For those of you living under a rock, activity monitoring has become a big thing. There is a rage to attach a device to ones body. These devices can track every movement, heart rate, calories (taken in and expended), sleep quality and god only knows what else. Me being me, I recently started thinking I might need one of these devices. However, as I started trying to look around the web for the perfect device, prepared to shell out $100 to overanalyze myself, I suddenly realized I already had it!
Ah, the magic of the smart phone..... Those regular and attentive readers will remember that a little over a year ago I got a sleep app (Sleep). Well, since then I have been monitoring my sleep nightly with a similar app. And as the year has progressed, my sleep app has gotten progressively fancier (sleep app upgrades). Now it will check my heart rate, record every step I take, tell me when I have been idle for a certain amount of time, compute calories burned and even has a recorder that can monitor if I have sleep apnea or snore.
OMG. I had a monitor in my hot little hand for months and remained unexamined?
As you can imagine, I quickly rectified the situation.
10,000 steps - check. If you're under that rock, you might not know about 10,000 steps. 10,000 steps is another thing. Every 'fitness' event we have at work hands out step counters so you can try to get your 10,000 steps per day. I was recently hanging out with a friend, and her kid had one, he'd been given it at school. Everyone is trying to step 10,000 times in theirday. Not to be left behind, I decided to track my every step for a week. The results? Otto = about 6000 steps per day! Work = about 5000 steps per day (including walk to train (1000), train to desk (500), meetings (about 600 to and from), bathroom (400 to and from) and then back home. Days off I'm much more of a slacker (and I also tend not to carry my phone every step). Fun fact, I average 100 steps per minute!
Snoring or sleep apnea - nope! The last two nights I decided to record my sleep to see if I talk, snore or whatever. The app records only when you make a noise. In my case it mostly recorded when I turned over. Every once and a while I would sigh/moan. No snoring. No talking! It was actually a little weird, it felt like I was eavesdropping on private time!
Heart rate - yep, got one. Actually, it's funny. I have been taking it at night before I go to bed and it varies from 51 - 60. That seems like a pretty wide range. These were all nights when my pre bed routine was very regular and relaxed.
The final verdict - probably TMI. It was fun, for a minute. But, in general I really don't care how much I walk, how many calories I burn and what my heart rate is. I do however, find the sleep monitor very reassuring. I have no idea if it is accurate when it tells me I spent most of the night in deep sleep (or conversely that my sleep sucked), but somehow I feel better just knowing. Mind you, I am not dismissing these devices. I think for someone without an Otto or for someone less active than me, they would probably be a great motivator.
AND In other really exciting news, they do of course, make them now for dogs...... Otto?
