What brand does she have? I only have Garmin 305 Heartrate monitor. I bought it in the past when I used to run/jog religiously, but now I just use it for an interval timer/stop watch.

I had a friend who recently bought a fitbit ( http://www.fitbit.com/ ) - it certainly looks interesting and I've been considering putting one on my wishlist. It seems to offer the same kind of data.

I separately use a Polar FT80 for tracking heart rate and calorie expenditure during workouts, but I don't think it's designed for round-the-clock data collection.

My partner uses the bodymedia fit and it's far superior to a heart rate monitor. It's actually used by a lot of athletes now and is clinically based. It's been well worth the money for her as the amount of data it produces is tremendous.

I own a Bodymedia Fit. When I first got it a little over year ago, I liked it. I could later go back and look at the time of a run or other workout and physically see where I had been doing intervals based on the readout it gave me, which was cool.

After awhile I realized if you're using it for sleep, it can turn off in the middle of the night. When I would upload I would have these entire blank sections in the middle of the night where I was neither laying down or sleeping. Clearly the device had shut off or lost the connection to my arm. I do move a lot in my sleep, so I'm sure it got jostled off my arm.

Another downside which sadly I didn't think about before I purchased it, was that the metal connection points on the armband are made of nickel. I'm allergic. So whatever motivation it was giving me, ended with the rash on my arm.

As for my running and Trikking, I still stick with my trusty Forerunner 305 for Heartrate and Distance.

I have it and wear it religiously. It's pretty accurate on its sleep estimate. I use the Zeo and the ultimate source of truth and compare the BM data to the Zeo data ... it correlates well. The steps walked are also accurate. I'm still evaluating the calories burned ... I have no way of really measuring that except for losing weight over time. I've had the device for one week and I would recommend it. That's saying a lot since I'm a huge consumer electronics critic.

I use the Polar FT40 for exercise. The FT60 is also a good choice along with the FT80 which has special weight lifting features.

I wear my BM Fit always except for when I take a shower and charge the unit. It is very accurate and the data it produces is great if you like to quantify what you are doing. I find it helpful for illustrating how sedentary we can be if we don't force ourselves to move around. I got mine for $110 on Amazon and it was totally worth it.

Well, sort of.

I wear a cheap Omron pedometer when I am NOT doing any sort of exercise, just to monitor my baseline level of activity during the day. I am prone to be quite sedentary if not watched. I am also very hard on pedometers (on my fifth in a calendar year), so I prefer to use a "throwaway" one.

I occasionally wear a Polar HRM when exercising just to check actual exertion versus perceived exertion. I am prone to be a lollygagger if not watched.

I use a data-capable CPAP machine at night and therefore have FAR more information about my sleep than any normal person would want, but I wouldn't wish that on a dog. I know that one engineering type on my CPAP forum has figured out a way to consolidate his CPAP data and Zeo data for easy review: http://wiredapneic.blogspot.com/

IIRC the consensus among the CPAP crowd is that the Zeo can give you a rough suggestion of sleep stages but it's not regarded as a "ultimate source of truth." If you're lucky enough not to need a CPAP, it's probably the best data you're going to get. I can check with my Zeo experts further if anyone is interested.

I wear a FitBit to keep general track of how active I am on any given day, but I don't trust the numbers to be accurate to the step and I definitely put no credence in the calories burned.