That’s especially true if you suffer from insomnia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pulmonologist Narat Srivali from Duke University and physician-scientist Wisit Cheungpasitporn from the Mayo Clinic have published their results in the journal Sleep Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n “In healthy individuals tracking general wellness, wearables may provide reasonable feedback regarding sleep duration and regularity,” they conclude<\/a>.<\/p>\n “However, in clinical populations experiencing sleep disturbances or mental health conditions, the poor agreement documented in this review suggests that device measurements may provide misleading information that could delay appropriate clinical intervention.”<\/p>\n The systematic review analyzed data from five prior studies, involving around 2,000 participants.<\/p>\n It found that a person’s perception of their sleep often does not align with their sleep tracker.<\/p>\n Wearable devices explained only 2.5 to 16.2 percent of the difference in subjective sleep quality, which is what is currently used to diagnose insomnia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even if someone feels they slept badly, their sleep tracker may disagree.<\/p>\n In the review, participants who reported poor quality sleep scores, either because they struggled to fall asleep, woke frequently, or felt tired the next day<\/a>, didn’t necessarily receive poor readings from their trackers.<\/p>\n In fact, the devices “failed to capture” the subjective reality, especially among older people and people with insomnia.<\/p>\n Multiple studies have validated wearable sleep trackers against polysomnography<\/a> (PSG) scores, which measure physiological changes during sleep, including the time spent in light, deep, or REM sleep.<\/p>\n But someone can show normal sleep duration and efficiency on PSG tests and still wake up feeling unrefreshed.<\/p>\n That’s why PSG scores on their own are not used to diagnose insomnia. Instead, the sleep disorder is typically assessed<\/a> based on a patient’s reported symptoms and their sleep diaries.<\/p>\n The relationship between sleep trackers and patient-perceived sleep quality “remains poorly characterized”, argue<\/a> Srivali and Cheungpasitporn.<\/p>\n “Clinicians increasingly encounter patients who self-monitor sleep with commercial wearables and may present device data,” they write<\/a>. <\/p>\n “Our results suggest that such data, while potentially useful for tracking sleep duration patterns over time, should not be considered an adequate substitute for validated subjective sleep quality assessment tools.”<\/p>\n Patients who report poor sleep quality despite what their sleep tracker says warrant further clinical evaluation, the review authors add, “rather than reassurance based solely on device data”.<\/p>\n Across all included studies, the agreement between sleep-tracker measurements and subjective sleep-quality assessments was generally poor to moderate.<\/p>\n In one included study<\/a>, a Fitbit agreed acceptably with laboratory sleep measurements in 82 percent of good sleepers, but only 39 percent of those with insomnia.<\/p>\n That was mostly because Fitbits were not detecting how often participants woke during the night.<\/p>\n They overestimated total sleep time in those with insomnia by about half an hour and overestimated sleep efficiency by about 8 percent.<\/p>\n These devices were also less in sync with how older adults and those with depression<\/a> felt they had slept.<\/p>\n This suggests there is a disconnect between objective and subjective sleep measurements that sleep trackers are missing.<\/p>\n “An individual with depression may perceive sleep as poor despite objectively normal parameters, while another with fragmented sleep may report satisfaction if expectations are met,” the review authors explain<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The subjective experience is intimately connected to psychological well-being in ways that movement and heart rate patterns cannot capture.”<\/p>\n Four of the five studies included in the review used Fitbit devices, while only one analyzed the Apple Watch, so it’s possible that other sleep trackers<\/a> are more reliable measures of sleep satisfaction.<\/p>\n But that remains to be studied.<\/p>\n A recent survey<\/a> in Norway, for instance, found that of 461 people who use or have used a sleep tracker, few reported improved sleep quality. Participants with insomnia were also more prone to negative thoughts and worries about sleep.<\/p>\n Related: First-of-Its-Kind Study Shows Just One Extra Hour of Sleep a Night Raised College Students’ Grades<\/a><\/p>\n The findings of the review suggest that if someone is worried they have a sleep disorder, such as insomnia, a sleep diary may provide more meaningful information to their doctor than their sleep-tracker data.<\/p>\n For those with depression, meanwhile, sleep trackers can hint at signs like ‘sleeping too much’, but the review authors say<\/a> that apart from that, “they fail to detect most other depression symptoms that self-reported sleep quality successfully identifies.”<\/p>\n For now, users of sleep trackers should know that their devices may have only limited value when it comes to measuring their sleep satisfaction.<\/p>\n They shouldn’t stress over the results.<\/p>\n The study is published in Sleep Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article was fact-checked by Clare Watson<\/a> and edited by Clare Watson<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you have a bad night of sleep and wake up feeling unrefreshed, your sleep tracker may offer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97,1352],"class_list":["post-838529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-msft-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Your](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2263114765-1011x675.jpg\")
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Sleep trackers fail to capture people’s subjective experience of sleep, according to the new review. (whitebalance.space\/E+\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Subscribe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788707293_668_FOMO-1200x628-_Dont-miss-the-next-breakthrough_-cosmic-colourful-642x336.jpg\")
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