How to interpret sleep stage benchmark shaded areas in Inspire 3 basic IOS app

[Threedogdays]

I think I have read every remotely relevant post (mostly closed to further responses) and I still find this aspect of "sleep benchmarks" in the current (mid-2025) IOS app version of the sleep data chart confusing:  

My sleep in each stage shows up on the Sleep Stages chart as a solid band from zero at the far left to some point farther out, which represents (I think) a breakdown of 100% of the time spent in each of the stages, such that if the percentages are added up, they should reflect 100% of the time spent in sleep stages and awake that the device tracked and the app logged for a particular session.  These dark solid bands always start at "zero" -- the far left side.  But when I apply the "benchmark" overlay, which shows up as a small shaded box somewhere along each of the sleep stage bands, the shaded area described as "typical of people like me" never starts at the far left, as the sleep stage tracking band does.  Instead they cover some area farther out along the band, sometimes extending beyond the end of the band, and typically cover only a fraction of the longer band showing my time spent in that stage.  So what is this telling me?  Seems like the sleep data is fundamentally quantitative, adding up to 100% of total time in that session, while the shaded "typical" boxes are anything but.  What explains the placement of the short shaded box along each longer solid band?  What do the small shaded areas tell me about the "typical" duration, timing within the cycle, or anything else that might provide a useful comparison with my own sleep cycle?  The shaded boxes seem to be more like peak points rather than depictions of duration like the underlying personal data in each stage.  I can't tell whether the "length" of the shaded box has any significance at all, either comparatively or as a measurement.  Maybe all that can be derived from these little shaded boxes is that a shorter shaded box overlying a longer solid band means typically people my age spend less time in that stage than I do, but even that seems iffy. "Benchmarks" that appear as shaded areas without any explanation as to how they reflect what's "typical" for comparative purposes are not helpful!  Please clarify.  

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Threedogdays the “benchmark” area shows the bottom and the top range for the average person of your same sex and age.  So, for example, here is a screenshot of one of my recent sleep sessions.  The red arrow shows the bottom of the range and the blue arrow shows the top.

So the average person of your gender and age is awake typically as long as the red arrow.  Fitbit doesn’t show us an exact number, but we know from the graph that the low end of the average is less than my 22% and the top end is more.  But I am only just above the middle range for awake periods for people my age.

I’m similarly somewhat above the middle for light and deep sleep.  

But for REM I don’t even reach the bottom of the average range, let alone the top.  So on that night I had significantly less than average REM sleep.

I think it would be more helpful if Fitbit gave us numbers for the Benchmark range - and I think they used to - but I can’t find it now.  

My take away is that compared to the average person of my age and sex I am not very unusual in times awake, light or deep sleep, but I was somewhat unusual in my total REM sleep that night.

Does this help to make it clearer?