Sleep Not Tracking While on a Ship

[Samuel398]

I’ve been using my ionic for a couple of months with no issues in the UK. Really happy with it. However, I had to fly to Florida to join a ship (work). It picked up the new time zone automatically after syncing and all seemed ok. I joined the ship the following day and I found it wasn’t tracking my sleep at night. Steps seemed ok. Although a couple of times I woke up and it had recorded several thousand steps while I’d been sleeping. Sleep tracking was non existent though. I’ve set my sleep schedule to my rough sleeping hours. Time zone is correct. I’ve restarted the ionic several times. I’ve decided to increase the sleep sensitivity tonight so I’ll see how that goes tomorrow. Any other ideas? Is it the fact the ship is moving that it’s struggling to record my sleep? I did use a charge HR on ships several years ago and had no problems... 

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[SantiR]

@Samuel398 Welcome to the Fitbit Community! Are you still on the ship or have you reached land already? Is the ship moving too much? Did the sensitivity change worked a bit?

I do think that the movement of the ship may confuse Ionic (it's sensor), and will think that you are actually awake and may even track some false steps. The same happened to me once that I slept on a bus (long trip and the road was rough).

"Autodetection of sleep is based on your movement. When you haven’t moved for about an hour, your device assumes that you’re asleep. Additional data—such as the length of time your movements are indicative of sleep behavior (such as rolling over, etc.)—help confirm that you’re asleep. Morning movement tells your tracker that you’re awake."

I'd say, try using it once you reach land to see if it will track your sleep once again. Now, if you are still at the ship, try using the "Begin Sleep Now" option on the Fitbit App instead of the automatic detection and that should track your sleep properly. The nights in which you didn't receive any sleep recordings; you can manually add them from the Fitbit App as well!

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes! 

[Petejohn]

Yes, my Ionic doesn’t measure sleep while at sea and it registers that I walked 20000 steps during a rough seas night. Also it’s cool that the GPS connects in the middle of an ocean but the GPS thinks that you are going backwards when walking around the ships walking track. It registers around 6 laps when walking 12 laps. Am looking for a calculus equation that considers the yang and yang of sea travel.

[Gladstoner]

I'm having the same problem..owned a charge3 for 2 months no issues....first night on this cruise sleep was tracked. But for the last 4 nights nothing...my steps appear to be ok...on here for another week yet. So won't know till then if it's a problem while cruising

[Petejohn]

There will be those few times where the seas are glassy and calm at night when the sleep function works. Otherwise, in active sea conditions, the device thinks you are awake. Also, the location of your stateroom can affect the data.

[Luweewu]

This happens with my Charge 3 too. I also work on a ship and have no problems when the ship is stationary but when in moderate to rough seas, no sleep is detected. Mine doesn't count phantom steps in my sleep tho. You can manually enter your sleep hours and it will still give a sleep score and hours slept, just not detect it automatically.