Don't Trust Your Sleep Score Too Much: Poe, Huberman and Attia on Trackers
October 5, 2026 · 15 min read
Gina Poe and Andrew Huberman say consumer trackers only estimate sleep stages, about 70% accurate at best, and that the score itself changes how rested people feel the next day. All three still use trackers, and advise reading the numbers as averages and prompts to adjust habits, next to how your body actually feels.
The rules, numbers and steps worth keeping in front of you.
- Trackers infer sleep stages from heart rate, heart rate variability and movement; they do not record brain waves (Huberman).
- Poe: the best trackers are about 70% effective at staging sleep.
- Huberman: none of the commercially available sleep trackers are perfectly accurate.
- Poe: even a sleep lab measures only the cortex; deeper structures can be in a different sleep state.
- Huberman, citing Alia Crum: a low score makes people feel groggier, and a high score makes them feel fine, regardless of actual sleep.
- Read scores as averages across many nights, not single-night verdicts (Huberman, Attia).
- Attia: recovery scores predict performance poorly compared with morning resting heart rate.
- Poe: trust your own physiology, and combine subjective and objective data.
- Huberman's simple test: if you keep falling asleep during the day, you need more sleep.
- Feeling is not a complete guide either: exercise improved slow-wave sleep without people feeling much better.
- Do not check the clock at night; it can make you more tired the next day.
- Huberman: do not chase exact stage percentages; change one habit at a time and compare the data with how you feel.
- Poe: keep a consistent bedtime; waking once at night is normal.
- See a doctor or sleep specialist for persistent daytime sleepiness, long-standing insomnia, or regularly needing nine or more hours.
This is the short form. The full insight has every expert's reasoning, their own words and the sources.