The Empirical Manifesto

I bought one, too, due to Jessica's ooohing and ahhhing.

The one I ordered doesn't have a sleep tracker, because I thought it sounded pointless. I already know I don't sleep well. I don't need a device to remind me. I want a pedometer that I can be lazy with and have it log my tracking for me. I got the Zip, which cost me $40. I really don't know if that's too much to spend on a pedometer. I guess I'll see what I think when it arrives.
How, exactly, is that tracking your sleep quality? Turn it off and on? Yeah, that sounds as pointless as I thought.

I have enjoyed the sleep tracker on the UP24 because I can see how much deep and shallow sleep it thinks I got, how much sleep over all, and more importantly, have the app serve as a memory device i.e. store the data so I don't have to remember it.

I don't know how accurate the sleep tracker is, but I view it as a poor man's sleep study.

The sleep tracker allows you to keep metrics on your sleep without having to manually log it. Additionally, it keeps track of how much you toss and turn in your sleep. It records the number of times you were restless in bed etc.

I use it as a means to record data over time. Once I have a sufficiently large dataset, it'll be handy to be able to look over the data for trends and stats.

Then again, I'm a nerd, and enjoy statistical analysis in general, so I find the idea of data mining life-stats appealing.

Around Christmas, whester and the CTO both got UP bands. They showed me how the band feeds the app and will show when you have deep and shallow sleep. Having problems with my own sleep (you may recall I started sleeping with a CPAP machine 18 months ago) I sprang for the UP24. Around the same time, the IT manager got a FitBit.

Because the UP24 connects to the device via bluetooth, I don't have to take my band off and physically connect it to the phone. This means that while I'm on a walk, I can get an update since the app syncs every time it's opened.

I'm not sure that the band has helped me become more active; I predominately walk at the track at a park the next town over or on top of the mountain. This means that I have to do so during daylight which runs into conflict with work. We are allowed to talk walks at work, but if we're under the gun–which we have been for the better part of eight months–it's difficult to justify going for a walk in the middle of the day instead of being at one's desk. While I have snuck in my 10,000 steps in mid-day walks, I prefer to walk after work on those days when I get into work early enough to have daylight at the end of a work period for the afore mentioned reasons: look busy when those who can make life a living hell are looking while having the added benefit of being able to say, "but it's after 1700 and I've put my time in for today" if asked. I haven't been as of yet, but it's nice to have that cover.

That having been said, I know that I have reached my heaviest since purchasing the band and am struggling to keep my weight under control, much less lose the gut I have acquired.