At Christmas I bought myself a Pebble Time. I often buy myself a Christmas present as its a great way of getting exactly what you want. Actually I didn't know if I wanted a Pebble but six months in I think its a great device, a smart watch that only needs charging once a week but works great in bright sunshine is a real triumph, I rally didn't want a smartwatch the conks out at 9pm.

The Pebble is still evolving and its still getting better. One of things that wasn't there when I bough it was activity tracking - there was no build in app. So I started trying all the available options to see which I liked. As an consequence of doing this I got to compare all the readings from each one on exactly the same hardware, I tend to walk pretty much the same each week day and sleep the same each week.

Here are the results from the step counters

Steps PlexFit Up Misfit LetsMuv Pebble Health
Ave per Day

10,497

12,112

13,048

15,887

13,928

I did look at the individual days data from each tracker and I found that each tracker recorded a similar number of steps each day however the trackers diverge markedly from each other. I’d guess that they are not particularly accurate but can be used to compare one days activity with another, as long as you use the same tracker.

Of the apps, I disliked PlexFit as it lost data if the bluetooth was switched off (which I do over night as it extends the battery life by a day). I also disliked Up as it replaced my watch face and I am rather draw to TimeStyle. MisFit and LetsMuv are both pretty good, however sometimes Misfit can struggle to sync with your phone and LetsMuv is a little basic if you dont pay for it. After I had done all this research Pebble released their own app and I have to say its the one I use. It works very well and does not occupy that valuable background app slot.

I also tracked my sleep pattern, the times here are in decimal hours, not hours and minutes.

Sleep Up MisFit LetsMuv Morpheuz Pebble Health
Ave Hours

6.33

7.07

6.47

6.74

5.71
Deep sleep hours

2.43

2.21

1.45

1.76

The addition here is Morpheuz, which is great but doesn't do enough to justify installing it after I have pebble health.

Now as it happens shortly after recording there measurements I managed to come off my bike and hurt myself quite a lot. I broke many ribs, punctured a lung and broke my clavicle to the extent that I needed to have it pinned. Suffice it to say I have been in quite a lot of pain for the last couple of months.

Like I said above I am not convinced that we can really compare between the apps but comparing my sleep patter over time using the same app should be interesting.

This is the data for my sleep pattern from before the accident and the week after the accident.

Sleep

Before

After
Ave Hours

5.71

7.19
Deep sleep Hours

1.76

1.28

The results seem to make sense. I am sleeping almost one and a half hours a night longer, however my sleep is more disturbed. In incidentally I have also lost nearly 4 Kg weight despite not doing any exercise, I have to say I am slightly surprised that the accident has had such a large impact on my life and my body.