the app said I was in restful sleep at the time. That’s a bit odd. But overall it does work well. I was disappointed Apple watches didn’t track sleep like my old Fitbit for this app is good for those who had that same issue and want a sleep tracking app.

Reason for four stars is what an outrageous price for premium! Just make it a one time paid purchase but 30+ dollars a year. Mine currently says it costs 30 but says that’s a limited time year. All for a couple extra features like your watch waking you up when you’re not in a restful sleep. Waste of money, it for sure shouldn’t be subscription based. Just charge like 10 bucks once and more people would probably do it.

Overall it’s good though, going to keep trying it out. Maybe it will become more accurate with additional data.

Developer Response ,

You may need to adjust the sleep detection sensitivity if SleepWatch isn't accurately detecting your sleep.

Please use the "feedback and support" under the "help" section in the "more" tab to contact our technical support team for assistance in troubleshooting this issue.

Good info but painful experience

So, the developers have finally run me off. This went from a five star app to a one star. They added ads to the app but recently they are full screen video ads for other applications and games. This makes the app unusable without paying.

I’ve had this for a few years and have liked but not “needed” the information. It was a great program. I have the “free” version. In the past year the developer has turned the simple experience into a terrible experience. Every time you open the app, a splash page opens to encourage you to upgrade. The interface is now littered with blurred out placeholders for all the options you don’t have. Recently, they added in-app ads. When you try to scroll in the application, it will snap back to the ad to make sure you’re seeing it. Obviously the free plan makes no money and they’d like to make some. I never had a need for the pro features though. I wouldn’t mind paying a small fee for the application with its current features but I’m not going to subscribe for an ongoing payment. The experience has gotten so bad that rather than upgrade, I’d rather look for another app to replace it.

Developer Response ,

Hi and thanks for reaching out.

We offer our users the ability to choose the option that fits their needs. The SleepWatch Premium app does not have ads. The SleepWatch non-Premium app supports ads so we can offer our users the best sleep aid product with ongoing research, product availability, and customer support. Some apps require payment to use their product and we want to offer our users the option to choose.

If you wish to have an ad free experience, we offer an upgrade to SleepWatch Premium, with more features and no Ads here: https://www.sleepwatchapp.com/premium/