Nowadays, there seems to be no limit to technology. In fact, your smartphone can track almost anyone and anything. Restaurants, nearby gyms, the iPad that you misplaced, your period behavior, heart rate, and even your mom’s location—it can find anything. Do anything. At your command of course.
And when it comes to health, busy humans now find getting regular doctor appointments a hassle. There are just simply too many things to consider, especially if you’re in no life-or-death situation. You could purchase your own equipment for blood pressure checking for example, but who has that much to spend in their pockets?
Which is why when health tracker apps started to emerge, oh boy was it a breakthrough. These apps cater to various health queries: exercise programs, food lists, calorie counters, and more. But one of the biggest companies in the world launched its own app in 2014, and is the biggest go-to health program yet: Google Fit.
Google Fit is Google’s answer to Apple’s Health app. It uses the sensors built into your device to automatically track activities like walking, biking and running. You can also use it to keep track of your fitness objectives and weight-loss progress over the past day, week and month. It sets goals, personalizes your activities, and analyzes your health and fitness progress, to give you the proper recommendations and courses of action.
However, Google Fit didn’t get those 5-star ratings just by these features. According to Android Central, Google recently collaborated with the American Heart Association (AHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to incorporate new features called ‘Move Minutes’ and ‘Heart Points’ into the revolutionary redesigned app.
But they didn’t stop there.
And because staying healthy isn’t just about how much you move, but also how much one invests in rest on a daily basis, Google Fit now has the ability to track your sleeping patterns once connected with your sleep tracker apps. When connected, you will see charts that show you your sleep patterns over time, rather than just daily sleep reports. Plus, users will have the ability to edit their sleep history through the app. Accordingly, there is a new dark theme (in keeping with Google’s recent trends) that should be kinder to your eyes at night.
The app won’t just track how much you sleep, but also analyze your current health conditions based on how much rest you get—providing charts and necessary recommendations.
How cool is that?
It is no secret that our generation is probably the most sleep-deprived, especially with the emergence of technologies and activities to keep us up for some nightlife. And as much as it is fun staying up all night, this also gravely affects our health.
Studies have shown that millennials are called the ‘Sleepy generation.’ Always finding ourselves on the brink of exhaustion. According to space 2016 Healthy Living Index survey, the Philippines has one of the highest rates of sleep deprivation in Asia—46 percent of Filipinos do not get enough sleep, while 32 percent say they sleep for only less than six hours.
What we tend to forget is that sleep makes you feel better. But its importance goes way beyond just boosting your mood or banishing under-eye circles. Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle, and can benefit your heart, weight, mind, and more. It is proven that it boosts memory, improves creativity, lowers stress—the list goes on. Next to hydrating, sleep is probably the world’s greatest medicine.
So if technology used to keep us up at night, maybe technology itself will work in sending us off for a good doze.
No doubt, we’ll probably listen. After all, it kind of knows everything.
Photo courtesy of Android Central
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