Smart Watches: Limitations in Sleep Tracking Accuracy Highlighted
Recent insights from Dr. Cailbhe Doherty, a researcher at UCD's school of public health, highlight the limitations of smart watches in accurately tracking sleep stages. While these devices are moderately effective at measuring total sleep time, they struggle with accurately identifying different sleep stages due to reliance on proxies like heart rate and wrist movement. This has raised concerns about the clinical usefulness of such data, especially for older individuals or those with certain health conditions. Despite these limitations, wearables are popular for their ability to track sleep trends over time, although the accuracy of these trends is still under scrutiny. 
