Telling the Charge 2 You're going to Sleep... (for better tracking?)

[DaveEP]

I came to the Fitbit Charge 2 after several months without a band of any sort since my last one, (not Fitbit) developed a fault and I was refunded.

I used to have a Microsoft Band 2 which was excellent at sleep tracking.  I'd tell the band when I was going to sleep (just got in to bed) and when I woke up (getting out of bed).  It tracked sleep in between very well and included useful statistics like how long it took me to get to sleep. The simple statistic seems to be missing in the Fitbit App.  Why?  Knowing what time I told it I was going to sleep, then knowing when the band first detecting actual sleep would seem to be one of the easiest things to track!

I originally came here looking for why my Charge 2 was recoding sleep stages but then stopped and now only shows sleep patterns. While I found several questions, one answer in particular (from @@AlvaroFitbit) puzzles me.   Supposedly the Charge 2 won't track sleep as well if you tell it you're going to sleep !   What?  That doesn't sound right!

Why would it detect sleep less efficiently if it knows that you're going to sleep than it does by automatically detecting sleep?   That sounds counter intuitive to say the least!

[USAF-Larry]

@DaveEP, it does sound counterintuitive, but letting the tracker determine when you are awake or asleep is much more flexible than being forced to indicate you are asleep when you may not be.

[DaveEP]

I'm not asking it to tell me I'm asleep when I'm not, that would be silly.

However, I would like to record the time I go to bed and how long it takes me to get to sleep, so I'm  telling it I'm 'going to go to sleep now, so you can stop looking for me running, cycling, rowing, walking, circuit training or what ever else it might guess I'm doing and just look for me sleeping. 

Flexibility is one thing, knowing what you're 'supposed' to be doing is another.

With 30 years of embedded systems programming behind me, including tiny devices with sensors, it seems odd to me that they couldn't do a better job when they know what they are looking for rather than trying to figure out 'if' that's what I'm doing.

A couple of more things, the MS Band 2 recorded me going up my house stairs every time.  The Charge 2 has recorded me going up stairs only twice ever!  There is a small landing half way up where I need to turn 180 degrees but even so, if the MS Band 2 could do it every time.....

Also, I've noticed when I'm programing, typing, using the mouse etc, the Charge 2 is counting some of this activity this as steps taken. When I got up from a morning's work I'd done almost 1000 steps while sat in my chair.  Again, the MS Band 2 didn't do this.  

I'm on the latest update.  Are these new bugs recently introduced or are all Fitbits like this?

The only thing worse than no data is bad data.

< sigh >

[Dan-]

"The only thing worse than no data is bad data." <-- Agreed