Mike Carr discusses the best sensory tools for autism, sleep patterns for severely autistic children. He compares the Aqara sleep sensor, which is mounted on the wall and senses heart rate, to the Fitbit, which is worn on the wrist. He mentions that his son refuses to wear anything on his wrist, so they found ankle bracelets on Amazon that can hold the Fitbit. He recommends getting a waterproof Fitbit, such as the Inspire 3, which captures sleep data better than the Aqara and also tracks steps. He suggests that more expensive Fitbits can monitor stress and heart rate, allowing parents to anticipate meltdowns. Overall, he recommends Fitbit as the best choice, despite being more expensive than some similar alternatives on Amazon.
Finding the Best Sleep Sensor for Our Severely Autistic Son: Aqara vs. Fitbit
As parents of a severely autistic child, we know firsthand how important it is to ensure a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, for many children with autism, sleep can be elusive. Whether it’s trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or maintaining a healthy sleep cycle, the challenges are real. As a result, tracking our son’s sleep patterns became one of our top priorities to understand how his sleep (or lack of it) impacts his behavior, mood, and overall well-being. In this blog post, I want to share our journey of finding the best sleep sensor for our son. We’ve experimented with two popular devices—Aqara and Fitbit—and I’m here to tell you what worked for us and what didn’t. Consider this our own personal SmackDown comparison to help other parents like us make a more informed decision.
Our First Attempt: The Aqara Sleep Sensor
We started out with the Aqara Sleep Sensor. The big selling point for us was that it’s wireless and goes on the wall above the bed, so our son didn’t have to wear anything. If you’ve got a kid on the spectrum, you know how touchy they can be about clothes or anything on their body, so we thought this would be perfect.
The good stuff about the Aqara? Not having to strap anything on our son was huge. He absolutely refuses to wear watches or rings, so having something that could track his movement, heart rate, and sleep quality without him feeling it was a real win. Plus, no wires running all over the place was nice – keeps the room from looking like a science experiment.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Setting up the thing was a real headache. You need this separate hub to make it work, plus it only connects to 2.4 GHz WiFi. So we ended up shelling out more money and fighting with our router settings just to get it running.
The real deal-breaker, though? The numbers just didn’t add up. We’d watch our kid sleep all night, but then the sensor would tell us he only got seven hours. That’s when we started to wonder if we could trust what this thing was telling us. When you’re trying to figure out if sleep affects your child’s behavior, you need data you can count on.
Enter Fitbit: The Smarter, More Accurate Choice
After giving Aqara a fair shot, we moved on to Fitbit. We knew it was great for tracking steps and all that, but we were really interested in sleep tracking. The only problem? There was no way our son was going to keep a watch on his wrist.
We were about ready to give up when my wife had this stroke of genius: what about putting it on his ankle?
Once we figured out the ankle trick, the Fitbit was actually pretty amazing. The sleep data was way more reliable than what we got from the Aqara. It breaks everything down into light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep, so we could really see what was going on while he was out.
The cool thing is that it also tracks how much he moves around during the day. We started noticing connections between days when he was super active and how he slept that night. That was really eye-opening.
The heart rate monitor turned out to be a lifesaver too. We can actually see when his heart rate starts spiking, which usually means he’s getting worked up. It gives us a heads-up before a meltdown hits, so we can jump in and calm things down before it gets bad.
Now about that ankle bracelet hack – total game changer. We bought this soft, adjustable band that fits around his ankle. We just slip the Fitbit in there while he’s asleep, and he doesn’t even know it’s there. It’s made of this super soft material that doesn’t irritate his skin, and we can adjust it so it’s not too tight or loose.
We made sure to get a waterproof Fitbit too, since our kid is basically part fish. He’s always in the pool or splashing in the bath, and the Fitbit handles it like a champ.
The Verdict: Aqara vs. Fitbit
So, which one’s better? For us, it’s Fitbit, no contest. Sure, that Aqara looked good on paper with the whole ‘no wearables’ thing, but man, the setup was a pain and the numbers were all over the place. The Fitbit actually tells us what’s really going on with our kid’s sleep, plus we get to see his activity levels, heart rate, and when he’s getting stressed out. That stuff’s been a game-changer for heading off meltdowns before they happen.
