I'm a sleep tech tester — these are the gadgets I'd buy if I was heading back to college this summer
If I could go back with the encyclopedic sleep knowledge I have now, I would have spent less money on overpriced flat whites and more on products that would help me get better quality ZZZs at night.
Firstly, setting up your dorm with a great value, reliably comfortable top-rated mattress for college students will be key to getting solid rest between classes, assignments and, of course, social events.
And while one of the very best mattresses is likely to be beyond a student budget, a couple of the beds we'd buy in the 4th of July sales come in at very low prices.
Mattress aside, I recommend a trusty sleep tracker, gentle alarm clock and comfortable sleep mask. I've been tracking 4th of July sleep sales to find you the best deals on the gadgets that will help you fall asleep fast and wake up refreshed at college this year. Here are my top picks...
Hatch Restore 3 sunrise alarm clock: $169.99 at HatchGetting up for 9am lectures is no easy feat, but a top-rated sunrise alarm clock can make those mornings more palatable. Simulating a sunrise inside your dorm room and loaded with natural alarm sounds, these alarm clocks rouse you gradually rather than jolting you awake. This helps reduce sleep inertia so you can head to your morning lectures more alert. The Hatch Restore 3 is an upgrade on the Restore 2 with more sleep sounds and phone-free controls for no extra cost. The Hatch is an investment at $169.99, but we predict there will be $30 off in the Prime Day sale next week. Girlies, if you're quick enough, you can catch the limited edition Rosy colorway to complete your cute dorm room aesthetic.
User score: ★★★★½ (based on 3,300+ reviews)
Oura Ring Generation 3: was from $299 now from $199 at OuraThe Oura Ring 3 is my favorite sleep tracker right now (yes, I've been known to go to sleep with three trackers on me at once to decide which I like best). Oura tells you exactly how long you sleep compared to how long you spend in bed, providing an impetus for turning off Netflix and putting down your phone when you should be sleeping. You can get an Oura Ring 3 for $100 less now with a silver Heritage design at $199 (was $299). It's not the latest model, but after testing both the Ring 3 and Ring 4, in terms of sleep tracking, I don't think the newest generation is worth the extra $150 you pay.
Our review: ★★★★½
Jabees Peace Pillow Speaker: from $35.99 at JabeesThere's no getting around the fact dorm rooms can be noisy and while sometimes it'll likely be you up partying, on other nights you'll want to drown out the noise to sleep peacefully — this is when the Jabees Peace Pillow Speaker will be your best friend. You place this bone conduction speaker under your pillow and can chose from a library of natural sleep sounds or connect it to your mobile via Bluetooth. It's $35.99 at Jabees now and you can get 10% off if you sign up to the brand's emails.
User score: ★★★★½ (based on 8 reviews)
Bob and Brad eye massager: was $99.99 now $59.50 at AmazonLooking at a laptop screen all day while ploughing through college work can strain the eyes. But this Bob and Brad eye massager provides relief. It has a cooling gel mask you put in the freezer before fitting to the mask for it to deliver soothing, cooling compression to alleviate tired or irritated eyes. I recommend using it as part of your nighttime routine. With 40% off at Amazon this 4th July, the mask is down to $59.50 from $99.99. If that's out your budget and you want a simple eye mask for blocking out light, this cushioning, soft MZOO eye mask ($28.99 $19.99 at Amazon) does a grand job.
User score: ★★★★½ (based on 153 reviews)
BonCharge blue light blocking clip light: was $29.99 now $22.49 at BonChargeAs a nighttime reader, this red light clip is a life saver for my sleep. It means I can get comfortable with my book in bed without having to move (and cancel out the sleep-inducing effect of reading) to turn off any lights when it's time to sleep. Plus the red light promotes melatonin production, helping you feel sleepy and drift off fast. The BonCharge light clip is 25% off now, bringing the cost down to $22.49 (was $29.99), which I think is great value on a device that's going to supercharge your nighttime reading routine. I can only wish I had it during my days as an English Literature student.
