The thing is, in my research I’ve found that there is no accurate way to track sleep cycles, particularly REM, without an EKG, etc. much like the discussion on the scales and DEXA linked above, the key to any usable data unless you invest in research center levels of hardware is consistency in your testing regimen. Pick one device, one ecosystem, test at the same time daily, consistently , over a period time, and don’t stress about tiny changes in the daily readings. When you’re using home based hardware, trends are the best you can do, and honestly, are the most valuable data. When speaking to my sleep specialist for example, he said the problem with what they do in an over tie test is that it’s only one test, one night, in an environment different to that which you normally are in. That alone makes your trend tracking with a device valuable, if not exactly NASA level precise.
BL - pick what you like, stick with it, and monitor for major changes over time.
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I personally use an Apple Watch series 3 (I get 48 hours battery life easy and it charges in ten minutes). I track my steps loosely, and my total minutes/hours of activity each day.
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I track HRV with HRV4T using the breathe app on the watch first thing in the AM, to capture the data.(HRV ties in directly with rest and recovery, there is a thread here.…)
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I track sleep with the pillow app, I have 2 years of data in it now and all I do is track trends. I don’t dwell on REM, deep sleep, etc. I use the subjective mood entry to correlate with the % of quality sleep it says I get each night. It works on the phone or the watch if I want to track heart rate data overnite.
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I am using the body+ scale each morning first thing after I water the tree to get a consistent report. Starting in January I plan to get a DEXA bi-annually to “calibrate” the scale data and to give me a measure of ongoing change.
This is my personal data collection routine, it’s not intrusive at all, it requires me to push a total of two buttons each morning (one to turn off my pillow alarm, and one to start the breathe test). I don’t look at the data everyday, but it’s always there when I want it. I’m not a big runner or serious tri-athlete, but if I were I might lean a bit toward the Garmin forerunner ecosystem, though the Apple watch has numerous apps to track your run, whichever you prefer. I do swim and my watch is good enough with that as well that I’m not interested in anything else now.
YMMV