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Beddr’s SleepTuner is a powerful standalone alternative to Apple Watch sleep tracking

Health startup Beddr today announced its new SleepTuner product, which it says is the first FDA-registered consumer sleep wearable. The wearable connects via Bluetooth to your iPhone, and offers an incredibly detailed look at your sleep quality, heart rate, and more.

While the Apple Watch is capable of tracking sleep with the use of third-party applications, the Beddr SleepTuner takes a slightly different approach. It’s not necessarily a competitor to the Apple Watch, but rather a simplified version of take-home kits offered by many sleep labs.

The Beddr SleepTuner itself is a small sensor that weighs in at 5.3 grams that you place on your forehead using medical-grade adhesive. Beddr says it’s the size of a postage stamp. As you sleep, the device tracks data including heart rate, stopped breathing events, sleep position, blood oxygen, and more. Factors such as sleep position are tracked using optical sensors a 3-axis accelerometer.

Using optical sensors and a 3-axis accelerometer, the SleepTuner goes beyond basic sleep trackers to accurately measure SpO2, stopped breathing events, heart rate, sleeping position, movement and awakenings. Data is securely stored in the Beddr Cloud until it is synced with the Beddr app via Bluetooth.

All of the collected data is subsequently transferred to the Beddr SleepTuner iOS application. Here, you can see sleep quality, sleep duration, average hourly oxygen saturation level, sleep position data, and more.

One interesting thing to note is that Beddr says the SleepTuner is not necessarily designed to be worn every night. Instead, it recommends you wear it for a few days in a row at the start and see what areas the app recommends you direct your focus. From there, you can wear it on a “weekly or monthly basis to trend your sleep quality over time.”

Apple itself acquired hardware sleep tracking platform Beddit last year. But since that acquisition, all that’s changed is the future of Beddit’s cloud service, which will shutdown next month.

Beddr originally teased its SleepTuner accessory over the summer, but now the company says it will be available to the public next month. The accessory will cost $149 and can be reserved via the Beddr website now. Full press release below:

Beddr launches SleepTuner™ – the first FDA-registered sleep wearable to improve your sleep in a week

Clinical-grade connected sensor and mobile app gathers nightly sleep data, provides personalized health insights to improve sleep quality

Mountain View, Calif. (October 18, 2018) – Beddr today launched SleepTuner™ – the first FDA-registered consumer sleep wearable that can assess and help you improve sleep quality, which is now generally available in the United States. SleepTuner integrates an ultra-compact, clinical-grade sleep sensor with an iOS mobile app to provide deeper, personalized insights into your sleep quality and actionable recommendations on how to improve it.

One billion people worldwide suffer from sleep apnea, a disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, and even more suffer from poor quality sleep. Beddr is making the essentials of a traditional sleep lab available to anyone from the comfort of their own homes and on their own time. SleepTuner captures much of the same clinical data and accurately measures blood oxygen (SpO2), heart rate, sleep position and stopped breathing events.

“Poor quality sleep can lead to a greater risk of a variety of chronic conditions, like type 2 diabetes, hypertension and depression” said Mike Kisch, CEO and co-founder of Beddr. “The key to better sleep is breathing, and SleepTuner provides access to insights on oxygen levels that cannot be found in traditional consumer sleep trackers. We aim to empower anyone to figure out the cause of their poor sleep within a few days in the privacy of their own home.”

SleepTuner sensor

The SleepTuner sensor takes many of the complex electronics and sensors of traditional overnight sleep labs or take-home kits and condenses them into a discreet, user-friendly wearable. The size of a postage stamp and the weight of a nickel, the sensor is designed for comfort and ease-of-use when worn while sleeping over the course of multiple nights. The SleepTuner is attached to the forehead by a hypoallergenic disposable adhesive. Key to the design of the sensor is making sure it does not disrupt a user’s sleep like the existing options, which involve numerous wires and attachments that can affect comfort and ultimately sleep.

Using optical sensors and a 3-axis accelerometer, the SleepTuner goes beyond basic sleep trackers to accurately measure SpO2, stopped breathing events, heart rate, sleeping position, movement and awakenings. Data is securely stored in the Beddr Cloud until it is synced with the Beddr app via Bluetooth.

In a recent study conducted at the UCSF Hypoxia Lab, the Beddr SleepTuner was found to be accurate with an error margin of only +/- 2.2 percent when compared to an arterial blood draw, which is within the FDA allowable error margin of +/- 3.5 percent. This data indicates that the Beddr SleepTuner is able to accurately measure oxygen saturation levels, a key indicator of risk for sleep breathing disorders like sleep apnea.

Beddr iOS app

The Beddr app is designed to let you measure success night-to-night and build insights at your own pace. The SleepTuner sensor connects with the free iOS app, guiding users through the Beddr sleep tuning process, optimally over the course of a week. The Beddr app combines the data collected by the SleepTuner sensor with self-reported sleep hygiene information to help users determine their optimal sleep position, overall sleep quality, stopped breathing events, oxygen saturation levels and night-to-night improvements.

“The vast majority of people with sleep problems have yet to be diagnosed. SleepTuner represents a promising opportunity to reach a larger portion of the population, engage them in sleep health, and identify issues that may need attention from a doctor,” said Meir Kryger MD, professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and member of Beddr’s Scientific Advisory Board. “The ability to get personalized insights, over multiple nights in your own bed, is a significant improvement in the patient experience.”

SleepTuner is available for purchase at $149, includes the sensor, 12 adhesives, a charging cable and protective case.

Learn more about the Beddr SleepTuner here.

About Beddr
Beddr is a health technology company with a mission to improve the quality of life for millions of individuals through the first integrated, digital approach to understanding and improving sleep. Founded by a team of successful digital health entrepreneurs with proven track records of creating new markets and rapidly scaling successful companies, Beddr is an alumnus of Stanford StartX and endorsed by top experts in sleep medicine. Based in Mountain View, Calif., with offices in Seattle, Beddr was founded in 2016. For more information, visit www.beddrsleep.com/.


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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

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