The Quantified Self - FitBit

As part of the ongoing process of measuring sleep, I took a leap and bought a FitBit Ultra.

Initially I was interested in evaluating my sleep to see how it tracked compared with the Zeo, and maybe I'll eventually do that, but an initial glance at the FitBit sleep stats tells me that it won't stack up to the way Zeo monitors actual brainwaves.

What it does do very well, though, is count the steps and stairs you take in a day, convert them to miles traveled and stairs climbed, and give you instant feedback on how well you've done that day. It initially sets targets (for me, anyways) of 10,000 steps a day, and 10 flights of stairs. On days when I'm out riding the bike and walking the dog, it's easy to get a lot more exercise than that recommended. When it's raining outside (like yesterday) and you want to take the dog for the shortest walks possible, I find I fall to about 50% of the recommended activity.

I read until 11pm, but FitBit thought I was asleep

Since FitBit can't really "measure" the bike properly, I'm thinking that it considers each pedal revolution as a step, and measures it that way. If you're a real keener, there are ways to more accurately measure activity on a bike.

For those of you who run, FitBit can be calibrated (as it can with walking) to measure your average stride length and give you distance based on that measurement. It will also track things manually - like BP, heartrate, blood glucose levels, caloric intake and weight.  You would enter these values on their user website, where it would time stamp them so you can see progress over time. It might be a powerful feedback tool for self-measurement.

This is on a day I did a long bikeride

The FitBit attaches to your clothing and is pretty unobtrusive. For sleep, it comes with a wristband you wear at night with the FitBit attached to the wrist (it measures motion at night, so that's why it's data is more inaccurate compared with a Zeo).

FitBit costs $100, and I'm using it as a glorified pedometer - but it's got that hi-tech edge which is hard for me to resist.