Adventures in sleeptracking

I've been using the Sleeptracker for some time now, and does what it says it does. The problem, as with most things in life, is me. The Sleeptracker wakes me up when I'm very nearly awake, just rolling over to fall back asleep, the kind of situation where if there wasn't an alarm I wouldn't even register it as awake. The problem is the first thought that goes through my head is "Hey, no fair, I'm not done yet!" I'm in a nice happy place where I can just float around in my head, and the sleeptracker has interrupted it. And since it's right on my wrist, it's very easy to just turn it off and go back to sleep.

Now, I am less groggy when I can convince myself to get out of bed after waking up to the Sleeptracker than when I wake up to a standard alarm. And even if I roll back over and close my eyes, I'm generally closer to the surface and sometimes don't even fall back asleep, I just lie there for a bit floating around in my head. This does have value - if the Sleeptracker wakes me up at 5:42 and I don't get out of bed, I'll wake up better to my regular alarm at 6 - but it's far from panacea. I'm not jumping out of bed bright and cheerful to meet the day, and because I know that it isn't really time to wake up yet I do need a standard alarm as backup.

Also, a potential problem if you have really skinny wrists. I bought the men's version (because that's what was available on ebay), and it's just barely small enough for me, with no room to punch extra holes in the strap. The circumference of my wrist is 5 3/4". In other words, I am not particularly petite but do have disproportionately skinny wrists. Therefore, if you are petite and have disproportionately skinny wrists, or are not a full-grown adult, the men's version may be too big for you. I'm not certain to what extent this would affect functioning of the device. It's based on an accelerometer and does tell you to fasten it with the watch tight against your wrist, but I don't know to what extent a too-loose watch moves around. I also don't know how much smaller the women's version can get. But my point is, if your wrist circumference is less than 5 3/4", see if you can find out if the women's version goes smaller, and/or what happens if it isn't fastened tightly, before dropping a significant amount of money on this thing.

In summary, it does what it says it does but isn't a miracle, and do your research and ask questions if you have really skinny wrists.