Allow us to let Fitbit devices know we go to sleep and wake up

[Renewed_mind]

The new devices always record the wrong sleep & wake times because they rely on a magic algorithm, instead of us the users telling them what time we went to bed & woke up. Instead make it start sleep tracking & record bedtime as the time we turn sleep mode on, & stop sleep tracking & record wake up time as the time when we turn sleep mode off.

[Renewed_mind]

This is definitely needed. I remember having the original Fitbit Flex back in the day, and you had to flick it 3 or 4 times in a row to turn sleep tracking on, which also recorded that moment as the time you went to bed. In the morning when you woke up you had to flick it 3 or 4 times to turn sleep tracking off, which would also record that moment as the time you woke up, instead of relying on some magic algorithm to guess this information, that's always wrong like these newer devices do.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Renewed_mind, and thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion about letting the Fitbit device know when you go to sleep and wake up with us. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If this suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

You might also be interested in this other suggestion. Watch this space for status updates. In the meantime, try visiting Health & Wellness to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

[Renewed_mind]

Hello @LizzyFitbit,

     I checked out the Link you provided to the other suggestion, however it dosent seem to have anything to do with my suggestion, other than being the exact opposite of what I'm asking for.

I'm not sure what device that person is using, but apparently they have to use the fitbit app to record their sleep by selecting the sleep tile in the app, and then the plus symbol, and then the beging sleep now option for their device to start recording their sleep. However when they do this it records that moment as the time they went to sleep, rather than their watch automatically detecting when they go to sleep several hours later after they have tossed and turned in bed before they actually go to sleep. So they are wanting their watch to record when they go to sleep based of their movement, rather than the app logging the moment they say they are going to bed now as the moment they went to sleep because they tend to lay there and toss and turn.

While I'm wanting to be able to tell the watch I'm going to sleep so it records that moment as the time I go to sleep, and monitors how long it actually takes me to go to sleep and how restless I am until I do fall asleep, just like the Fitbit flex did. Which is why I'm considering sending my sense back to the store I purchased it from, and buying one of the old Fitbit flex devices that I can tap to start sleep recording, which is also logged as the time I go to sleep, and then tap to stop sleep recording which is also logged as the moment I woke up.

I'm honestly baffled by how they can possibly know the exact time they go to sleep, because I never have any clue. I just know that I either go to sleep within an hour, or if I don't then I get up and go do something else until I feel tired because I'm an insomniac. Which is also the reason why I can't rely on movement detection from the watch to record when I go to sleep, because I tend to move a lot in my sleep all night long.

So it seems that person would be better off with a sense watch like I have that uses movement to guess when they go to sleep.

[mikey_pdx]

The Microsoft Band 2 had this feature. I could let it auto-track sleep, or I could tap a button on the sleep tile to say I was going to bed. It would track sleep better when I did that, and it would tell me how long it took me to fall asleep, which was a pretty cool metric to have. 

[Pikn2walk]

I agree! I just upgraded to a charge 5 and it would be nice to have both auto and manual options for speed and wake! All watches and trackers who can record sleep should have these options standard. It's common sense. 

[LizzyFitbit]

@Renewed_mind Thanks for the detailed information, and clarifying that you'd like to let your Fitbit device directly when you go to sleep and wake up. Every feedback shared in here is always appreciated as it help us to develop improvements on our devices, so please watch this space for future updates. I hope it gets many votes!

[Blumango]

I support this, I always read in bed before I actually go to sleep and before I get out of bed. It would make sense to tell Fitbit via the app when this 2 event happens (until it gets really good at detecting that). 

Also the app and the Fitbit device should merge the information they track to support accurate sleep time AND allow for the sleep phases to be recorded as well. This should not be rocket science.

Finally the current interface in the app is utterly confusing as what “sleep now” means and implies. I had to spend 15 min reading comments here to get it.

This is basic usability testing of the out of the box experience. It will tell you more than votes here can tell you!!

[tkbowman]

I have an Inspire2 and sleep Start/Stop is my most requested feature.

We often watch TV from 8:00-10:00 before going to bed at 10:30 and my Fitbit *always* gets my sleep time wrong. It thinks I've gone to bed at 8:00pm with a ton of "awake" and "restless" until 10:30pm. Totally ruins the sleep score and other percentage-based data. This could easily be fixed with a Fitbit-based start/stop button (similar to the button that starts/stops exercise) to tell the Fitbit "I'm going to sleep now!" and "I'm awake!".

Using the similar button on the iPhone app doesn't seem to work at all.

[Renewed_mind]

I was shocked to learn that the next generation of trackers that came out after the original flex comepletly did away with us telling them with a tap or flick to start/stop sleep tracking, and instead they all began to rely on these complicated sensor readings in order for the device to guess when we went to sleep and woke up.

It seems much more logical for me as the user to be the one to tell the device "Hey I'm going to bed now, start tracking my sleep" with a tap, some flicks, or even the press of a button, rather than it relying on these sensor readings to make a guess, especially since it obviously doesn't work properly.

Now had this method of using a combination of sensor readings to guess when someone went to sleep, and woke up been tested in actual human trials, and been proven to accurately do so, then I could totally see relying on this as a way to detect sleep & wake times instead of allowing us to manually tell the device when we went to bed and woke up.

However it is rather obvious that human trials were not preformed, and this method was not verified as being able to accurately detect sleep & wake times at all.

That is why I firmly believe that all devices need to have a manual option for us to tell it when we go to bed & wake up for it to start & stop sleep recordings, at least until the sensor detection method is refined to the point it is accurate.

Otherwise it's always going to be wrong, and there is no point in my opinion for me to spend any money on any of these fancy new devices when I can get an original flex from eBay that will let me tell it when to start and stop sleep recording so I can get a accurate record to tell my doctors how many hours a night I'm actually sleeping.

Because with the sense I had I couldn't tell my doctors how many hours a night I was sleeping, because it was always "detecting" the wrong times.

[AvarageGuy]

I'm not sure how my Sense tracks my sleep but it is never close to correct. My suggestion would be to add a simple button to let the watch know we are in bed/ ready to sleep. That would increase the watches sensitivity to sleep cues, and make it more reliable. I used to hit the sleep button thinking that sleep mode meant exactly what I am talking about, but apparently it puts the watch to sleep.?

Also give it a function to ignore five minutes of restlessness when I get up and go to the bathroom, instead of resetting my entire night and saying I only got 2 hours of sleep because I got up to go to the bathroom at 4am, would be helpful.

Thanks