What gets measured gets managed. Both my fitness and sleep improved after tracking.

At the start I was able to use the sleep tracking to troubleshoot sleep issues and improve. After that, it’s mostly a warning system for when I may need to nap later (and thus plan for it) or make sure to get to bed early.

The steps are also a fun social thing. My dad and I talk about them and have streaks of 10,000. If we handle our days well, that’s what we’d get anyway. But somedays, you slack. Being accountable to each other is a fun game and we walk more and are happier for it.

The key to this kind of tracking is you mostly don’t think of it. It happens automatically in the background.

I think people use them to: 1) figure out what's affecting their sleep quality, not necessarily just duration, and 2) trigger alarms within a window, rather than at a specific time, when the device registers that they're between REM sleep cycles so waking up to the alarm is less shocking and unpleasant, and 3) have an alarm or pager-duty-type alert that doesn't bother anyone in the bed with them.

For me, it's the nags (e.g. Garmin's 'time to be active') that make it worthwhile to get me out of my groove. Also, the sleep tracking includes things such as SpO2 measurement, which can help one see if changing sleep positions makes a difference. I feel somewhat confident in saying that my Garmins have likely extended my life by a few years.