What sensors are on the Amazon Halo Rise?

Amazon Halo Rise on a nightstand
(Image credit: Amazon)

What sensors are on the Amazon Halo Rise?

Best answer: Movement and breathing sensors. The Amazon Halo Rise has a variety of sensors that can capture your movement and breathing to offer accurate sleep tracking while you are deep in slumber. It is designed to be positioned at your bedside and uses silent, no-contact sensor technology, unlike wearable sensors that require contact with your skin.

What is the Amazon Halo Rise?

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The Amazon Halo Rise is a new bedside sleep tracker that, unlike wearables, does not require contact with your body and skin in order to track your sleep and sleep stages. Instead, it uses no-contact sensor technology that measures your body's movement and breathing. This data is then used to calculate sleep stages. 

In order to ensure accurate tracking, however, you do need to place the Amazon Halo Rise in an ideal spot. It should be at the side of your bed with the metal stand positioning the main unit at the same height or no more than 8 inches above the mattress. It should be faced towards your upper body, positioned no further than an arm’s length away from you. Make sure there are no objects between you and the sensor, aside from your bedding. It will track the person closest to it, lying on the same side of the bed.

Amazon Halo Rise on a table

(Image credit: Amazon)

This means you don’t need to wear anything or even charge a device: the Amazon Halo Rise remains plugged in on your night table and doubles as a wake-up light and smart alarm as well. It also monitors the temperature in the room along with humidity and ambient light. The unit requires a Wi-Fi connection. 

The wake-up light is designed to simulate natural sunlight, gradually illuminating to wake you up slowly and comfortably without harsh lighting. Conversely, it will also slowly dim as you drift off to sleep at night, simulating a sunset. The Smart Alarm, meanwhile, works along with the no-contact sensor to sense the ideal sleep stage you’re in before waking you up.

It also works with Alexa using one of the best Alexa speakers so you can use your voice to control the lighting, hear a sleep summary once you wake up, play music as the alarm, and set routines, such as your weekday morning wake-up times. Because there’s no camera or mic, sleep tracking is easy to turn off as desired. Set up is simple using the Halo app. It also does not capture images or record sounds. 

Speaking of which, the Amazon Halo Rise does require a subscription to the Halo service if you want to access all the features in the app. It comes with a six-month trial, after which it will automatically renew at $3.99 per month. 

Additional features included with the app are tone analysis and body composition along with access to more programs and workouts (you get a limited selection without the membership). Membership also includes data on movement health, movement score, and a personalized movement program; nutrition information, recipes (limited selection without it), weekly menus, and shopping lists to help you with meal planning. 

The app can be used to control alarms and check your sleep time and score, including REM, deep, and light sleep stages, and has tips, programs, meditations, and even bedtime stories to help guide to toward getting a better night’s sleep.

Christine Persaud
Contributor

Christine Persaud has been writing about tech since long before the smartphone was even a "thing." When she isn't writing, she's working on her latest fitness program, binging a new TV series, tinkering with tech gadgets she's reviewing, or spending time with family and friends. A self-professed TV nerd, lover of red wine, and passionate home cook, she's immersed in tech in every facet of her life. Follow her at @christineTechCA.