The measured life

June 22, 2011 | Source: Technology Review

Sleep Cycle iPhone app (credit: Maciek Drejak Labs AB)

Do you know how much REM sleep you got last night?

New types of devices that monitor activity, sleep, diet, and even mood could tell us, and also make us healthier and more productive.

Quantified Self enthusiasts believe that collecting detailed data can help them make better choices about their health and behavior.

Self-trackers are using an expanding selection of smartphone apps and various consumer and custom-built devices to monitor patterns of food intake, sleep, fatigue, mood, and heart rate.

Monitoring tools now typical of a hospital’s intensive-care unit are being transformed into wearable gadgets that rely on inexpensive, low-power wireless transceivers that can automatically send data to the wearer’s cell phone or computer.

Self-tracking adherents also hope to merge their findings into databases to produce new medical insights.