Heart Rate Monitor Not Working While Asleep

[NicBit]

I purchased the Charge 2 and need it to monitor my heart rate while I'm asleep. This is something that the Charge HR was capable of doing. Unfortunately the Charge 2 isn't capable of monitoring heart rate while I'm asleep. Every night there are gaps ranging from 15 minutes to more than 2 hours where there is no heart rate data. If I can't get this fixed within the next week I'm going to have to return the Charge 2. I've made every settings change I can find. Does anyone have any ideas?

[MarreFitbit]

It's nice to see you around the Community @NicBit, hope you're doing great today!  

Resting heart rate refers to the heart rate measured when you’re awake, calm, comfortable, and have not recently exerted yourself. We use your heart rate data from when you’re awake and asleep to estimate your resting heart rate. See this post to get more details about the heart rate accuracy of the Fitbit trackers.

Your resting heart rate is usually higher than your heart rate while you are asleep, so don’t be surprised if your resting heart rate is higher than the lowest number that you see in your heart rate graphs.

I'd recommend restarting your Charge 2 by following these steps. However, I was wondering, do you still wear the Charge HR at the same time you do with the Charge 2?

To ensure that the Fitbit dashboard continues to serve its purpose--providing a holistic and actionable view into your daily activity and goal progress--we designed the multitracker feature for customers who want to wear different trackers at different times of day or night. With multitracker you can count on a dashboard that accurately and seamlessly tallies your day's steps from Flex, your evening run and cool-down walk from Surge, and your sleep record from the tracker you find most comfortable at night. Our research and testing found that potential customers were interested in wearing trackers simultaneously only if doing so provided more features than a single tracker, which is not the case with Fitbit trackers. No combination of trackers is more helpful or accurate than a single tracker.

So while there's no benefit to wearing trackers at the same time, we wanted to make sure that if a customer forgot to take a tracker off before putting on another we could still present the most accurate information possible on the dashboard. We do that by running algorithms that reconcile the overlapping data according to certain criteria. For example if one of your trackers has GPS data and the other one does not, we'll choose the GPS data when calculating your total distance since GPS is a better indicator of distance than step-counting alone. All Fitbit trackers are highly accurate when worn correctly, so prioritizing the data of one tracker over another is usually arbitrary. For that reason we're unable to answer more specific questions about how overlapping data is reconciled. For best results and the most accurate dashboard, switch your trackers and remember to sync each one before removing it. I

Lastly, if you're a person who enjoys comparing the data from two or more different trackers, we recommend creating a unique account for each tracker. Fitbit accounts are always free and you'll be able to compare dashboards. 

Hope this helps! 

[NicBit]

@MarreFitbit thanks for responding. I don't have my charger on me at the moment, but I'll try restarting my Charge 2 later today. Then tonight I'll see if that helps the heart rate monitor actually work while I sleep.

FYI, last night the heart rate monitor didn't monitor my heart rate from:
1:10 AM - 3:20 AM
4:25 AM - 5:20 AM
6:20 AM - 6:45 AM

6:45 AM is when I woke up which I find odd that it wouldn't track my heart rate right before I awoke, but then would right as I awoke. Does the Charge 2 stop tracking heart rate if your heart rate drops too low?

Another problem with last nights data is the Charge 2 didn't track that I slept. Even though I was asleep from around 12:00 AM to 6:45 AM. I know I can manually enter this data, but I shouldn't have to.

Also, I'm not wearing both the Charge HR and the Charge 2. I mentioned the Charge HR data because I just switched to the Charge 2 from the Charge HR and I could see that the Charge HR didn't have a problem tracking my heart rate while I slept where as the Charge 2 is having a problem. I still have the Charge HR attached to my account, but I'm not wearing it. Do you think having it still attached to my account could be causing a problem?

[MarreFitbit]

Your Charge 2 should work the same way your Charge HR was doing with your heart rate data, did you try restarting your Charge 2? 

I'm not wanna say that I'm 100% sure that your old Charge HR is causing this discrepancy, but it may be. So, I'd recommend turning off the Heart Rate on your old tracker in case you have it "On" or "Auto" (don't forget to sync to make the changes affective). After doing the restart to your Charge 2 as I've advised previously, test it to see if this time your heart rate readings are more accurate. 

I'll be here! 

[NicBit]

Yes, I restarted my Charge 2. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to have fixed the issue. Last nights data wasn't as bad as the previous nights. There wasn't as many or as large a gaps in the heart rate data. It also captured that I slept for most of the night, but it stopped capturing that I was asleep about 1.5 hours before I actually woke up. I'm going to try completely removing the Charge HR from my account and see if that does anything.

