Misfit, the company that makes the Misfit Shine activity monitor, has announced a new companion device that tracks sleep to a finer degree than the Shine alone.
The $149.99 Misfit Beddit Sleep System is a thin sensor that automatically tracks your sleep cycles and quantifies its quality through physiological signals, such as respiration, heart rate, movement, snoring, and ambient sound.
The Beddit sensor is designed to sit on the user's mattress, under the sheets. It allows you to track deep details about your sleep habits without wearing a device on your wrist, which is how most other activity monitors work.
The Beddit sensor then transmits data wirelessly to a Bluetooth-compatible smartphone with the Misfit Shine app, which is available for Android and iOS.
Among other activity trackers that monitor sleep, the Basis Carbon Steel Edition has shown in our testing at PCMag to provide the most detailed sleep analysis, due in part to the fact that it has an optical sensor built into the back of it that reads heart rate day and night. It also uses skin temperature fluctuations to help it determine when you're in light, deep, and REM sleep.
While the Shine can track sleep on its own, without the Beddit system, users only get a rudimentary glance at their sleep cycles based on motion detection. Additionally, the Shine requires the user to put it into sleep-tracking mode, whereas the Beddit system automatically detects when you're in bed and asleep.
The biggest selling point of the Shine is the fact that it is completely waterproof and capable of tracking basic activity while you swim (it doesn't, however, measure swimming and gold (SWOLF) data). It's also one of the more elegantly designed fitness trackers on the market to date.
For more shopping advice on activity monitors, see how to choose a fitness tracker and PCMag's list of the best activity trackers for fitness.