How do I get the Charge2 to accurately track sleep?

[h_m_w]

I recently purchased a new Charge2. Firmware 22.22.55.2. I needed a Fitbit that would clip on my waist. Fitbit no longer makes one, but the Charge2 will fit in a 3rd party clip.

I previously used (and still own) an Ultra. It worked great. I would press the button when I went to bed, and press it again when I got up. It always recorded my sleep correctly on my dashboard on the Fitbit website. It also recorded my walks correctly. Unfortunately, Fitbit decided that they no longer wanted Ultra users, so they shut down the syncing between all Ultras and the Fitbit website, making the Ultra useless. But that is a different issue.

I wear the Charge2 just like I wore the Ultra: on my waist clip, EXCEPT when I sleep. And on my right wrist when I sleep.

Pressing the side button on the Charge2 will bring up the options that I have set. Then taping on the screen will let me choose one (say Walk). Then a message says to press the side button to start the timer. I can start a timer in Walk, Stairs & Stopwatch modes. Then pressing the side button again will stop the timer. But my Charge2 does not seem to use this information when it calculates sleep for the Fitbit dashboard website. For example, I start the timer at 12:30 AM, and stop it at 8:30 AM. If I get up to go to the bathroom at 1:45 AM, that is when the Charge2 records that my sleep began on my dashboard. And after I get up and get dressed in the morning, I take my dog for a walk, finishing at, say 9:30 AM. So the dashboard says my sleep ended at 9:30 AM!

I have tried recording sleep with or without the heartbeat monitor functioning. I have tried setting all the auto-exercise items at 10 minutes, and at 'ignored'.  No matter what Device settings I use, the Charge2 never seems to use the start and stop times recorded when I pressed the side button.

I even tried it completely 'automatic': i.e., not pressing the side button either when I go to bed, or get up. That was way off.

I did a search of the Charge forum, and one person said that pressing the side button to start and stop sleep was accurate (did not say which Charge version he had). But for me it is clearly not accurate.

Currently my Menu items are Exercise, Stopwatch, and Battery & Alarms. All the rest are turned off. There is no Menu item for Sleep. I do not use the Reminder feature. When I tap the display, I have Distance, Steps, Floor & Calories that will display. I have varied what I display, and that does not seem to make any difference.

 Does anyone know how I can get the Charge2 to record sleep accurately?

Harry

[SteveH]

In theory all that's needed is for you to wear your fitbit when you sleep. It will automatically detect and log sleep. If your fitbit has heart rate monitoring, as yours does, then it will calculate sleep stages. If it can't track heart rate then you get the older, simplified sleep tracking.

I note you say that you tried this but it was inaccurate but there is no way to trick it to track sleep any other way. Here's a couple of help files on the subject that may shed some light:

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1314/

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/2163

[h_m_w]

Steve H:

Thanks for the links. I had seen some of that information, but this put it together very  concisely.

Two items I noted:

1. I may not be wearing my Fitbit tight enough when I sleep for the heart tracking to work effectively. I'll try making it tighter for the next few nights, and not try to manually set anything.

2. Fitbit says you can manually set Sleep with their app. I installed it on my Android phone a couple of weeks ago, but did not see anything there at the time of value to me. Fitbit's instructions on how to get to the manual sleep settings do not match what is on my app, but I did finally find them. I'll give that a try after I do #1.

Then I'll report back.

Harry

[h_m_w]

Steve H:

Since my last post, I have run multiple trials with my Charge2, based on your suggestions and attachments.

Heart Rate: tested both 'Auto' and 'Off'.

For each of the above, tested Sleep Tracking both as 'Normal' and 'Sensitive'.

For all tests, Heart Rate Zones were set as 'Default', Wrist Orientation to 'Right', and Handiness to 'Left'.

So there are four unique tests. Each was run at least twice.

Here is what I found:

1. If the wristband was set very tight (i.e., left an indentation in my wrist, and sometimes woke me up at night with my wrist throbbing), then ALL of the four unique tests gave me good results. The time when sleep started, as well as when sleep ended, was within a couple of minutes of what I manually recorded. But I cannot sleep this way, due to the very tight band.
2. If I loosened the band just one notch, then NONE of the 4 tests gave me good results. Most were within a few minutes of when sleep started, unless I got up to go to the bathroom within ~ 2 hours of what I manually recorded, then the Charge2 indicated that sleep started after I came back to bed. When I get up, I get dressed, and take my dog for a 2 block walk. ALL of the loosened band tests ended my sleep AFTER I got back from the walk!

One of the Fitbit Help screens said I could set the time I went to bed, and the time I got up, with the Fitbit app installed on my Android phone. So I tried that. But all that seems to do is set those times on my Dashboard's Sleep log: the same as I can do manually. It does not communicate with the Charge2 at all.

I found here:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge/How-to-set-sleep-mode-on-Charge/td-p/944437?nobounce

Two posts discussed putting the Charge (didn't say which version) into Sleep mode. One said pushing and holding the button puts it into tracking mode, and doing it again in the morning ends tracking mode. The other said pushing and holding at night turns the timer on, and doing it again in the morning turns it off.

Pushing and holding the button on mine turns 'Notification' on and off. This appears to be for notifications sent to my phone, which I do not have connected.

I can tap on the Charge2 and set 'Stopwatch' on and off. But that doesn't appear to have any effect on sleeping. It just records time.

So what am I doing wrong?

Harry

[SteveH]

I'm not sure you're doing anything wrong. It seems the fitbit works ok but only if it's too tight for you.

My view is that it's just not going to work for you. If you feel you really need this feature then all I can suggest is that you contact customer support to see if there's anything they can do to help: contact.fitbit.com

[h_m_w]

SteveH:

My past ability to get answers from Fitbit tech folks has been poor, but I will try again.

Before I do, please clarify one point. Are you saying that you do not know of any method to manually set start and end sleep times using just controls on the Charge2 itself (i.e., without doing it on the website dashboard, a phone, etc.)?

Harry

[SteveH]

I can't really help with that. I never used my Charge 2 to track sleep (sleep tracking has never been something I found useful) but one of those linked help files says that if you don't let it track sleep automatically you won't get sleep stages tracked. 

[h_m_w]

>> @SteveH wrote:

I can't really help with that. I never used my Charge 2 to track sleep (sleep tracking has never been something I found useful) but one of those linked help files says that if you don't let it track sleep automatically you won't get sleep stages tracked.<<

Lots of conflicting information about this on the Charge series. Since all of the earlier Fitbits (including my Ultra) had it, I had always assumed that the Charge series did also. That is what led me to the other referenced thread.

I'll let you know what Fitbit support says.

Harry

---