Sleep - totally confused

[benastrada]

I have only had my Charge 5 for a few days, and one of the features I was REALLY looking forward to using was the sleep tracker as I need to understand my sleep patterns better and why I get so tired throughout the day.... 

Anyways, first day, sleep recorded a 7h 25 sleep with awake times etc.

Second day, it recorded my night in three separate sections, one of 3h 38 mn, one of 52 minutes, one of 1h 40 mn - the score of course is only shown for the more than 3h section and each section show when I was awake. 

Then, no record for the following night, or last night. 

As I also use Sleep as Android, I was able to enter the start and end times of my sleep for yesterday (i forgot to swith on SaA last night); went into my account and used the 'log sleep' function. 

To my greatest surprise, my record for yesterday and today now show the entry I did manually, including when I would have been awake, REM sleep, light and deep sleep! Now, this is not a 'duplicate' record, there is only one record. What I don't understand is, I entered manually the time I fell asleep and the time I woke up. There was no record from Charge 5, and there is still no record from say a late sync or whatever, there is only one record for yesterday and today....... 

If the Charge 5 did not record my sleep then, how is it capable of telling me when I was sleeping lightly, or deeply or was in REM sleep or awake? For example, yesterday, it tells me I woke up 21 times, however, it had not recorded any data until I entered my sleep start and end time this morning!

I am seriously confused....... Are these real bits of data or is the sleep recording just a con and the app just kind of enters values at random??????? 

I also read through documentation where it is repeatedly mentioned that if you sleep in certain position your Charge 5 might not be able to record your sleep, but nowhere is it explained what these 'wrong' sleeping positions are.... Any suggestions? 

So far, I am a little on the fence as to whether this has been a valuable purchase, most importantly, if the data is 'invented' for my night sleep, how can I be sure that the rest of it is accurate and of any value? 

Thanks for any insights

[MakMak · Accepted solution]

Hi, @benastrada! I would definitely recommend some patience, a lot of the features do require building up some history to be helpful. Even if your tracker did not register sleep, it is monitoring your heart rate, etc., so when you manually enter the sleep start and stop times, it's able to assess the sleep stages/awake/asleep based on your data during that time. If you want, for the night with three segments, you can delete two of them and edit the third to include the full time. As far as positions, I think it's hard to say for sure, but the general description would be any position that's pulling your tracker away from your wrist in a way that would impact the heart rate monitoring function. Hopefully this helps!

[Loopey83]

I don't have any advice to offer you but I'm in the same position. I've had the charge 5 for a few weeks. Not once has it properly recorded any of my sleep. 

I set up the schedule, I check the boxes, I've tried sleeping on my back, my side, I've manually started the go to bed thing and not one full nights sleep. It does say I was restless 21 times, or awake for 13 hours, but somehow it does manage to perfectly record the naps in the afternoon i'm having due to the medication i'm on.  So I guess the next step is sleeping sitting up to see if that works, as that's how I've been napping!

I got my charge 5 as a replacement and I'm really disappointed in this functionality. 

[Lazer]

If one sets the sleep times manually, my charge 5 will NOT track my sleep! It also often fails to track *all* my sleep as it will say I only got four or five hours of sleep, yet my heart rate is well below “resting” right as the app determines I am asleep. Tried restarting the watch, rebooting the phone and the app, to no avail. 

I think the watch has gremlins. 

[benastrada]

lol.... actually, the same happened to me, the first day I wore it it recorded the afternoon nap I took sitting up in my sofa.... 

[benastrada]

mmm yes, I am really debating returning the watch, I am going to give it a little longer and have changed the sensitivity level so will update you guys if that seems to make any difference. 

I don't get why it would record one hour, then stop for two, then record three... very odd... 

[Loopey83]

It does record every nap I’ve taken perfectly. But not my actual sleep!

[benastrada]

Hi @MakMak 

OK, that's helpful to think that if I enter my sleep hours manually then the app can 'guesstimate' my sleep stages from my heart rate... 

I have increased the 'sensitivity' for sleep recording as explained somewhere, so will give it a little more time, but I must say I am a little disappointed the thing does not quite work as advertised really.... Anyways, I'll update with results after changing sensitivity. 

Thanks for your answer

[benastrada]

Right, I had said I'd give an update after changing the sensitivity; basically, the Charge 5 is performing even worse, when it comes to sleep tracking. 

The main suggestions from support are:

1) you could be wearing the watch too loose, or too tight; try moving it up a bit above your wrist (done; no change)

2) try changing sensitivity of recording (done; no change to worse!) 

3) your sleeping position may affect whether the Charge 5 can record your sleep (well, I have not changed my sleeping position so I don't understand why it would work one day and not the other, or part of the night - well, ok, I might move but....) 

My thinking so far:

- the sleep tracker in Charge 5 is close to useless, unless you sleep on your back, an uninterrupted, peaceful sleep - I wonder how many people sleep like that.... 

- I am a (loud!) snorer, and I believe have developed (undiagnosed) sleep apnea. My main reason for getting the fitbit, was to collect a bit of data to take to my Dr and see if he could refer me to a sleep study - so fitbit won't help it seems

- because of my snoring, I have a very agitated sleep, I toss and turn and my heart rate shows peaks at high rates of bpm, so I think fitbit thinks I am awake; therefore, again, sleep tracking useless for people who suffer from this..... One more reason why I think this is the case, is because a couple of times, I fell asleep (the joys of restless sleep is bouts of almost narcolepsy in the middle of the afternoon!) in my sofa, sitting up, and fitbit recorded my sleep with complete accuracy. I believe the reason for this is that I do not snore when sleeping sitting up! 

Conclusion: fitbit should clearly let potential customers know that anyone with a less than peaceful overall sleep pattern will not be able to use the sleep tracker....

That's a disappointment!  As the sleep tracker does not work, the health metrics don't populate etc... so I am left with a very expensive pedometer really.... and I certainly would not want to go pay a subscription to firtbit plus unless there was something of interest to analyse...  ☹️

I would maybe consider awaiting software updates or whatever, but given the fact that all support responses, in the face of the huge numbers of people reporting this same issues, continues to be 'it can't be the Charge 5, it's got to be you, how you wear it, how you sleep, how you whatever.....' I am not inclined to believe the techs are willing to take user feedback on board seriously.... oh well.... hopefully I'll get a refund....