Ionic doesn't track my sleep

[TheMightyZeus]

The main reason I wanted a Fitbit was as a sleep tracker, and I went with the Ionic because I also wanted a new smart watch. So I purchased one two days ago.

The first night, it didn't track my sleep at all. So I got on the forums and read other people's problems and tried restarting it. I then manually added the time I was asleep, so of course I didn't get insights, only basic info.

Then last night, it did record sleep, but only started several hours after I went to bed. As a result the total time was less than three hours, so I still didn't get insights. 

I've made sure the settings are correct, I'm not on sensitive mode, it's set to off-hand, the band is tight enough, I've restarted the device, it is synced. 

I've read that it thinks you're asleep after staying still for an hour, and I wonder if that's my problem. I move around a lot in my sleep, so being still for the first hour of sleep each night seems extremely unlikely. But I can't be the only person who doesn't lie still in their sleep, and I've heard the sleep tracker works really well. Another factor that I thought might impact it is that I have a higher than average heart rate. I'm regularly in the "fat burning zone" just sitting still, and the lowest my heart rate got during sleep was 64 the first night and 59 the second.

Are there any settings I can adjust or other things to try, or is the sleep tracker just not going to work for me in its current state?

[RubyEng]

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@JDenniswrote:

So because I am irritated by this issue, I decided to go and buy a Charge2 and try it for sleep tracking yesterday. I set it up and put it on a couple of hours before I went to bed. It tracked my sleep just like it should! So I have to conclude that it is not user error in my case. 

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I'm going to put my charge 2 back on and try this then and see what happens because according to fitbit it's not doing sleep stages now because of something I'm doing! Was fine before their update!! I got sleep stages every night! 

[Christop]

I have read all of the posts by themightyzeus and others on this issue of the ionic not accurately recording sleep and I have to agree with it all. In my case, it appears to have started within the last few nights. The ionic is only recording the initial stages of my sleep. I usually go to bed around 10pm but get up maybe once or twice to go to the washroom at night. Seems when I get up and walk to the washroom in the wee hours and go back to sleep, the ionic assumes that I’m up for that day and regardless of what time I eventually rise in the morning, the device only records that first stage of sleep. And no Fitbit, I’m not doing anything wrong and I have all the settings just where they should be, and the band tightness is fine. I also did the resetting thing. 

I have to say that given the Ionic’s price tag, I’m really disappointed in its performance in this regard. I have been a Fitbit user for a while, I either currently own or have owned a Fitbit One, Charge 2, Surge, Zip and now the Ionic. Believe it or not, the Ionic (the most expensive) is my greatest disappointment of the lot.

Come on Fitbit, too many Ionic customers are having this issue for you to be telling users the normal “check the settings, the tightness and position of the device on their wrists”. Please fix this issue. 

[Comalito]

I have the same problem. I went ththrough exchanges. It was useless!

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone!

I appreciate the troubleshoot that you've performed as well for the details that you've mentioned regarding your experience with Fitbit and getting sleep stages. 

I would like you to confirm that you have all the requirements in order to receive sleep stages on your Ionic. 

- Latest firmware version of your watch or tracker 

- Latest version of the app

Also, you can try sleeping with your tracker/watch on your non-dominant hand. Remember that in order to get sleep stages your heart rate should be always detected. 

Hope this helps! I'll be around if you need further assistance. 

[Ceastwoo]

My ionic has the latest firmware as I just got it and it updated. I used it last night and it only registered 2 hrs 53 mins. It seems it assumed my bathroom break as that I was up. What gives?

[DavideFitbit]

Hello @Ceastwoo, welcome to the Community forums.

Thank you for you inquiry regarding your sleep registered. The autodetection of sleep is based on your movement. When you haven’t moved for about an hour, your device assumes that you’re asleep. 

Morning movement tells your tracker that you’re awake; this it can also happen if you wake up and get up from bed in the middle of the night, like the bathroom break that you mentioned. 

However, it's also possible to change your sleep history following these steps if you wish to make any changes to your statistics. 

I hope this helps. 

[pmath]

Found out with some frustrations that the sleep tile will not sync with the phone when VPN is engaged on your phone. Steps, heart rate etc will sync, but not sleep. 

I took away VPN on my phone and it synced with sleep. 

Sleep will be shown on the webpage in the browser, but not with a VPN enabled phone.

Since VPN only seems to affect the syncing of the sleep it is probably very frustrating for very many since it is hard to determine the real problem and to understand it. 

Caused me some frustrations.

[Thatketolife]

I think I figured this out! I tried all the setting changes etc, but it came down to me making sure my cell phone display stays awake, and on the Sleep Screen on the App. So I changed my iPhone display to never sleep, kept the App Sleep Screen on my phone, and Wala, it recorded details last night! 😬👍

Moderator edit: format

[DavideFitbit]

Hello @pmath and @Thatketolife,  welcome to the Community forums. 

@pmath , thank you for sharing this information about the VPN interfering with the sleep tracking. You're not getting any sleep information recorded at all, or this is happening specifically with the sleep stages? 

Thank you as well for sharing this update @Thatketolife, and for sharing the solution that you found for this. I'm sure this will be useful to other users. Let me know if you're also referring to sleep data in general, or detailed sleep information (sleep stages). Make sure that you've tried the suggestions mentioned earlier as well. 

Keep me posted. 

[AngelaMB]

I’ve had my Fitbit ionic for a year now and it worked perfectly up to the year mark. Now it only intermittently records my sleep.

The HR is recorded but sleep not. Sometimes it cuts off halfway through the night (without me getting up) but most often just doesn’t record anything.
The first time it stopped recording I reset the watch and that worked but now it happens about 1/week and I have to keep resetting. This is really frustrating. 
Angela