User score: ★★★★★ (based on 156 reviews)
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Tom's Guide
6 days ago
- Tom's Guide
The amazing Oura Ring 3 just hit its lowest price ever — this will sell out fast
It's no longer the company's flagship, but the Oura Ring 3 remains one of our favorite fitness trackers. It tracks in-depth sleep metrics, exercise, and vitals, as well as monitors your stress and guides you with your glucose levels. For a limited time, you can get the Oura Ring Gen 3 on sale for $199 at Amazon. That's the same price we saw during Prime Day and an all-time price low for this excellent smart ring. It's no longer the flagship, but the Oura Ring Gen 3 remains one of our favorite smart rings. In our Oura Ring Gen 3 review we said the Editor's Choice tracker is a must if you like tracking your fitness and health. It has sensors for your heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature. It also boasts a 3D accelerometer for movement detection. This deal is on the Heritage design. The Oura Ring Gen 3 is one of the most mainstream smart rings out there, packing an array of health sensors into a discreet design. While it can track movement and exercise, sleep tracking is the Oura Ring's claim to fame. In fact, the Oura Ring 3 helped one or our reviewers detect their sleep apnea, and it knew our fitness editor was pregnant before she did, which is pretty crazy. It can also track blood oxygen levels, sleep stages, and Oura menstrual tracking. You can even meditate using the app and connect with partner apps like Natural Cycles and Strava. The latest upgrades now allow users to access AI to improve habits and track meals and glucose levels throughout the day. That said, if you're big on fitness, the Oura Ring can't replace your Apple Watch. There are too many things an Apple Watch offers that the Oura Ring doesn't. The most obvious one — the Oura Ring doesn't have a display, so you can't follow your activity metrics mid-workout unless you have the Oura app open. Regardless, the Oura Ring is still an excellent buy that you won't regret, especially at this low price. Although there are several design options to choose from, today's deal is on the Heritage option only. (It has a jagged shape that has since been discontinued). Note: The Oura Ring 4 isn't on sale, but you can see the differences in our Oura Ring 4 vs. Oura Ring 3 comparison.
Tom's Guide
27-07-2025
- Tom's Guide
Samsung's vision for health is exactly what I needed after my heart attack
In the years since my heart attack at the age of 33, technology has been a key part of my recovery. I've invested in glucose monitors to track my diabetes, a six-lead personal EKG machine that's smaller than a credit card, a blood pressure machine, and a scale that can also record an EKG each morning. Alongside these dedicated devices, I tried a plethora of wearables, including many of the best fitness trackers. The Apple Watch became a key part of my repertoire, but so did the Oura Ring 3 (followed by the Galaxy Ring) and the Pixel Watch 3. Yet, despite access to so much data, much of which is valuable when navigating cardiac issues for the first time, I found that something was still missing. Throughout this period, I've also been waiting for a wearable maker or health company to integrate these devices, and solve a key problem I — and many others — have faced. During Galaxy Unpacked earlier this month, Samsung announced an acquisition of Xealth alongside several new products, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic. In the sessions that followed, the company's integrated health vision began to materialize, and it's a huge step towards the connected future we deserve. Here's why Samsung's vision is exactly what I've been waiting for. My heart attack was brought on by a mixture of bad choices throughout my life, and a genetic pool that has left my brother, three cousins, and four uncles with various degrees of heart disease. It was somewhat inevitable that I'd have heart problems, but five years later, it's allowed me to see and appreciate wearable devices from a new perspective. Recovery from the heart attack required undergoing cardiac rehab, and my therapist there recommended the Oura Ring for its large suite of health data alongside the Apple Watch I had returned to my wrist. Although an unofficial recommendation — I.e, not a device that is officially sanctioned or provided by my health network or insurance — it proved to be transformative. The data, especially on the Oura Ring 3, was more useful than the Apple Watch, although recent versions of Watch OS have addressed this deficit on the latter. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Beyond cardiac rehab, I also had to manage a new diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, which is potentially more life-threatening long-term than my heart issues. Technology has proven to be a blessing here as well, with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) having been a constant fixture in my life for the past four years. Between the CGM, various dedicated machines, and a new wearable device every few weeks, I had a lot of apps and information to convey to my doctor at the start of every visit. This is a fairly common occurrence in healthcare. Apple has already solved one part of the problem, but Samsung's vision of a new health ecosystem could be well-placed to solve the other. Looking back on my recovery, I faced two key issues, and only one was solvable. Understanding both of these is crucial to grasping Samsung's vision, which could solve the hitherto-unsolved problem. The first challenge you face when attempting to quantify and address medical issues with technology is collecting and storing reliable data. Many of the best smartwatches and fitness