Three of my all time favourite things are wrapped up into one with the S+ by ResMed – tech, stats… and sleeping!

I was sent a sample to review and another to give away to one of our readers. As you may have seen in a previous post recently, I’m really interested in tracking my fitness levels and the quality of my sleep. I’m up for trying out any gadget that can help on either or both of those fronts.

As ResMed explains:

The S+ measures movements using ultra low power radio waves (less than ¹⁄₁₀ of Bluetooth®). The basic principle is similar to the echo location system used by bats to hunt insects. The S+ transmits a short pulse of radio waves at 10.5 GHz and then listens for the echo of the pulse. As you move, the phase of the echo changes and is converted into a signal that reflects your movement.

It may be ultra high tech, but was very easy to set up. Firstly, I plugged in the device, then downloaded the app to both my iPhone and iPad, I then linked them to the S+ by ResMed via Bluetooth. The app asked a few questions… height, weight, do I sleep on my back, front or side; do I sleep with a partner or pet; the size of the bed; type of mattress and pillows etc. I registered on the S+ website and then went through a dry run whilst lying on the bed in the dark. Just look at the difference between my breathing patterns on left and right!

The app works continuously throughout the night to record breathing and movement to analyse the night’s sleep.

Not only does it show all the different stages of sleep (and any disruptions) it reports – every 20 minutes – on the temperature, light level and any noise in the room. It also works out how much body & mind have been recharged overnight.

It scores a night’s sleep out of 100 and shows where ‘points’ have been lost. On the night in question, it took me a long time to fall asleep, I had a coughing fit and I also had a mild case of restless legs which really didn’t help. I just didn’t get enough REM or deep sleep.

Each night before setting the app, it asks questions such as how many caffeinated or alcoholic drinks had been consumed during the day. As you can tell from the scores on the following night, my sleep improved by 7%. Was it due to the couple of glasses of wine I consumed? Perhaps it was because the dog didn’t wake up, circle around and reposition himself, crashing into the side of the bed as he does most nights.

I’ve been using the monitor for less than a week so far, but I’m already totally hooked. I knew that for years I’ve been waking up each morning feeling exhausted, but not recalling the disruptions in sleep that have clearly been happening. The S+ mentor gives pointers as to how to up your score and, in so doing, improve your sleep.

ResMed is offering an S+ sleep monitoring system to one of our readers. Just leave a comment telling us what keeps you awake at night.

S+ sleep tracking system by ResMed

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