Whoop and RISE both track your sleep, so it can be tricky to know which one to choose. They also focus on very different metrics, making the decision even trickier.
But, if you’re looking for better sleep and more energy, there’s a clear winner: RISE.
Whoop is great for tracking workouts, though, and you can pair the two together through Apple HealthKit to get the best of both.
Below, we’ll cover how to choose the best sleep tracker for you and how RISE and Whoop compare.
Here’s what to keep in mind when comparing sleep trackers:
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Here’s how Whoop and RISE compare on the sleep data you might want to track.
Sleep debt is the amount of sleep you owe your body. It’s worked out by comparing how much sleep you get to how much sleep you need — which is known as your sleep need.
Lowering your sleep debt can help you get:
Both sleep trackers track your sleep debt, but in very different ways and they’re not equally accurate.
Whoop uses generic age and gender-based guidelines to work out your sleep need.
You’ll get a baseline sleep need of 7.6 hours. This goes up when you have a high-strain day, such as when you’ve done a hard workout. You can reduce your baseline sleep need if you're in a time of life when getting enough sleep is hard — e.g. you’ve just had a baby.
Whoop then tracks your movement, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV) to work out your sleep duration.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll build up sleep debt. But instead of seeing this number in isolation, it’s bundled into your sleep need the next night. Your sleep need in Whoop increases if you have sleep debt and decreases if you take a nap.
You’re prompted to pay sleep debt back the next night, even if it’s not possible for you to get more sleep.
RISE works out your individual sleep need using a year’s worth of your phone use behavior and sleep science based models.
We don’t use generic guidelines as everyone’s sleep need is different. For example, among 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up, sleep needs ranged from five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes.
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RISE then tracks your sleep duration using:
Don’t worry if you forget to charge your wearable, turn on microphone tracking, or sleep with your phone on your mattress, RISE will automatically use tappigraphy, so your sleep is tracked every single night.
Using your individual sleep need and nightly sleep duration, RISE tracks sleep debt over 14 nights. This gives you an accurate sleep debt number that shows how acute sleep debt affects your energy levels. You could be tired today, even if you got enough sleep last night, because of lingering sleep debt from last week, for example.
You can also add in any naps you take.
With this information, RISE will work out your sleep debt number. You can view it in the app, on a widget on your iPhone home screen, on your iPad, or on the Apple Watch.
You don’t have to pay back your sleep debt the next night. RISE will keep track of it so you can pay it back at the next best opportunity — like the weekend, for example.
Your circadian rhythm is your internal body clock. When you’re in sync with it — by keeping a regular sleep schedule and going to bed and waking at times right for your body — you’ll have more energy, better health, and improved performance.
Along with sleep debt, circadian alignment is the other key metric that impacts how you feel each day.
Whoop tracks your circadian rhythm in the background. It uses this to give you recommended sleep times and a consistency score from zero to 100% based on how regular your sleep pattern is.
You’ll also get a Recovery score for the day from zero to 100% showing you how ready your body is for the day. This is based on metrics like your sleep, resting heart rate, and respiratory rate.
This can be useful, but it’s just one static score that doesn’t change across the day to accurately reflect the natural fluctuations in energy levels you really feel. This limits your ability to use it to optimize your day. And, as it’s based on multiple metrics, it’s tricky to know what to change in your daily life to improve this score.
RISE works out your circadian rhythm based on your recent sleep times, inferred light exposure, and algorithms built on the SAFTE model, which was developed by the US Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense.
You’ll see a visualization of your circadian rhythm front and center in the app. This includes when your energy levels will rise and fall across the day and when your body wants to sleep and wake up.
With this info, you can sync up your sleep times to your circadian rhythm — getting better sleep and more energy — and you can plan your day around when your energy (and therefore productivity) will be highest and lowest.
Beyond this, you’ll also get an Energy Potential score on a scale from zero to 100.
There are no mysterious sleep scores here — your Energy Potential is directly tied to your sleep debt. This makes it clear how you can improve it: lowering your sleep debt will get you more energy.
We cover more about how RISE predicts your circadian rhythm here.
Tracking sleep stages may be interesting, but it isn’t that useful in your daily life.
There’s not much evidence that how long you spend in each stage of sleep (light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep) makes a difference to how you feel and function during the day.
And there’s no set amount of time to aim for — we all need a different amount of each sleep stage and this can change nightly. Getting enough sleep for you on a regular sleep schedule (i.e. low sleep debt and circadian alignment) will ensure you’re getting enough of each sleep stage.
Plus, research shows sleep trackers — including wearable devices — aren’t that accurate at tracking them. Even in polysomnography (sleep studies), experts agree on test results only about 80% of the time.
Whoop tracks how much light, deep, and REM sleep you get. You’ll see how long you spent in each stage, what percentage of your sleep each stage made up, and whether this is an optimal amount. But, this is all based on generic percentages, which can be very misleading and incorrect.