trackers integrate directly with Apple Health, which Tim Cook has called Apple's greatest impact on humanity. Considering how critical it has been for me, I'd have to agree. Apple Health and the Apple Watch address the key problem of storing all your medical data in one place in several ways. First, there's the integration with Epic Systems' MyChart, the electronic medical records (EMR) system used by hundreds of millions of patients and providers. Apple Health automatically pulls your latest medical information directly to your iPhone and/or Apple Watch. This may sound like a minor feature, but after a heart attack, it's particularly useful. My doctors warned me that there were several possible interactions between the medications I was prescribed and any care in an emergency. On multiple visits to the ER and to hospitals that I hadn't visited before — including an occasion when I was partially unresponsive — the information contained in Medical ID on my Apple Watch proved key. It's not just about medical records data, but also about the trends presented in data over time. For the first few months of my recovery, my doctors and I could not identify the root cause of excessive fatigue, but data from the Apple Watch and Oura Ring both revealed that my heart rate dropped too low while asleep. It wasn't low enough to be an emergency, but it came extremely close, and the data allowed my doctors to adjust medications. Most underlying symptoms aren't immediately detectable or prevalent when you're in a doctor's setting, but collecting data from a range of devices into a service like Apple Health solves a key problem of being able to collect data away from a doctor's office or hospital environment. It turns out that it also reveals the other key issue with a connected health approach. With a plethora of data, it proved challenging to allow the various doctors, physical therapists, and nurses who provided my care to access this data. My EKG machine can send an EKG reading to a provider, but only one from the company's independent directory, and not my registered cardiologist. My Apple Watch data could be displayed in person, but there was no way to allow doctors to access it securely. My CGM data was better, as each CGM provider has its own access system, but we still spent a third of the meeting fixing access issues each time, as the data didn't filter through properly. Doctors revealed to me that this is a frustration with the current system, as patients and providers alike would rather be able to share this data more freely. This is where Samsung's vision for the future could have a profoundly impactful effect. It relies on Samsung's acquisition of Xealth, a company that integrates with the medical records and technology systems of many of the biggest hospital networks in the US. The goal is to use your existing devices — and build new ones — to replace dedicated machines and integrate them with your caregivers' systems. During a panel discussion on the acquisition of Xealth and the future of connected health, Samsung's SVP and Head of Digital Health, Dr. Hon Pak, painted the essence of Samsung's vision: 'What our customers have told us is to say, look, just tell me what my problems are, but just don't tell me I'm sleeping poorly, tell me something useful, so I can actually do something about it. And that got us thinking, all right, we can present the data in a meaningful way that's easy to understand. Provide you with insights and possibly even some gentle coaching. But then, when we realized that we have people like Hinge and others that are doing some amazing innovative things, and then we said, what would that look like to be able to connect a marketplace of innovative solutions?' Mike McSherry, the Founder & CEO of Xealth, envisioned a future where Samsung plays a key role in hardware. 'This [phone] plus your devices — the watch, the ring — are going to replace the standalone blood pressure monitor, the pulse oximeter, a variety of different devices — it's going to be one packaged solution and that's going to simplify care.' The future of health lies in transitioning from brick-and-mortar to click-and-mortar Dr. Rasu Shrestha from Advocate Health noted that the key opportunity lies in transitioning from a patient-centered approach to a broader person-centered one. It means looking beyond just the medical information in the system and considering the person as a whole. The panel identified the challenge to doing so: the cost, or as Rasu Shrestha described it, 'the episodic, broken, and fragmented care methodology and business model.' The goal? 'To move to a Connected Care Everywhere strategy'. He further defined the new vision as moving from a bricks-and-mortar approach — where you start with a doctor's visit — to a clicks-and-mortar approach, where doctors can access the data you share with them and use that to guide their recommendations. All four companies expressed a strong desire to be part of an ecosystem that helped usher in the next era of healthcare and technology. Jim Pursley, President of Hinge Health — an expert provider of musculoskeletal care — highlighted how Hinge sits outside the traditional medical care system as a third-party provider, but has built a system to solve this and provide integration between the different systems. This particularly resonated with me. Less than a year after my heart attack, after moving cross-country to the East Coast, I visited a physical therapist. Just hours after my second visit a week later, I was left needing spinal fusion surgery. Looking back, a key cause (albeit not the only one) was the provider's inability to access my existing medical records and scans, and my recovery was further exacerbated when my neurology and rehab teams couldn't easily access my records