Smartwatches for health monitoring

[Utsikt]

Posts split from Norway: Study of Daratumumab Injections for Patients with Moderate to Severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 2025
-----------------

It would be nice if they did period monitoring of sleep. This can be done inexpensively with at home sleep tests. Or at least a questionnaire—are you sleeping through the night, how many wake-ups during the night, etc.?

Aren’t those quite unreliable?

 

[Jaybee00]

Aren’t those quite unreliable?

Probably good enough to see if you are sleeping through the night, etc.

 

[Yann04]

Probably good enough to see if you are sleeping through the night, etc.

In my experience i wouldnt trust them to diagnose sleep problems. But they definitely get the trend right like if im sleeping more they will reflect that or if i wake up less often during my sleep they will reflect that as well.

 

[Midnattsol]

But is sleep through the night necessary a good enough indicator of good sleep? I've been up three times tonight with a teething baby and I still feel more refreshed than I did when sleeping through the night pre-pregnancy.

If the treatment helps and patients feel better, they may feel they sleep better despite evidence to the contrary such as multiple wake ups.

 

[Kitty]

Aren’t those quite unreliable?

Yes. Apparently head electrodes and cameras are needed even to show whether or not someone is asleep, never mind determine what stage of sleep they're in. That's why specially equipped labs are used for diagnosis.

The watches are consumer gadgets that record heart rate and how much the wearer was moving, then make a guess. It's not feasible for them to do any more than that.

 

[Yann04]

The watches are consumer gadgets that record heart rate and how much the wearer was moving, then make a guess. It's not feasible for them to do any more than that.

Yet as a very severe person who had months where all I did was lay still all day and daydream. It was remarkably good at telling when I was alseep or not.

 

[Utsikt]

Yet as a very severe person who had months where all I did was lay still all day and daydream. It was remarkably good at telling when I was alseep or not.

Mine is terrible at it, but I walk a few meters every day. I don’t know how it is now, I stopped paying attention to the watch.

 

[Yann04]

Mine is terrible at it, but I walk a few meters every day. I don’t know how it is now, I stopped paying attention to the watch.

Mine wasn’t good at first but after I set it to “sensitive” on sleep detection it’s done a good job.

Generally though I wouldn’t trust it much.

 

[Kitty]

Mine is terrible at it

And all the ones I've had. They'd tell me I was in REM sleep when I was reading, etc.

That's what prompted me to look up how realistic it was to get any kind of useful information from them, and the answer was a resounding No. There was even concern among doctors that people were worrying about their sleep based on information from devices that can do no better than guess.

Thankfully I now have one that allows you to switch off all the so-called health monitoring. I only wanted a watch with a mobile SIM so I could call for help if I had a bad fall; turned out they all assumed I was going to consent to intrusive measurements as well. I got so fed up the first one that I started putting a folded tissue between the watch and my wrist to stops the sensors working.

 

[bobbler]

And all the ones I've had. They'd tell me I was in REM sleep when I was reading, etc.

That's what prompted me to look up how realistic it was to get any kind of useful information from them, and the answer was a resounding No. There was even concern among doctors that people were worrying about their sleep based on information from devices that can do no better than guess.

Thankfully I now have one that allows you to switch off all the so-called health monitoring. I only wanted a watch with a mobile SIM so I could call for help if I had a bad fall; turned out they all assumed I was going to consent to intrusive measurements as well. I got so fed up the first one that I started putting a folded tissue between the watch and my wrist to stops the sensors working.

imagine if that was info going back to an employer and your job involved hours of reading at home. It’s not really funny but a warning I guess

 

[Yann04]

imagine if that was info going back to an employer and your job involved hours of reading at home. It’s not really funny but a warning I guess

With fitbit being bought by surveillance capitalism firm Google, and 23andME having sold everyone’s data after bankruptcy, the world you describe is looking scarily probable.

 

[Kitty]

imagine if that was info going back to an employer and your job involved hours of reading at home. It’s not really funny but a warning I guess

Also, it recorded the number of flights of stairs I had climbed each day. In my level-access bungalow that doesn't even have a doorstep, and in shops I visited in my powerchair.

