This is my latest $199 health toy. It’s actually pretty high-tech. I predict Apple will want the iPhone to have this capability, so they’ll need to acquire this company in the near future…
Like me, you occasionally wake up still tired, despite getting your all-important 10 hours of beauty-sleep. What causes this? Who knows? I do know I don’t suffer from sleep apnea, which generally affects the fat, the drunk, and… others. But could it be just simple snoring that ends up disturbing my brain-nap? I decided to find out.
I ordered this $199 “sleep and fitness monitor” from some outfit called BodiMetrics. You wear it on your wrist, along with a little thingy on your thumb. That thumb part has two interior sensors that glow red when it’s on and miraculously tracks your blood-oxygen level! It works the same way as that finger-clip thing they stick on Grandma when she checks into the hospital. This is the home-version of that very sophisticated medical technology.
Here’s what I’ve learned: My oxygen level is almost always fine, way up there at 98% throughout the night, and is particularly good if I’ve done my gym workout that day (duh). My resting heart rate runs low, around 44 beats per minute, and when I dream about real estate deals collapsing, it can jump as high as 70 or more, but I don’t think that’s a problem, either.
Here’s last night’s report, as displayed on my iPhone. Overall, not bad, except two minor drops in oxygen level (but not enough to activate the thumb-buzzer).
The thumb-clip buzzes you to wake you up if your oxygen level drops below 94%. That’s only happened to me once in a month’s use, and it happened when I was sleeping on my back! So that awareness has caused me to stop doing that. I may start out staring at the ceiling, but eventually, I make at least a half turn.
The moral: get sufficient exercise each day, drink lots of water, lay off the cigars past 8 PM, don’t get liquored up! Oh, and consider blowing $199 on this O2 Vibe thing. Overall, I find it helpful.
P.S. In order to read your nightly results, you need to download the app on your mobile device. That part’s free, of course, and easy to do, then you just activate Bluetooth and… Bob’s your uncle!
P.P.S. BodiMetrics makes another device they call a “performance monitor”, basically a home-version of an EKG monitor. You hold the thing for 20 seconds and it tells you what kind of heart-rhythm you’ve got that day. Ever hear about those poor saps that drop dead whilst exercising? This thing prevents that. Truly life-saving. Oh, and the company’s support line is excellent. They have medically-trained people answering the phone, I like that.
Note: As always on this blog, this is a free plug! I received no compensation, no reduced product cost, no nuthin’!
Greenwich Bored And Razed 