Thim – a wearable ring to track and improve your sleep
Thim is a new kind of sleep wearable, a ring that uses a unique science-backed technique to help you fall asleep, whilst also offering detailed sleep tracking and metrics.
At a Glance
- unique ‘sleep re-training’ technique to help you fall asleep
- sleep tracking and analysis
- Low-energy Bluetooth connectivity
- 2-3 day battery life
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Design and Ergonomics
Housed in a white polycarbonate shell, the Thim ring comes with 4 interchangeable silicon bands to fit all size fingers.
Unlike other ring-sized wearables, like Oura, Thim is designed specifically as a sleep product and isn’t supposed to be worn throughout the day. Hence you can forgive the rather utilitarian look – it’s not supposed to be a fashion item.
As with all wearables these days, Thim works by pairing with your smartphone, via the Thim app. Using Bluetooth low energy to communicate, the ring promises a battery life of up 3 days, chargeable via the on-board micro-USB port.
How Thim Works
Thim bills itself as a “FitBit, which actually improves sleep.” The device itself began life as a research project, an experimental sleep trial held in 2007 by Leon Lack, Emeritus Professor at Flinders University in Australia.
Lack and his colleagues invented a technique they called sleep ‘re-training’. The counter-intuitive method found that a person could learn to fall asleep sooner if he or she experiences the sensation of falling asleep over and over again.
In practical terms, Thim works by gently waking you three minutes after you fall asleep with a soft vibration. This process is repeated for 60 minutes after which you are free to enjoy a deep sleep for the remainder of the night.
Whilst it doesn’t sound the most obvious way to fall asleep, sleep re-training has been used in clinical settings for 10 years and research indicates that on average users can experienced:
- 28 minute reduction in time awake
- 30 minute reduction in sleep onset latency
- 67 minute increase in total sleep duration
Sleep tracking
As well as the Thim will also monitor your sleep stages and sleep quality throughout the night. You have two sleep tracking options
- track your sleep after a conditioning (sleep re-training) session
- only track your sleep
Thim uses movement to track sleep. However, because it collects data from your finger, not your wrist it can gather a greater range and frequency of movement.
This, the makers say, allows Thim to capture your sleep tracking data with greater accuracy than wrist wearables. Once it has collected your data, the results are displayed on the dashboard of your smart phone so you can see how Thim is improving your sleep – and how lifestyle choices also affect your sleep and performance.
Specifically, your dashboard will show:
- Sleep efficiency score
- Sleep onset latency (time taken to fall asleep each night)
- Stages of sleep and their duration
- Frequency and duration of waking episodes