Anybody tried the Sleeptracker watch?

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D4
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Anybody tried the Sleeptracker watch?

Post by D4 »

It is supposed to monitor your restlessness and wake you up during a time when it senses you're in an almost awake state shortly before the wake up time you set or if you don't have an almost awake state, it goes off at the set time. You're also supposed to be able to see the next morning how many almost awake states you had and the average time between them. I've read about it before and considered it, but didn't order it because it is $150.

Today, PCMag (an organization I respect), included this on it's list of 10 Best Gadgets to Jumpstart Your New Year's Resolutions, so I'm considering it again.

I was diagnosed with PLMD and RLS in May. I couldn't tolerate Mirapex, Requip was fantastic until I augmented, and since then I've been on Neurontin and switched last week to Depakote ER. One of the many problems with the last two is that I sleep like a brick and can't wake up in the morning for work. I'm driving my husband CRAZY, because he doesn't need to get up until later, yet he has to hear my alarm going off over and over because I keep hitting the snooze bar.

How do the rest of you wake up after these meds? :?:

ctravel12
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anybody tried the sleeptrack watch?

Post by ctravel12 »

Hi D4 I have plmd but very mild so the sleeptrack watch would not be good for me.

As far as waking up with the meds, I am not doing too bad. I also took Requip and augmented on them too. I am now on clonazapem and it seems to be working good for me. Hope that it continues.

I hope that you are doing better and that 2007 is a good year for you.

Take care and have a nice restful evening.
Charlene
Taking one day at a time

ViewsAskew
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Post by ViewsAskew »

Boy, I've thought about this several times myself. Like you, the meds make it sooooo hard for me to get up each morning. I could sleep 10-12 horus every day. Hard to get much done that way! I am self-employed so I am lucky. I work more at night when I'm more functional. On the days I have to be up, I just am vigilant and make myself get up. I really don't think I could do it if I had to get up early. I can't imagine how you do it.

It really is tempting.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

debt_59
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Post by debt_59 »

Where can you find out about this watch? I have been sleeping and I wake up still so tired after 9 hrs of sleep . It takes forever to get to sleep and when I do I sleep so hard or I think I do. I have had the sleep study and have plms and rls I am still wondering if my meds are working correctly? I might try this watch so if I am still waking up like this I can discusss this with doc. I do not have health insurance anymore so I can not affored another sleep study at this time
Happy New Year to you all :!: :)

D4
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Post by D4 »

Debt59: I don't know if we can enter websites here. You can google the name of the watch to read about it. You can also go to PCMag to read their review. There are some user reviews on Amazon.

I've only been on Depakote ER for 10 days and I've had enough of it. This is worse than the Neurontin for not being able to wake up in the morning. I slept 11 hours last night and then my husband woke me up wondering what was wrong with me. I switched to a neurologist last week who seems like the answer to my prayers. He outlined the next 3 medicines he thinks I should try. He understands that different medicines may work for a while and everyone responds differently. When I augmented on Requip, my prior doctor wanted to make me double the dose!

Good luck to all of us in 2007 in finding solutions that help us deal with this insidious disease.

hypnotode
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Post by hypnotode »

I have the watch, it wasn't all that great for me. One of the big selling points is that it wakes you up within a specified time period, and it senses when you are most awake. I wake up at the same time every day anyway, so that didn't help. It was kind of cool to see how often I twitched during my sleep, though :D You can find them used on eBay, as well.
Neurontin, Trileptal, Cymbalta, and Flexeril work for me.

D4
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Location: Illinois

Post by D4 »

I didn't order the Sleeptracker watch a couple years ago after I started this post because at that time it could only track 8 hours of sleep and I always sleep much longer than that.

However, a month ago, I looked it up online again and they have a newer model (Elite) that tracks up to 12 hours of sleep. I ordered it and I LOVE it!

In addition to RLS and PLMD, I have a very rare sleep disorder. Mayo Clinic was able to get my RLS and PLMD in check and diagnose the rare sleep disorder, but there is nothing they can do for it. No matter how much sleep I get, it is never refreshing. Apparently my brain does not process sleep correctly.

So I'm always looking for new things to try to help myself. I am totally thrilled with my Sleeptracker because helps me determine when I'm getting better quality sleep and then maybe I can figure out what things in my life help or hinder that. I'm never a good judge of my sleep because I sleep like a rock. But the Sleeptracker is an awesome aid because gives useful data about my sleep. The watch gives me data on my 'almost awake' moments each night and records the exact times I was almost awake and gives the average interval between almost awake moments each night. I then upload the data to my computer every day. My interval has ranged anywhere from 23 seconds to 25 minutes per night. 15 minutes is very common. No wonder I'm exhausted when my husband wakes me up! (I am still unable to wake up on my own. The Sleeptracker hasn't helped with that yet, but I didn't really expect it to. I mainly wanted the data about how well I am sleeping.)

I'm really thrilled with this watch! It's sort of like having a mini sleep study every night! :D

ViewsAskew
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Post by ViewsAskew »

That is an excellent endorsement. I often have NO idea why I'm tired and usually figure if I knew what happened during the night, I'd find my answer.

I can't imagine that these are inexpensive, but I wonder if some people could get their insurance to reimburse for it...
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

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Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Polar Bear
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Post by Polar Bear »

I just googled the sleeptracker watch and the standard version is $149 and the other models are $179. I think this was the sleeptracker site so it is likely available cheaper elsewhere, including ebay.
Betty
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ViewsAskew
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Post by ViewsAskew »

When I looked before, I thought it was much more....but maybe I'm thinking of the Actigraph thingee that Dr Rye uses....

Some people might still find $100 or more spendy, but if it gives you that good of info, it's worth it over time.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

D4
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Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:33 am
Location: Illinois

Post by D4 »

I paid $179 on Amazon for the Elite model. I knew I could try it and return it within 30 days if it didn't seem worth it. It took me less than a week to know I'd keep it.

Personally, I doubt that any insurance plan would pay for it since it isn't a medical device.

There is an article on their website (www.sleeptracker.com) about a study that was done comparing the sleetracker results with sleep lab equipment. The sleeptracker did pretty well.

My Mayo Clinic doctor doesn't want to do any more sleep studies on me because he doesn't think it would yield anything new. I think that's probably true, but I love data. So the Sleeptracker is giving me pretty decent data every night.

I'm trying to find out what things I do give me better quality sleep. I use a journal. Every morning, when my husband finally gets me awake, I try to predict what my average interval between almost awake moments was during the night BEFORE I look at the data. I'm getting pretty good at making pretty accurate predictions based on how hard it was to wake up. If it's one of my worst mornings, I guess that the interval is less than a minute. But if it seems like I woke up better than usual, I'll guess closer to 20 minutes.

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