Judith Hawthorn
I Ran Contactless Sleep Tracking From a Sunrise Alarm Clock for 21 Nights
The lamp on my nightstand cost $399, fades to amber at 10 p.m., and scores my sleep without ever touching me.
I Hand-Counted 1,004 Steps to Stress-Test Sleep Tracking Technology
The tally counter cost four dollars and does exactly one thing. I carried it in my left hand around a measured loop of my block, clicking once per heel strike — left and right, no doubling, no…
60 Nights With the Fitbit Inspire 3: What Cheap Fitness Trackers Can Actually Tell You About Caffeine and Sleep
A friend who reads sleep studies for a living told me last winter that consumer sleep data is "astrology with a heart rate sensor," and that if I was going to buy into it anyway, I should at least buy…
Sleep Apnea Treatment Alternatives and the Five-Patient Study That Made CPAP the Default
The machine is usually in a closet. Second shelf, behind the beach towels, still in the tote bag the equipment company handed over at the fitting. Eleven nights of use. Maybe thirty.
What an FBI Investigation and Arrest Actually Proves
The number that surfaces in the comments under every one of these stories is one in five. One in five kids solicited online.
Fitness Tracker Review: Three Screenless Wearables vs. One 2 p.m. Coffee
The question was narrow: if I take 200 mg of caffeine at 2 p.m., does the thing on my wrist notice? Not does it tell me I slept badly — that part is easy, and everything from a $99 band to a $349 ring…
The Samsung Galaxy Fit 4 Leak Says to Wait Before You Buy a Fitbit Air — Here's Where That Advice Falls Apart
The advice arrives every time someone posts a screenshot of a discounted fitness band: wait. Don't buy it.
Patagonia, Caffeine, and the Half-Degree Problem: What Outdoor Clothing Actually Does to Your Sleep
Two nights, same patch of grass in Eryri, last July. Same tent, same bag, same tired body. On the first I lay awake for the better part of an hour doing the arithmetic you do at one in the morning.
A 45-Night Sleep Tech Review: Masking Earbuds vs. Foam, and the Thin History of the 3 A.M. Wake-Up
Across forty-five nights I logged twenty-one mid-night wake-ups. The median clock time was 3:07 a.m. That number is the only reason I ran this sleep tech review at all, and by the end of it the number…