With our mission statement in mind: Health, Wealth and Happiness, we thought this was a neat little innovation to bring to your attention: The most accurate way to check your heart rate is by getting hooked up to an EKG machine in your doctor’s office.
Now Fitbit have launched the Alta HR, ‘the world’s slimmest wrist-based, continuous heart rate tracking device,’ according to their promotional materials. The Alta HR includes tracking for walking and a host of exercise styles.
For those unfamiliar, it has an LED display to provide real-time information, but the device also relays data to an app on your smartphone or the data is accessible via your computer. The data is meant to provide meaningful insight to your overall health for you and can be shared with your doctor.
In addition to continuous heart rate tracking, the HR has a new focus on sleep tracking. Sleep Stages is tracking that gauges the quality of your rest. The Alta HR uses accelerometer data and heart rate variability (the changes in time between beats), plus Fitbit’s proprietary algorithms to more accurately estimate how long you spend in light, deep, and REM sleep stages, as well as time awake, each night.
This is the kind of info that previously required visiting a sleep lab.
Additional information is provided by the Sleep Insight system which, based on the data collected, draws conclusions between the effect of your physical activity and your sleep (and vice versa), offers interpretation, and recommends adjustments to both.
Most of us have very little understanding about the quality of our sleep. Along with diet and exercise, it’s important to know that good sleep plays a critical role in your overall wellbeing, from protecting against cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, to boosting neurocognitive functions, mental health, and longevity.
For more sleep education, check out: sleep.org
