This news may blow you away.
Smart thermostats can provide insights into sleep quality, allowing researchers to infer a person’s sleep patterns without invasive monitoring.
The finding is one of several developments presented this week at Sleep 2024, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. Other research highlights the need for teens to sleep more, to reduce the risk of suicide and drowsy driving.
For the thermostat study, researchers analyzed eight terabytes of data collected from Ecobee smart thermostats in more than 178,000 households. Homeowners voluntarily contributed this data for energy efficiency research.
The study team — led by postdoctoral researcher Jasleen Kaur — leveraged the Ecobee motion sensors to accurately identify complex sleep patterns and disturbances.
Ecobee users can adjust temperatures from anywhere and receive alerts on serious HVAC issues. But no app or feature within Ecobee reveals sleep health data.
The information the researchers gleaned differs from what’s available to smart bed users.
Kaur told The Post that Ecobee thermostats gather environmental data, including indoor temperatures, humidity and motion, while smart beds use direct pressure and movement sensors within the bed to monitor sleep.
“The smart thermostat provides a broader environmental context via a ubiquitous technology within the home, whereas smart beds rely on direct physical data,” explained Kaur, developer manager at the UbiLab at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Building on this data, Kaur intends to develop a near-real-time sleep health surveillance system.
“This innovative system would enable prompt interventions and improvements in overall sleep quality and well-being by making these insights accessible directly to users and public health officials,” she said.