Yeah, you’ve still gotta get them to wear the thing, but honestly, that ankle bracelet trick solved everything. Now we’ve got one gadget that does it all – shows us how he’s sleeping, moving, and feeling. Worth every penny, if you ask me.
Why we’re all-in on Fitbit for sleep tracking
After all our trial and error, here’s why we swear by Fitbit for our son with severe autism:
- It actually works! The sleep data lines up with what we see happening, so we can actually trust it when making decisions about his routine.
- It’s not just for sleep. You get the steps, activity, heart rate… the whole package. We can see how everything connects – like when a super active day leads to a rough night.
- The thing is tough. Our kid dunks it in the bath, takes it swimming, you name it – and it keeps on ticking.
- That ankle bracelet trick was a total lifesaver. He doesn’t even notice it’s there all night.
Yeah, it costs more than some of those cheaper gadgets, but you get what you pay for. When you’ve got a kid who melts down without warning, being able to spot their heart rate climbing before it happens? That’s priceless.
The Bottom Line: It’s All About What Works for Your Kid
Look, every family’s different, and so is every kid. Fitbit was a game-changer for us, but you might need to try a few different gadgets before you find your winner.
Good sleep is a big deal for any kid, but when you’re dealing with autism, it can make or break your whole day. Having a decent way to track sleep has really helped us figure out what’s going on and make better calls about routines and stuff.
If you’ve tried other sleep trackers, drop us a line – we’re always curious about what’s working for other families. Sometimes the best ideas come from other parents who’ve been in the trenches.
Thanks for hanging in there with our gadget saga. Hope this helps you find something that works for your crew. We’ll keep sharing the hacks and failures as we go – God knows we’ve had plenty of both! Hang in there, and catch you next time.
Transcript
Mike Carr (00:08):
Today we’re going to have a SmackDown as to what sensors best for determining sleep patterns for your autistic severely autistic son or daughter. We’ve looked at Aqara and we’ve looked at Fitbit, so that’s what the SmackDown is all about. Now, I’ve talked about Aqara before, this little sleep sensor wireless doesn’t have to wear anything because our son won’t wear anything on his wrist, won’t wear a ring, refuses to do that. You mount this on the wall above his head and it senses his heart rate. It senses how well he’s sleeping during the night. The problem with this is you’ve got to get a hub. It also goes on the wall so it connects, and then you have to get a 2.4 gigaherz sensor or a network router. So a lot of hardware, a lot of expense ended up costing us maybe three, $400.
(01:03):
And the problem is here’s the sleep data showing that he slept less than seven hours yet. Here’s the Fitbit sleep data. Almost a little bit more than eight hours, and so we think the Fitbit is a little bit more accurate than the Aqara. The problem of course, is you wear a Fitbit on your wrist, not necessarily. So here’s the trick for today. My wife found on Amazon ankle bracelets, so she just took off the wrist bracelet and put on the Fitbit. Put on the Fitbit. This ankle bracelet, it’s adjustable. So you’ve got this little adjustable thing right here. You can tighten it as much as you want, so it fits nice and snug on his ankle at night, and it bugs him at all. It’s very soft material. It’s not abrasive. You can have it a little bit loose until he gets used to it, and that solves the problem.
(02:02):
We strongly recommend that you get one that’s waterproof. I don’t think Fitbit sells anything that’s not waterproof anymore. You can go out to Amazon and get Fitbit clones for like $22. The one that we like is the Inspire three. It’s like a hundred bucks, but it’s waterproof. And we’ve taken Michael Swimming, we’ve put ’em in the shower. This thing is great. It captures sleep better than a carra. It also captures his steps. So you can take reading on his exercise and see how that relates to his behavior. So the winner between that SmackDown is Fitbit and we recommend strongly that you go forward with that. And the more expensive Fitbits will even monitor stress and heart rate. So you can determine if a meltdown is fixing to go or fixing to happen before it actually happens. So Fitbit isn’t paying us anything for this, but we’ve used it for years and we still think that’s one of the best choices out there today, even though it’s a little bit more expensive than some of the clones you can get on Amazon. Have a great week. Until next time. See you.