[MarreFitbit]

For sure @NicBit, don't forget to keep me posted! 

[NicBit]

After removing my old Charge HR from my account the Charge 2 started tracking my heart rate while I slept better. However, there was still gaps during the night while I slept. Do you have any other suggestions to fix this so that I don't have to return the Fitbit Charge 2. Here's the data for the last three nights:

Friday Night:
5:50 AM - 6:30 AM
6:50 AM - 7:15 AM

Saturday Night:
6:05 AM - 6:20 AM

Sunday Night:
5:50 AM - 6:10 AM

[MarreFitbit]

Thanks for the update @NicBit! However, I've advised everything in order to get this fixed. So my best recommendation would be to get in touch with Customer Support directly so they can do a deeper investigation and see where the issue is coming from.

Don't forget to mention the steps you've done so far to avoid getting the same ones. 

Enjoy the rest of your day! 

[NicBit]

@MarreFitbit  thanks for trying to help me. I just sent support an email. We'll see what they have to say.

[LadyofK]

Check your wrist placement. I have had this happen to me and I suspect it is due to my sleeping on my hand

[LadyofK]

I would also like to report my charge 2 doing the same thing. It is getting worse. Last night I had no readings while sleeping

[NicBit]

@LadyofK I hate to say it, but I don't think it's the units that are the problem. I think Fitbit has pushed out a tracker firmware update that has messed up the tracking of heart rate during sleep. I say this because I sent my Charge 2 back and started wearing my Charge HR again and it is now having the same problem. It didn't have this problem before I got my Charge 2, so my only guess is a firmware update is messing things up. Big thanks to Fitbit for that one!

[RunBetty]

I switched to the Charge 2 in late November 2016 from the HR.  Same issue! Huge gaps in HR at night when sleeping, never during waking hours.  I ended up sending it back and switched to the original and it is no better. I tried the other wrist, wearing it on the inside of my wrist, wearing it flipped.  Resetting the device. Deleting the app and reinstalling it. Deleting the device re-pairing  it.  Changing the notification settings. Nothing has worked. Because of this I have no "resting HR data" since mid January.  If this is an app software issue can't they push an update?  So frustrating! 

[Rich_Laue]

Hello @RunBetty, since this is most likely in the traker not the app, lets confim by going to www.fitbit.com,  does the heart rate show correctly?

If no5 it sounds as if something is physically stopping the unit from seeing the the changed in the Blood, i would check aga8n the way it is being worn.

You also could reach out to contact.fitbit.com and have them look at the back end of your tracker.

[RunBetty]

Here is a typical night for me.  I get huge gaps in the reading and then when I wake it tracks like a champ. I highlighted when I woke on this day.

[RunBetty]

Exact same tracker when it used to work in December.

[WavyDavey]

@RunBetty, @NicBit, it's very interesting that the HR rate drops only occur at night. If it happened also during the day, I'd look at the band tightness and wrist placement, but since it tracks fine unless asleep, it doesn't sound like those are the issue.

Some things off the top of my head: During sleep, is the tracker connected to a device via bluetooth? If so, disconnect bluetooth on the device and see if it changes anything. The other thing I would do is start disabled other features, one each day, and look for improvement. Things like notifications, alarms, etc. Just guesses, but it's something to try.

Just curious, does the missing heart rate data problem happen regardless of where you sleep? That is, if you slept in another room or a different location altogether, does it still happen?

Since

[RunBetty]

Sometimes my phone is in the same room comnected via Bluetooth sometimes it is not.  It happens while travelling and when sleeping in another room.  I think the firmware update theory is the most logical.  

[WavyDavey]

Sounds like it, though I'm running version 22.48.14 and haven't lost more than a few minutes of heart rate data since installing it. I'd contact support. It seems they should be able to get a person on an earlier version of the firmware if that's what it takes. I feel for you, as heart rate data is kind of the core function of Charge2. Hope it gets fixed.

[NicBit]

I hate to say it, but all information to date is useless. I've had this issue since I purchased the Charge 2 and because of it Fitbit sent me a second one. While waiting for the second Charge 2 I switched back to my Charge HR. It had the same issue, where as before it didn't. I had another Charge HR that I tried as well and it also had the same issue. I then received the second Charge 2 and it also had the issue. It is apparent that something was updated in the Charge series tracking. It was either in the firmware or the app software. Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed. I've had inconsistent data now for several months. At this point, what reason do I have to own a Fitbit? If they can't do what they advertise then it is useless to me. I'd rather not spend money on something else, but at this rate an apocalypse will happen before it gets fixed.