"Begin sleep now" should actually... track when I go to sleep.

[gromm]

As I detail in this technical support request, "Begin Sleep Now" does not actually do much beyond tell me how long I've been in bed when I either can't sleep, or after I've woken up the next morning. While this is useful in itself, it's not uncommon for the app to say I've been asleep 1-3 hours less than I've actually been sleeping, unless I go back to edit that activity to match when I went to sleep. 

Instead, it should be the point where the tracker can definitively say that I've gone to bed, so that it can measure how long it took me to actually go to sleep, and to not mess up when sleep starts, if I happen to move slightly within that first hour window of tracker inactivity that currently defines "start of sleep".

I shouldn't ever have to go back and re-edit my sleep start time if I used this feature.

[brad3424]

Please add sleep as an activity that can be manually started.

Sleep is one of the health aspects that Fitbit tracks. It has its own page in my Dashboard, and is considered important enough to be tracked and analyzed in-depth. So why shouldn't I be able to tell Fitbit that I'm going to sleep?

I find that my Fitbit tracker does not recognize the time I actually went to sleep. It often recognizes sleep only 2-3 hours after I've actually gone to bed. I've followed suggestions in the support site to try and make it more accurate, with no luck. I now manually check and adjust my sleep time every day. This is a point of frustration with my current Fitbit (Versa 2), and my previous one (Ionic). I would rather just start the sleep tracker manually like I used to with previous Fitbit models (like Charge HR 2).

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @brad3424. Thanks for sharing your Feature Suggestion with the Fitbit Community. We’re happy to let you know that this feature exists in the Fitbit app as you can start and end a sleep activity to then get your data. Just note that the sleep stages won't be generated since you're using the Fitbit app instead of your watch to track your sleep. To use that function, just open the Fitbit app, tap on the Sleep time > + icon at the upper right corner and Begin Sleep Now. 

If you meant to have a different feature, please reply with more details about your idea and how it would work on your Versa 2 or Fitbit app.

[SunsetRunner]

When I manually start sleep, it always says I started at that time and slept all the way through until I manually stop. It never measures when I actually go to sleep, if I woke up, or am restless. I thought that was very strange because it really should be recording my sleep like it does when it's automatic. My watch is an Inspire.

[LizFitbit]

Hi @gromm, and thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion with us. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If this suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

Watch this space for status updates. In the meantime, try visiting Health & Wellness to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @brad3424, thanks for sharing this suggestion. I've moved it into a similar request.  A lot of users are asking for this option, I hope we receive updates soon.

[scorvers]

I am brand new to this...if I want to see my sleep score, sleep stages (REM) etc do I open the sleep tile in the app and say begin sleep now and hit I am awake on it when I wak? or do I just go to sleep withthe fit bit on my wrist?..I am asking this because I  have used the begin sleep button on the app and went to sleep  and gotten a score but I did this last night I woke to NO score and no real detail... and when I woke it SAID I had slept 3 hours 47 mins out of 8 (doutbful) but gave NO sleep score and none of the really detailed stuff ( restoration, deep and rem,like pulse ox etc) which it gave the last 2 nights I used it. Now? I had the fitbit on tightly like I have the last 4 nights. I got more than 3 hours sleep per the score requirement but it ONLY gives me the one less detailed graph (time awake, time restless, time asleep). Thatis it..So if I want a full analysis and score (I got it 2 out of 4 nights) what do I need to do?What is the start sleep manual button on the app for anyway? I thought that's what I needed to do to get the Sp02 sleep app to run and calculate things like deep and rem stages, restoration (O2) etc. I have versa 3.

[Pksrowland37]

The other option is to give us the option to turn off 'auto sense sleep'. 

[Pksrowland37]

I"d like to manually tell fitbit when I start sleep and stop it and still get the detailed data on, sleep stages, restoration etc.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Pksrowland37, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to use "Begin sleep now" to track sleep details. I've moved it into a similar request. I think that a lot of users would like to have this option on their Fitbit devices.You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs.

[Renewed_mind]

Hello @gromm 

What device do you have

Out of curiosity how do you know the exact time you actually fall asleep at night?

Or how do you know exactly how long it takes you to fall asleep after you lay down, so you can change the time that you told the app you fell asleep to the actual time you fell asleep?

When I lay down in bed I don't watch my clock constantly, I just close my eyes and eventually drift off. So I write the time I go to sleep down as about 10 mins after I lay down in bed.

I ask because for me I'm having the opposite problem or yours. My Fitbit sense says that I've gone to sleep anywhere from 1 to 5 hours after I've laid down to go to bed, and that I woke up anywhere from 1 to 3 hours before I've actually woken up, and got out of bed.

Even though I'm the type person that if I have been laying in bed for an hour and still haven't fallen asleep, I will get up & go do something else until I feel tired enough to go to sleep. 

So I want to be able to tell my device when I'm laying down now, for it mark that as the time I went to sleep and begin sleep tracking at that exact moment, because as I said I can't guess what time I actually fall asleep, I just know that it happens within an hour of laying down in bed, or I would get back up like I said. But I couldn't tell you if it was exactly 30 mins, or 10 mins, or even 45 mins after I laid down.

So I can't fathom how you can know precisely how long you have laid in bed awake before you fell asleep so that you can change the time you told the app your going to bed, to the actually time you fell asleep. Or that you could know the precise time you fell asleep in order to correct it from the time you laid down, to the time you fell asleep.

It sounds more like you would be happier with a device like the sense watch where you don't tell the app to begin sleep now, and instead it guesses what time you've went to sleep based on your own movement. Since I'm an insomniac who moves a lot during sleep this does not work for me, which is why it dosent record the correct time I've fallen asleep until 1 to 5 hours after I've laid down, and I know that I fell asleep well before that, or as I said I'd have gotten back up out of bed. So I would rather have it mark the time I laid down as the time I fell asleep, and told it to start recording my sleep, and mark that I woke up when I tell it to stop recording because I'm awake.

[Renewed_mind]

@brad3424 you should go vote on my suggestion which sounds exactly like what I am wanting as well.

Here is the link. 

[Maddd19]

My situation: When I select the “+ sign” do a Sleep Log and hit “start sleep” it tells me how long it takes to fall asleep (awesome!) it also tracks my periods of restlessness through the night (stellar!).
Why does it not also track sleep stages through the night? 

At face value it seems like it would be really straightforward to integrate the “time it takes to fall asleep” info with the sleep stage metrics that are naturally gathered overnight when one does not utilize the “sleep log” feature. 

I’d love to see them integrated: Be able to see how long it took me to fall asleep AND how my light/deep/REM/awake stages went during the night.