For example, if you sleep for two hours — obviously not enough — but spend 20% of that time in deep sleep, this would be classed as optimal. But, of course, you’d be very sleep deprived and likely not getting the amount of deep sleep you need, either.
RISE doesn’t track your sleep stages. Instead, RISE helps you get enough healthy sleep nightly to help you feel and function your best.
Much like with the amount of time spent in each stage of sleep, sleep quality scores don’t have any proven relationship to how you feel and function either.
Despite being a common metric found on sleep-tracking apps and devices, there isn’t an agreed-upon definition for sleep quality (sleep quality can also mean different things in clinical and research settings — a big reason why the connection between “sleep quality” and daytime outcomes are so tenuous).
Many trackers use their own scoring systems to give you a sleep quality score based on multiple metrics. But with an opaque and proprietary score like this, it’s hard to see how any behavior changes are impacting your sleep in a concrete way.
Whoop gives you a Sleep Performance score based on zero to 100%. This is based on metrics like sleep debt and sleep efficiency (how long you spend asleep during the night).
RISE doesn’t track sleep quality itself. But, research shows how you feel about your sleep can make a difference to your well-being, so you can self-rate your sleep quality in the RISE app.
Learn more about sleep tracking here, including the best metrics to track.
Heads-up: Sleep quality or time spent in sleep stages can’t diagnose sleep disorders like sleep apnea or insomnia. RISE’s sleep debt is a useful metric to show a doctor, as it shows how much sleep loss you have, and Whoop’s blood oxygen levels can be useful to show a doctor potential sleep apnea events. The key message though? Don’t rely on a sleep app or device to diagnose sleep disorders — speak with a healthcare professional for that.
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You’re probably interested in tracking sleep because you want to become a better sleeper and have more energy each day, right? Here’s how Whoop and RISE compare in helping you achieve those goals.
Whoop gives you semi-personalized advice, including recommended bedtimes to maintain sleep consistency and a longer sleep need to pay back sleep debt.
There are also breathing exercises to help you unwind.
The Recovery score could help you know whether to take it easy or push yourself each day on an overall level, but without guidance on how your energy is rising and falling throughout the day. Because it’s hard to pinpoint what’s affecting this score, it’s hard to know what to change in your daily life to improve it going forward.
A low score may also affect how you feel via the nocebo effect — e.g. you feel tired because you’ve been given a low recovery score.
RISE gives you personalized advice — based on your unique sleep need, sleep debt, and circadian rhythm each day — to help you lower your sleep debt and get in sync with your circadian rhythm.
That includes:
Here’s how Whoop and RISE stack up on other features
Beyond sleep, Whoop can:
All of RISE’s features focus on helping you lower your sleep debt and get in sync with your circadian rhythm.
Beyond the features listed above, they include:
Here’s how the two sleep trackers compare on cost:
Whoop offers a one-month free trial in which you can access all of its sleep, stress, and workout tracking.
With RISE, you can do a seven-day free trial. You can find out your sleep need, how much sleep debt you have, see when your body wants to wake up and sleep, and when your energy will fluctuate across the day as part of your circadian rhythm.
You can try all of RISE’s features — including personalized sleep hygiene reminders, recommended sleep times, and relaxing content — to see how much more sleep and energy you could get.
We’ve found that 80% of RISE users feel more energy within five days. But the real benefits come from consistently keeping sleep debt low and staying in sync with your circadian rhythm.
We can’t speak for Whoop, but here’s what RISE users have to say:
FYI, Sleep Foundation and Sleep Doctor named RISE one of the best sleep apps of 2024, while Sleep Foundation included Whoop in their list, too.
Apple also nominated RISE for a design award and named it an Editor’s Choice app.
You don’t need any additional devices to make RISE work. You can track sleep through your phone alone or through a wearable if you have one.
For Whoop, you’ll need to use the wearable strap. It’s small, so it shouldn't get in the way of sleep, but some users don’t enjoy the feeling of sleeping with something on their wrist.
It’s also designed to be worn 24/7. This could get in the way of certain workouts, chores, or when showering, or it may just not match your outfit.
You’ll also need to remember to charge the strap to continue getting Whoop’s sleep tracking.
RISE tracks and gives you personalized guidance on how to improve the two key metrics of sleep debt and circadian alignment. This is based on the amount of sleep you personally need.
Whoop tracks your workouts, strain, and health metrics like HRV. But when it comes to sleep, it doesn’t work out your individual sleep need and it relegates sleep debt to focus instead on its own sleep score.
So, if you want more sleep and better energy, choose RISE.
If you want a fitness tracker or in-depth health data outside of sleep, choose Whoop.
And if it’s in your budget, choose both for comprehensive health and sleep tracking. RISE can pull data from Whoop through Apple HealthKit.
Learn more about Rise for sales teams.
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential
