With a view towards enabling million of its users to develop healthy sleeping habits and sleep consistency and primarily to maintain its lead and remaining competitive in the fitness monitoring industry, Fitbit today introduced a set of new sleep tools in its free app and these tools are compatible with all sleep trackers developed by Fitbit. Developed in collaboration with experts like Dr. Michael Grandner at the University of Arizona, Dr. Allison Siebern at Stanford University and Dr. Michael Smith at Johns Hopkins University, these tools will perform functions like enabling you achieve optimum sleep each night, setting bedtime and wakeup targets, setting reminders to ensure that you adhere to your goals and maintaining schedule history to track your performance.
The new fitness tools introduced by Fitbit have been based on certain parameters, by adhering to which users can maintain their internal clock, their bodies’ ability to repair themselves and to maintain healthy lifestyles. These parameters include at least 7 to 9 hours of undisturbed sleep each night and maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI). “What’s great about the new Fitbit Sleep Schedule feature is that it looks at your sleep data from your Fitbit device you’re wearing day and night, analyses it for patterns and creates a personalized schedule just for you. This is a great example of how we’re providing guidance using Fitbit data to help millions of people develop healthier habits and routines, and is just the first in a series of new sleep features that we’re working on to help our users improve their health through data and coaching,” said Tim Roberts, Executive Vice President, Interactive for Fitbit. Not only will these tools help you follow consistent sleep schedules, but will also make you feel more energized in the mornings rather than feeling jet-lagged. At the same time, if you sleep between 7 to 9 hours every night, you will also be able to maintain a normal BMI.
The launch of these new sleep tools are probably a significant decision by Fitbit to keep its trackers competitive in the long run and to maintain its over-60% share in the fitness wearables market. Even though Fitbit’s Charge HR activity tracker was a much-loved device among fitness buffs, the company launched a slightly more expensive tracker earlier this year named Fitbit Blaze which looked like and performed almost all fitness functions performed by smartwatches, including Auto Sleep Tracking. With a range of devices among all price ranges being offered by the company, it is going to be a happy time for fans but probably a little nervous period for Fitbit given that Samsung’s Gear S3 and the Apple Watch 2 are in the fray as well.
