Based in San Francisco, California, Aliph (Jawbone’s former name) was a company that used to work for the U.S Military. Aliph started off researching ways for combat soldiers to communicate clearer in adverse conditions; upon realizing the consumer potential of their work, they quickly expanded to wireless headsets, portable audio devices, and other forms of noise-cancelling technology.
Today, Jawbone is known for its line of UP activity tracker wearables that has managed to earn high praise among the sports community. The UP3 and UP4 bands to date are the most advanced product that Jawbone has come out with, and it now finds itself battling head to head with FitBit, the current market leader in fitness wearable products.
Let’s take a closer look at some of Jawbones most detailed wearable features:
1. Activity Tracking
The Jawbone UP3 has everything a fitness enthusiast would ask for; passive and resting heart rate monitoring, calorie counters, and other forms of data processing that provide both results and ways of improvement.
2. Smart Coach
A virtually live coach that provides the guidance and assistance one needs to reach their fitness goals. Smart Coach is smart because it actually gets smarter over time; the more the user engages with it, the better the insights.
3. Heart Health
Advanced bioimpendance sensors that track resting heart rate and passive heart rate to give a complete picture of the most important organ in the human body.
4. Additional Perks
The UP band is also splash and waterproof, lightweight and featuresLED charging. Through the UP app, users can share their results, utilize the food tracker, and more.
Jawbone’s UP3 contains many of the necessary components of a perfect fitness watch; the step tracker, the heart rate tracking, the calories burned meter, and several more. Despite all these pros however, Jawbone isn’t the first to produce such related sports wearable technology. Other companies such as Fitbit, Pebble, Garmin, and even Epson have launched their own similar line of fitness trackers that include several, if not all the components above.
So in reality, how does the Jawbone find its niche against similar products in such a closely-knit market?
Sleep is NOT for the weak
What makes Jawbone’s UP3 so profound and advanced is Jawbone’s very own sleep-tracking system. In short, Jawbone’s sleep system not only collects data, but also distributes, analyzes, and provides insight on how to improve one’s sleep. This includes the different stages and periods of sleep, which hasn’t been done on any other sports watch before.
“Overall, there are several things that make us different, explains Jason Donahue, the lead sleep specialist at Jawbone. “Firstly, we currently provide the smallest trackers in the market. And we believe size is just as important as comfort and design.
“Secondly, the sleep system is unique because it not only records data, but it provides a lot of information about your individual sleep patterns. This includes how long it took you to fall asleep, how long you were asleep, in addition to the different stages (REM, Deep, etc) of sleep. The reason why athletes care about this is because it is deep sleep when our bodies naturally create the Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which is what enables our muscle to repair, our bodies to fight disease, our ability to recuperate after a very strenuous workout. It also plays an important role in learning and memory”.
“Lastly, there is intelligence in the app itself that guides you what to do differently. We call this smart coach. What it does is it uses data not from just your sleep, but also your workout during the day and how that might’ve impacted your sleep at night. It is fully customizable for every individual, which is why Jawbone offers the best sleep analysis for fitness wearables today”.
Honorable Mention: Andre Iguodala’s Story
Finals MVP Andre Iguodala is no stranger to sleep difficulties. In fact, Iguodala’s challenges with sleep began as soon as he entered college at Arizona State. Regarded as a high draft pick during the time, and with the NBA Draft looming just a few months away, Iguodala felt the pressure to improve and practice more frequently. As a result, Iguodala found himself sleeping at 4 AM and waking up at 7 AM for practice, which caused immense sleep deprivation and a lack of energy during his performances.
To combat these problems, Iguodala met with a Stanford sleep specialist who provided a list of do’s and don’ts to aide his sleep. These tips, though useful, did not attract Iguodala to the importance of sleep on a daily basis.
Iguodala now credits the Jawbone UP band and app as a way of fighting his sleep difficulties; the app not only helped him understand the impact of sleep on his game, but it encouraged him to stick with what was working.
“I started changing habits. I stopped eating certain things, and it was the first time in my life I didn’t have a TV in my room” said Iguodala. “Now, I don’t eat sugar. Each week I would count up the hours (that I sleep). The sleep was helping me so much. It changed everything for me.”
When Iguodala slept more than eight hours, he:
- Played 12% longer
- Increased points/min by 29%
- Increased free throw percentage by 9%
- Increased 3-point percentage by 2%
- Reduced turnovers by 37%
- Reduced fouls by 45%
“Guys who are serious about being a professional athlete will want to sleep better” remarks Donahue. “Not a lot of people realize that sleep itself is one of the best ways for athletes to get ahead of the competition. It is 100% legal, natural, and we do it every single day unknowingly. It is so powerful, yet a lot of athletes don’t realize the value that sleep provides.”
Jawbone Sleep Specialist Jason Donahue recently sat down with SportTechie to discuss the impact of sleep on professional athletes, and how consistent sleep fulfillment and rest patterns can lead to a healthier, and happier lifestyle.
1. Sleep is a very fascinating subject even more the industry that revolves around it. You have people designing new memory foam mattresses, as well as other people developing new apps for improved sleep performance. How/Why did you decide to jump into the sports or sleep industry and did Jawbone have a huge impact?
“I originally learned about sleep during college when I wanted to learn about how to cheat it; and throughout college I would have trouble sleeping due to a fear of missing out on activities. I also had early classes which I had no choice but to take so as a result I was a zombie in college. So in response to my experiences, I started a company in the sleep business where I used an early tracking wearable to measure sleep. Over the course of time, you end up learning a lot about sleep and start working with more and more athletes because they are interested in how to perform better.
Fast forward several years later, I’m now at Jawbone and the reason why Jawbone is in the sleep industry is because Jawbone wants to understand the comprehensive view of one’s health and what the really means is knowing everything about oneself; your activities, nutrition, and sleep. So often the 3rd part of the equation is often forgotten, but people don’t realize it plays just as an important role in weight loss, a balanced life.
2. What would you say are the biggest do’s and don’ts that could have huge impacts on one’s sleep performance? (young, teenage-adult men).
Take the TV out of the bedroom, get rid of your tablet and keep that in your living room. Try not to look at screens before 30 minutes of bedtime. This is because your eyes are sensitive to light, which will delay the source of melatonin, which makes you sleepy.
If you can create a routine before you go to sleep, it will naturally help you go to sleep. It will help us jump start us and help us go to bed easier.
Athletes think because they got by with little sleep in college, they think oh this is what its like to be a professional athlete. The truth is the guys who get the most sleep stay in the league the longest. They’re smarter athletes, they make better decisions, and their bodies recuperate faster. There are also studies show that the drowsier the athlete, the more likelier they are to drop out of the league.
Having technology for sleep is so important because it provides 1 to 1 guidance. People don’t want to know about what everyone should do to improve their sleep; people want to know what they can do to improve oneself. Everyone is different; one cup of coffee might have a huge impact on my sleep, while 10 cups of coffee for you might have no effect at all. There are so many factors to a healthy lifestyle