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How much and how well you sleep is an incredibly important indicator of health. If you have problems sleeping, it can indicate a host of other health issues and areas of concern. Sleep is your body’s way of healing itself. It gives you the energy you need to face the day and it allows your body and your mind to rest. Unfortunately, sleep is also fairly easy to disrupt as well, with sometimes devastating effects. That’s why sleep monitoring is one of the most important health assessment activities you can do. It will give you an idea of any problems with your sleep so you can get expert help before your health is impacted. 
If you have trouble sleeping, it might be tempting to go straight to your doctor. There are a number of tests and examinations they can prescribe to examine how you sleep and the quality of your sleep. Obviously, a general health care assessment will be important in this process, and will rule out obvious medical causes. However, if the situation isn’t resolved you will probably have to undergo sleep monitoring. This is a complicated procedure where you sleep in a laboratory environment hooked up to machines that monitor your sleep patterns. This can be an expensive and invasive process, and may not be that helpful. After all, do you really think you’d find it easy to sleep hooked up to machines?
As a result of these concerns, many people are now using wearable devices to track their sleep. These health assessment tools claim to accurately monitor sleep patterns and detect problems. But they may not be as useful as advertised.
Wearable devices that monitor sleep collect data that can be very useful. You can sleep in your own bed, in your own home, and monitor your sleep over days, weeks or even months. This can give a much more complete picture of your sleeping habits than spending a night at the sleep clinic. And your doctor can use the data to accurately assess and diagnose any problems. These devices are also affordable, and they put the control of this health assessment activity squarely into your own hands.
Most of these devices are supposed to do more than simply monitor your sleep and wake cycles. Some of them are also said to detect the different stages of sleep and analyze the data for signs of sleep apnea. If true, this could be a great benefit for your health assessment efforts and give your doctor valuable data they can use in diagnosing you.
There is some doubt as to the effectiveness and even the accuracy of sleep monitoring devices. In fact, the reliability of the apps can vary depending on physical characteristics or individual differences. And because of the lack of transparency in the device algorithms, it can be hard to tell how accurate they are in the best circumstances. These problems aren’t really surprising, after all the devices are much simpler than scientific monitoring equipment. But if you use this data to plan your therapy, or determine your overall health, it can be very harmful.
People like objective data about their condition, and sleep monitoring devices appear to supply that. As a result, you can become too reliant on the information and refuse to see alternative explanations for your symptoms. A recent study found that patients who used the apps were more likely to self-diagnose, and to reject contrary evidence or opinions. In some cases, this caused them to avoid treatments that could alleviate their conditions. The sleep monitoring device actually got in the way of positive health assessment and treatment options.
There is even some evidence that sleep monitoring apps can cause sleep problems. If you’re trying to sleep knowing that the device is recording you, it can make you feel pressured and result in sleeplessness or restlessness. So in a way, the devices may actually cause insomnia or other disorders. And this is obviously a very negative consequence of the technology.
Apps that are designed to monitor sleep are the same as any health assessment tool. They have their good and their bad points. The real danger comes when people use them as a definitive measurement of health or ill health. These types of apps should never be used to plan treatments or therapies. Instead, they should be used as just one more way to track your health before getting expert help and diagnosis. That way you get the most benefits from the technology without becoming over reliant on data that could be faulty. So make sure that you see your doctor if your bad sleep patterns are interfering with your quality of life.
If you have problems sleeping, you might consider using tools such as HomeLab to keep track of your condition before making a visit to your doctor. Just make sure it isn’t the only health assessment measurement you take.
Tags: Health assessment, health care assessment,