from the third-party rehabilitation clinic. This fragmentation has been — and continues to be — a significant source of frustration for me, as well as for millions of patients and providers. Had my records been more easily accessible, especially as health insurance only pays for a limited number of PT sessions each year, the risk of lifelong damage would have been greatly reduced. Samsung's proposed future comes too late for me, but it could help prevent an injury to someone else. Samsung's proposed future comes too late for me, but it could help prevent an injury to someone else. The benefits of a connected ecosystem are vast, and Xealth has already taken a few steps towards this connected future. Dr. Rasu Shrestha detailed how Xealth — and now, by extension, Samsung — is already being used to deliver a connected care experience. Through Xealth, Advocate Health has built a digital experience for pregnant moms. It begins with a secure link, which can be sent via text from the EMR with one click, in much the same way a doctor sends a prescription electronically to a pharmacy. The doctor can see when the patient has signed up, guide them through the pregnancy journey, and if they prescribe a blood pressure cuff, they can also view this data directly within the EMR. It's not just for pregnancy, however, as they have also integrated over 70 different third-party apps into Stanford's medical system, including apps and digital experiences for diabetics, behavioral health, surgical prevention, and PT rehabilitation. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Business Insider
22-07-2025
- Business Insider
I've tested dozens of fitness trackers and I think the Oura Ring 4 is the top smart ring for most people
Over the last five months, I tested four fitness rings head-to-head. Pretty much all are comfortable to wear and reliable at tracking your biometrics accurately (though some are better than others). But the Oura Ring 4 reigns supreme as the best smart ring for most people, thanks to its long battery life, highly accurate tracking, and intuitive and easy-to-understand app for reporting your health data. Why I've been wearing it for 4 months I am not a data-head and don't love the bulk of a wearable, but I do like to know I'm being as healthy and fit as possible. I aim to hit 10,000+ steps a day, like to know the cumulative load from my daily workouts, and prefer to have a read on how recovered or taxed my body is from stress, travel, fluctuating sleep quality, and activity. The Oura Ring 4 nails this: It tracks both basic and advanced health data more accurately than other smart rings, thanks to upgraded sensors and better signal stability. Most impressively, the Oura app delivers this data as clear, easy-to-digest insights — like "readiness" or body recovery, sleep quality, and daily activity goals — right up front, with deeper data just a tap away. The app's recent revamp makes it far more intuitive than other smart ring interfaces I tested. The Oura Ring 4 felt bulky at first, but within a week I barely noticed it. It stacks decently with other rings, stays secure during sweaty workouts, and doesn't interfere with grip — except during tight-grip lifts like deadlifts, where it can chafe. Oura Ring 3 vs. Oura Ring 4 If you're thinking of saving a few bucks and just getting a previous generation of the Oura Ring — don't. The Oura Ring 4 is a significant improvement over the Oura Ring 3, and each upgrade is worth every penny. Compared to the Oura Ring 3, the Oura Ring 4: Has a sleeker design Is more comfortable to wear Is now made entirely out of titanium on both the interior and exterior Has a new dynamic "smart sensing" technology that uses more sensors and pathways (18 vs. the previous 8) to drop the signal less, giving you more continuous tracking Has longer battery life at eight days vs. seven These features make Oura Ring 4, in my opinion, the best smart ring, and they're well worth the $50 price difference between a Gen 3 ring and a Gen 4 ring. The health metrics that matter In the smart ring category, each brand offers different data and insights. I tested smart rings alongside some of the best fitness trackers and was impressed to find the sleep quality, step count, and readiness insights to be highly accurate on the Oura 4. What's more, I found that Oura's app kept the metrics streamlined to the info I wanted most on a daily basis, most notably: Sleep accuracy and insights: Oura gives you an at-a-glance sleep score, with your total sleep time front and center. Click in and it offers more detailed insights, like sleep efficiency, total restfulness, and how long it took to fall asleep. Sleeping heart rate: The ring measures when your heart rate hits its lowest during the night, which can give insight into how recovered (or not) your body is. I found it very interesting to see how alcohol and staying up unusually late affected this. Skin temperature: Pretty standard on wearables these days. Changes in your skin temperature can signal you're about to get sick. There were a handful of days I woke up with an alert in elevated skin temperature, heeded the Oura advisor's advice to rest rather than push, and potentially avoided getting more sick over the next few days. Readiness: Arguably the most helpful metric for active people, this recovery score pulls from 20+ signals — skin temp, heart rate, sleep, and more — to tell you whether to push or rest. Sure, you could just listen to your body, but I found it genuinely helpful to get a concrete reflection that rest was smarter. More than once, I woke at 6:30 a.m. for my morning workout, only to see my skin temp was up or sleep was off — and Oura told me to take it easy instead. Women's health: One of Oura's standout features for women is how it combines its advanced