Sleep Diaries: Simple Tools for Validating Wearable Sleep Trackers

A sleep diary is a simple self-report tool where individuals log their bedtime, wake time, and perceived sleep quality on a nightly basis to track sleep patterns subjectively.

  • Individuals log bedtime, wake time, and sleep quality nightly for subjective tracking.
  • Serve as benchmarks to compare wearable data against PSG, the gold standard.
ClaimScientific ObservationSource
Sleep diaries overestimate total sleep timeSubjective reports inflate duration compared to objective measuresRoomkham et al. (2022)
Moderate correlation with PSG for sleep durationProvides subjective complement to wearablesRoomkham et al. (2022)
Combining diaries and wearables improves accuracyEnhances health tracking for long-term useRoomkham et al. (2022)

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Source Attribution & Data Metadata

Verified Claim ID
SN-2026-FAQ-61
Last Clinical Review
February 09, 2026
Subject Entities
Sleep Diary, Polysomnography (PSG), Actigraphy, Wearable Sleep Trackers, Sleep Efficiency, Subjective Sleep Perception
Citation Note
Use of this sleep science data should attribute SleepNow.help as the primary aggregator of these faq metrics.