I think it was recording relative altitude, possibly even when I was driving (I live on top of a hill). It can't have been movement-based because I never do any kind of stair-climbing action. But I was horrified when I saw the records—imagine DWP got hold of that? I'd have been questioned under caution and need to find some way to prove I wasn't climbing stairs.

A helpful chap in the customer community for the device told me how to make sure it wouldn't record any more movement data and how to delete everything it had already captured, but it was pretty scary to discover it was set to record all that by default.

 

[JemPD]

Also, it recorded the number of flights of stairs I had climbed each day. In my level-access bungalow that doesn't even have a doorstep, and in shops I visited in my powerchair.

I think it was recording relative altitude, possibly even when I was driving (I live on top of a hill). It can't have been movement-based because I never do any kind of stair-climbing action. But I was horrified when I saw the records—imagine DWP got hold of that? I'd have been questioned under caution and need to find some way to prove I wasn't climbing stairs.

A helpful chap in the customer community for the device told me how to make sure it wouldn't record any more movement data and how to delete everything it had already captured, but it was pretty scary to discover it was set to record all that by default.

Someone is about to give me an old apple watch, because i cant bear an alert thingy but keep falling down so i wanted to be able to make calls from it

But i useless with tech! will have to make sure it doesnt record inaccurate stuff i dont want!

 

[Kitty]

Someone is about to give me an old apple watch, because i cant bear an alert thingy but keep falling down so i wanted to be able to make calls from it

I have it for the same reason. I have a falls alarm, but the pendant has a metal chain that I'm allergic to. It lives on the bedside table and only gets used to test the system.

The watch can be voice activated—so it doesn't matter if your arms got pinned under you when you fell, or your glasses slipped off and you can't see what you're doing—and it has a silicone strap that can be worn 24/7.

The watch doesn't record all this stuff on its own memory, by the way, it uses the iPhone it's linked to.

It was easy to turn it off once I had the instructions, but there was a step about backup to iCloud that I could have missed if tried to fathom it myself—I was new to the system then and didn't quite get it. I can look easily it up again, so DM me if you have trouble.

 

[Yann04]

Also, it recorded the number of flights of stairs I had climbed each day. In my level-access bungalow that doesn't even have a doorstep, and in shops I visited in my powerchair.

I think it was recording relative altitude, possibly even when I was driving (I live on top of a hill). It can't have been movement-based because I never do any kind of stair-climbing action. But I was horrified when I saw the records—imagine DWP got hold of that? I'd have been questioned under caution and need to find some way to prove I wasn't climbing stairs.

A helpful chap in the customer community for the device told me how to make sure it wouldn't record any more movement data and how to delete everything it had already captured, but it was pretty scary to discover it was set to record all that by default.

New Fear Unlocked.

I hadn’t even thought about in relation to disability insurance.

I haven’t actually walked in 2 years. Most I do is ride on a deskchair from my bed to the bathroom.

But my fitbit seems convinced I get a hundred or so steps a day? Half of them at night? I wonder if I run during my dreams!

 

[JemPD]

I have it for the same reason. I have a falls alarm, but the pendant has a metal chain that I'm allergic to. It lives on the bedside table and only gets used to test the system.

The watch can be voice activated—so it doesn't matter if your arms got pinned under you when you fell, or your glasses slipped off and you can't see what you're doing—and it has a silicone strap that can be worn 24/7.

The watch doesn't record all this stuff on its own memory, by the way, it uses the iPhone it's linked to.

It was easy to turn it off once I had the instructions, but there was a step about backup to iCloud that I could have missed if tried to fathom it myself—I was new to the system then and didn't quite get it. I can look easily it up again, so DM me if you have trouble.

I'll certainly be doing that thanks because i a new smartphone user too.

I was hoping to use the HR monitor though... is that part of it all or can i have it to do that & not the rest?

ETA: sorry this is hugely off topic sorry mods

 

[Kitty]

I was hoping to use the HR monitor though... is that part of it all or can i have it to do that & not the rest?

Yep.