I’ve been testing sleep gadgets professionally for over five years and have measured my sleep quality with wearables, smart mattress covers and even sleep clocks. As a certified sleep science coach, the one thing I find is most often overlooked when analyzing your sleep data is identifying which habits and products actually help you get better sleep.
Most of us see a low sleep score, but have no idea how to improve it. So I set out to try different things, like a cooling mattress cover, meditation apps, colored noise and even completely tech-free products to see what would help me get the best sleep.
Many people buy sleep products by relying entirely on online reviews, which are overwhelmingly anecdotal. While reviews offer a decent starting point, sleep is deeply personal. A pillow praised as life-changing for a back sleeper might wreak havoc on a side sleeper’s neck. Factors like sleeping with a partner, body temperature regulation and snoring create too many variables for any single product to be a universal cure.
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The key is tracking your personal sleep data to uncover what specifically works for your body.
Best Sleep Trackers
Why you should know your baseline sleep data
Before I test anything new or change anything about my sleep, I like to establish my baseline. This time around, my Oura Ring 5 has shown that I’ve been consistently around the 75 sleep score range over the past few weeks. This number is important because it’s hard to optimize what you don’t measure. And more importantly, it’s the only quantifiable way to know if something works.
Gold Oura Ring 5.
Vanessa Hand Orellana/CNETOnce you’ve determined your baseline, you can start identifying patterns. For example, I noticed that my sleep was more fragmented in the morning, with short wake-ups a couple of hours before fully waking up.
I’ve always known that the light sneaking in through my blinds caused short wake-ups, but because I can typically fall back asleep, I didn’t pay too much attention to it. It wasn’t until I started tracking my sleep that I understood the cost those wake-ups would have on my sleep quality. My sleep efficiency was dropping in those final hours, costing me points on my sleep score.
Testing one variable at a time is key
Most people who don’t get great sleep will likely change multiple things at once, like getting a new pillow, adopting a new bedtime routine and taking supplements. Then they wonder, what worked?
When I want to find something that helps me sleep better, I usually only introduce one new variable at a time. Whether that’s a new pillow, a new mattress or even a new habit like box breathing. Then I track my data for a few weeks to a few months, depending on what I’m testing, to get a good sense of whether it’s working for me.
It’s important to look at your sleep data over time to see trends, rather than focusing on a single night’s sleep score. A single night’s bad sleep can be caused by many things, like stress, anxiety or even the food you had that day. But your sleep patterns and trends tell the full picture about your overall sleep quality. Sleep trackers provide estimates of your sleep, and not direct brainwave measurements.
A case study: Testing the Loop Eclipse Mask
Nasha Addarich Martínez/CNETTo combat early-morning light disruption, I tested whether a sleep mask would help my fragmented morning sleep. I selected the Loop Eclipse, which checked all the right boxes: contoured eye cups that prevent pressure on your eyes, an adjustable, non-slip strap, breathable fabric and total light blockage.
Most sleep masks promise total darkness, but if you’re a side sleeper like me, you know that as soon as you’re on your side and the mask pushes against your pillow, a small gap forms in the nose area, and it lets light in. The removable eye cups on this mask create a seal that completely blocks light, whether you’re on your back, side or stomach, while the anti-slip grip zones on the band ensure the mask stays securely put.
I’m also a hot sleeper, so the material used in a sleep mask can be a deal-breaker for me. Heat trapped on my face can disrupt my sleep as much as light does. This mask is made from breathable nylon-spandex that doesn’t make you sweat.
After wearing the Loop Eclipse for three consecutive weeks, my average sleep score jumped to nearly 85, a 10-point increase from my baseline. Night after night, the data confirmed extended REM cycles leading up to my wake-up time, far fewer early awakenings and a dramatic decline in morning grogginess.
This mask worked for me, and it’s one of the few I recommend because it carries a SleepScore Validated seal. SleepScore Labs is a digital health company that conducted independent, real-world research across 1,000 nights of sleep. It measured light disturbance, sleep efficiency and morning alertness. Participants wore the mask in actual sleep environments.
That validation doesn’t mean a mask will magically improve your sleep, but it does mean the product has been objectively tested and shown to improve sleep for the people who tested it.
Maybe your issue is temperature, not light, or maybe it’s even that your mattress is too firm for your side sleeping. The only way to find out is to test and track your specific sleep disruptions. But if light is your problem, this mask is a pretty good investment.
The Loop Eclipse worked for me because it targets my specific problem. Your sleep might need something completely different.
How to run your own sleep experiment at home
If you use an Oura Ring, Whoop, Apple Watch, Eight Sleep or any other tracker, you already have a powerful laboratory right on your wrist.
Step 1: Establish your baseline over at least two to three weeks. Write down what you’re already noticing about your sleep. What time do you wake up? Do you wake up sweating? Do you wake up feeling rested?
Step 2: Identify your specific problem. Look at your data and try to correlate it to your observations as much as possible. For example, my data showed that I had disrupted sleep in the morning. My observation was that light was the culprit behind those disruptions.
Again, I don’t need a tracker to tell me light is disrupting my sleep; I already knew that. But it helped quantify how much it was really affecting my overall sleep. Once you have a problem, you can start testing solutions.
Step 3: Introduce one intervention and give it at least a few weeks to see if your data shifts. If nothing changes, at least you know what doesn’t work, and you can try something new.
Step 4: Introduce the next variable once you’ve confirmed the previous one worked or didn’t work.
Too long, didn’t read?
Ultimately, sleep tracking shouldn’t become chasing a perfect score every night or spiraling over one night of poor sleep. It’s best to use the data to recognize patterns over time. By taking a leveraging your data and trying out new things, you take the guesswork out of your bedtime routine. Your sleep is unique to you, and with a little patience, you can find what moves the needle.