skin temperature tracking with its AI module to learn your menstrual cycle and offer detailed insights into your phases, variability, and when to expect your period. It functions pretty much like a basal body temp tracker (though not "officially") and can even pinpoint your ovulation period and fertile window. If you're pregnant, it tracks your progress, highlights key physiological changes, and shares helpful educational content along the way. Biohacking insights: More recently, Oura has started tracking longer-term measurements to predict things like your cardiovascular age and your cardio capacity (VO2 max). This is meant to give you insight into longevity, as well as your overall "resilience," which is essentially how efficiently your body is bouncing back from stress time and time again. Auto activity detection: The Oura Ring is very good at detecting activity and movement. What's more, it has you verify what that mild spike in heart rate was at 11 a.m. (housework? walking?), and then learns from this to better identify your activities over time. This may sound basic, but other smart rings I've tested do not pick up on Zone 2 walks (I'd have to remember my start and finish time and then manually enter it), let alone the small calorie burners that count toward daily movement like housework. That said, if you live at altitude like I do, the Oura Ring does think every activity is skiing until you train it otherwise. Other features I love in the Oura Ring 4 The Oura Ring 4 has a few other features that make it a very worthy investment: The app interface is super streamlined. New in 2025, Oura revamped its app so it only has three tabs: Today, Vitals, and My Health. The data is well-organized and presented in a very clear and visually distinct format that I found to be easy to interpret at a glance. It was by far the most streamlined and intuitive app to read my health data among the four smart rings I tested. And considering this is a device that has no display itself, the app is half the product you're buying. I only have to charge it once a week. One of the biggest advantages of Oura over its competitors is the ring's eight-day battery life. I felt like every other model I tested needed to be charged every few days, but eight days of power really does feel like less of an inconvenience. It automatically adapts my goals when my biometrics indicate I need more rest and recovery. When my readiness score is 44/100, it adjusts my daily movement goal to be 4,500 steps instead of 12,000. And you have the ability to put the Oura app into "rest mode" if you're sick, wherein it turns off all targets and goals and just tracks your biometrics. I found these adjustments went a long way in helping me feel like I'm taking care of myself in a holistic way, resting when needed, rather than prompting me to get out for a walk when I was sick in bed with COVID like other smart rings did. Its AI insights are actually helpful. Oura leans heavily on predictive technology to give you insight on when your biomarkers are indicating that you might get sick or your fertility window. Earlier this year, the brand also launched Oura Advisor, an AI-powered guidance tool where you can ask it questions on your menstrual cycle, heart health, and other personalized data results (e.g., "I'm traveling for work and noticed my readiness score has gone down a lot. What can I do to get it back up?"). Where it falls short Insights could be more actionable. While the Oura Ring does a great job at tracking your data, it doesn't provide a ton of actionable fixes behind it. Days where my readiness was low, it would tell me, "To help recharge your energy levels, take it easy today!" without much specificity on what I could do to bring my numbers back up. Of course, I could then take another step and ask the Oura AI Advisor this question, but it'd be nice to have this already integrated. It requires a monthly subscription. In addition to the $350 to $500 ring itself (the price depends on which finish you choose), you do have to pay a $6 per month subscription fee to use the majority of the features of your Oura Ring. (Technically, you can use the app for free and get readings on basic metrics — readiness, sleep, and activity — but most people will want the upgrade.) It may not offer enough information for athletes. While the Oura Ring does cover most insights that a health and basic fitness tracker will give you — resting heart rate, daily calorie burn, sleep quality, recovery — it won't track your running mileage or pace, overall exertion during a strength session, or other, deeper training insights. Serious runners or athletes will still want a more robust fitness tracker. Final call: Who this ring is (and isn't) for In my opinion, the Oura Ring is the best smart ring for most people, whether you're looking to improve your basic health, stay more active throughout the day, or have one device that gives you insight into every aspect of your health, from heart to menstrual. It is highly accurate at tracking steps, activity, sleep quality, and overall physiological rest and recovery. When considering smart rings vs. a health or fitness watch, the advantage of a smart ring is that it offers deeper health insights in a much more discreet design, with no sounds or vibration notification prompts on your hand. If you're more of a biohacker health type, you'll probably prefer the Ultrahuman Ring AIR. And if you want one wearable that offers more comprehensive fitness tracking, you'll be happier with a fitness watch like one of our picks in our best Garmin guide. But compared to other smart rings I've tested, the Oura Ring 4 is the best value with its long battery life, copious number of sensors for continuous tracking, and streamlined presentation of your health data.
