Rather than picking up sleep data from a slew of accelerometers mounted on your wrist like Shine does, Beddit uses a technique called ballistocardiography (BCG) to keep track of your body while you sleep. It’s a fairly complicated technology, but essentially the device’s sensors measure the mechanical forces caused by your heartbeat, respiration, and movements while you’re in bed. Using these three different signals, it is possible to get an extremely accurate reading of your sleep stage, stress level and a number of other metrics.
The device comes in the form of a slim, flexible strip that you attach to your mattress — ideally beneath a pillow top or memory foam mattress topper. This gives it two distinct advantages: a.) there’s no need to switch it on at night, and b.) you don’t need to wear anything while you sleep. Once you’ve got it installed, it will automatically sense when someone’s on the mattress, collect data, and then wirelessly beam that information to a synced device as soon as one comes into range.
“Shine delivered on the important function of activity tracking, but we saw that sleep tracking was one of the most engaging features because Shine does it automatically, unlike other activity monitors,” says Sonny Vu, CEO and founder of Misfit. “With Beddit, we’re making our sleep tracking functionality even more robust. Not only are we able to measure more, but even less is required of the user—a frictionless experience.”
The Misfit Beddit sleep system is available today for $150 on Misfit’s website.
