It would be possible to assess eye movements with a skin-mounted electrode (on the forehead) and an EEG/EMG amplifier and data collection device of some kind. This could also be used to monitor delta (etc.) waves that are indicative of sleep.
(Eye movements are one of the sources of noise that I have to jump through hoops to remove from my EEG data.)
I’m using Sleep Time. It keeps me aware of when I go to sleep, and when I wake, provides a motion-sensitive alarm in the morning, and seems to be accurate about the quality of sleep I am getting.
Agreed, this is, I think how they proceed in a clinical environment. I can’t really imagine this for everybody :-/ Until someone finds a cool trick 
I recently swapped out my Apple Watch for a Fitbit Versa and I’m loving it! You don’t realize how much a pain it is to charge your watch every day until you no longer half to. The Apple Watch is obviously the better smartwatch…but the Versa is SO much better at tracking sleep! And the health stats are MUCH easier to view and interpret.
I’m trying to get into using a sleep app on my iPhone, I don’t own an Apple Watch.
I’m considering Sleep Cycle and Pillow at the moment. But would be open to other suggestions for iPhone. I know that Sleep Cycle has been around for ages and probably does the job, but I would like to try out alternatives.
I have some questions for those of you using either Sleep Cycle or Pillow:
Does it work if I have Calm sounds on? I use the meditation app Calm to fall asleep. I use their Sleep Stories and their white noise sounds, like a mountain lake etc. It stays on for 30 minutes. Does Sleep Cycle or Pillow work if I have Calm on?
Does it work with the sound off? Will Sleep Cycle or Pillow wake me up in the morning if the iPhone is set to silent and has Do Not Disturb on?
Does it integrate with the Bedtime feature at all? How and in what way does Sleep Cycle or Pillow integrate with the built-in Clock.app on iOS?
What if I pick up the phone during the night? I will occasionally pick up the phone during the night if I wake up. Will that impact Sleep Cycle or Pillow?
Siri Shortcuts? Does Sleep Cycle or Pillow have support for Siri Shortcuts or planning to offer support for it?
Thanks 
I am using a Withings Aura device with a sleep sensor under my mattress. The sleep data, which looks accurate to me, can be found in the Withings App and syncs to Apple Health. The product now has a successor, Withings Sleep, that I do not own.
The beauty of such a dedicated device is that you have an install-and-forget solution, every sleep is tracked without the need of starting an app or pressing a button.
This reminds me of the old Zeo product, which was way ahead of its time. Assuming they are doing something similar (which it looks like they are), this may be one of the more accurate devices on the market (although this is my first time seeing this product). A lot more than sleep tracking with a wearable.
For those of you using the watch for sleep tacking, any tips/shortcuts to ease the process?
For me when i was using the watch to track sleep (mostly in AutoSleep) it was always a pain to remember to turn on/off theater mode and DND.
DND is ok if you have a regular bedtime - just use the Bedtime option on your phone, which sets DND, and set the watch to mirror the phone. I am not aware of an automatic way to turn on Theatre Mode, however!
I use a “Good Morning” and “Good Night” Shortcut and use them to toggle DND as part of the routine.
Yeah I have dnd scheduled and that normally works fine, but if time differs for some reason I have a shortcut for that that I use.
Actually I use the goodnight shortcut every night, but most times DND is already on.
I also have a flex 2
By the way, I moved from my Withings Activité Pop watch to a Oura ring last week. Oura ring is first a sleep tracking device.
I liked the Activité as it’s a simple watch, I don’t want complex looking devices 
Oura ring is even more “minimalist”, and I’m quite happy with it. Data wise, you get more in depth knowledge of how your sleep is, with a lot of explanations. Battery last 6 days, can keep up to 6 weeks of data, and has an airplane mode so you don’t get to many waves while you sleep
I got a Nokia Sleep (now Withings Sleep) for review sometime ago and still use it. It sleeps between the mattress and box spring and connects via Wifi. It uses the Health Mate app on my iPhone to track the data (which also communicates to the Health app.) It’s pretty much set and forget, but a couple of downsides is that sometimes it seems to not get right (showing me awake several times in the night when I wasn’t) and it only works for one person in the bed (so for my wife to track her sleep, we’d need a second one.)
The bad tracking might be due to needing recalibration. My wife turns off the power to my side of the bed via the light switch in our room (even though I ask her not to!) and when she turns it back on, the Sleep goes into recalibration mode. But you’re not supposed to get on the bed during this time and I think she does go in and sit on the bed to make calls or do work.
Tech and marriage can be a tricky mix.
I once tried using the Fitbit as a sleep tracker, but had some, um, trouble with it that resulted in an overnight hospital stay. Too long to go into here, but I wrote about it on my blog: https://www.bettnet.com/how_my_fitbit_landed_me_in_the_hospital/
I heard that the next generation Apple Watch Series 5 would have sleep tracking implemented from Apple in a better way than current apps can do.
Do you guys think that it will require a series 5 watch or will it come to the series 4? Because I’m considering getting a series 4 watch (my first), but one of the main reasons is to use it with sleep tracking and if that’s considerably improved in a series 5 watch, then I might hold out.
The only thing I’ve read about improved AW sleep tracking is Mark Gurman’s rumor of something new in 2020. If that is even close to being correct, that would point to a hardware feature, IMO.
FWIW, I’ve had good results with Sleep++ & my Series 2. The best sleep tracking available probably requires a dedicated device. This looks interesting:
Alright thanks. Then I can go ahead and get a series 4 watch, I guess. I just heard something about how it would ship in the next watch iteration in the fall. I think it was on Connected that I heard it
No one really knows what Apple will do later this year. Apparently not even Apple, on occasion, as evidenced by the Airpower project. The advice you will hear from time to time, and with which I agree, is if you really need a computer (in this case watch) now, buy it. But if you don’t need it right away you might want to wait.
I REALLY wanted an Apple Watch when they were first announced. I waited for the Series 2 and got a watch with much greater battery life and a bit better performance. The battery still lasts around 24 hours if I limit my daily walk (workout) to around 5 miles.
The Apple Watch 4 was just released in September 2018 so it’ll be awhile anyways for a new update.
The Mac Rumors Buyer’s guide has it as “in mid-product cycle” with a neutral rating. When it gets closer to September 2019, the rating will turn into “Don’t Buy; Update coming” and you can hold off on buying it.
I’m loving my Apple Watch 4. I also have a couple of kids that I can pass it down to if there is something compelling to get the 2019 model. I don’t demand a lot out of my watch and am comfortable holding on to the watch for at least a couple more years.
I’ve been using AutoSleep for the last two months, and really enjoy it. Yeah, it is a bit of information overload, and does require some calibration, but the app is easy enough to tweak for my liking.
And, most importantly, I’ve been sleeping more and feeling better since using it!