Manually input sleep in order to track time to fall asleep

[Knowledge]

Having been a flex user, remembering to tell the Fitbit when I was going to bed was a hassle. I welcome the new auto-sleep mode. However one trade off I think we all have lost is the Fitbit no longer is able to calculate how long it took us to fall asleep. This makes sense because there is no way for us to tell the Fitbit when we actually get into bed. I used to love this statistic because I usually have insomnia and it can take me any where from 30 minutes to 3 hours to fall asleep, and it was nice being able to look back and see how my activity levels that day affected my time to fall asleep.

Is there any proposal to add this ability to the Fitbit Charge, Charge HR, and Surge? (I have the Surge FYI). I realize it may be hard, but even a manual button press to indicate when I get into bed. I realize I can edit this in the app, but I usually will have forgotten when I actually got into bed by the next morning when I can edit it.

Moderator edit: labels.

[Michael]

@Knowledge You can already do this on the Charge and Charge HR. You just hold the button down to start/stop sleep. (Just like an activity.)

But sadly no on the Surge...

[Knowledge]

Oh really I didn't know that! Well hopefully they get this feature to the Surge!

[sndrtilidie]

The Surge (tried this last night) does it automatically. If it messes up (or you charge it that night) you can manually put it in the log from the dashboard

[Knowledge]

No it doesn't. It will usually say for me 1-2 minutes time to fall asleep when in reality I've been in bed for nearly an hour. This is because it doesn't actually know when I got in bed. This is why I need a way to manually tell it rather than having to write down the time and editing the log the next day. The flex was great for this!

[sndrtilidie]

I looked over my log from last night, and it's rather accurate.  It caught when I woke up after going to bed the first time. Additionally, it accurately recorded the nap i took later in that day.

It may be a couple of minutes off with regards to when I actually fell asleep by a couple of minutes. I can't really tell when I fell asleep; but I'm going to a sleep center tomorrow and will ask they pay attention and write down the times.

[Knowledge]

It's accurate, but for people with sleep issues they may not fall asleep right away. With my Flex I was averaging 20-50 minutes of time to fall asleep because I had to manually record when I went to bed. Because of the new auto-sleep, it now guesses it took 1-2 minutes for me to fall asleep when in reality I was in the bed for 30+ minutes.

[sndrtilidie]

Totally get what you are saying, and I'm sorry about your sleep issues. At least you know to add the time back. 

[N4ZX]

Hello folks, I am new to the forum and new to being a Charge HR user so please excuse if I ask for what may be already explained information. I graduated from a Flex to the Charge HR then discovered that it does not automatically record how long it takes to fall asleep. When I contacted technical support they said it does not do that and that I should refer the question to the forum for future “enhancement consideration”. In reading your discussions however it appears that it can be done by manually holding in the button on the side to tell when one goes to bed. It will then show how long it took to fall asleep. Have I got that right or not as when I tried it just starts the stop watch and runs till I push it again. Also If I try to manually adjust the start time in the sleep log as some have suggested I get an invalid entry error. So What are the steps if any for a Charge to make it record and show how long a person takes to fall asleep? Regards

[LenaTC]

I find I have the problem that my Charge HR accurately knows when I'm in bed, but has relatively little clue when I'm asleep. It routinely tracks me as sleeping when I know perfectly well I was awake - saying I fell asleep in 2-3 minutes when I took at least 30, saying I woke when I got up when I'd been lying awake for at least two hours - and while I can edit when I went to bed I cannot edit the actual sleep time.

Setting it to sensitive, it tracks me as restless more of the time, but still routinely misses lots of times I'm in bed and awake, just not moving around a lot.

One of the things I wanted from my fitbit was sleep tracking, and it is really not at all up to the mark for that. I can't be the only person who tries to lie quietly and relax when they have insomnia..

[MarreFitbit]

The option to disable autosleep for Fitbit trackers is a good idea, especially for those that don't want to edit their sleep logs. Thanks for sharing this my friend! 

[Rich_Laue]

The Flex, Charge, Charge HR still can be put in sleep mode on the tracker.

For the Surge, Blaze, Alta it is not as convenient but the app has the ability to start and stop sleep

[LizFitbit]

Hi everyone, thanks for sharing this suggestion. In terms of an update, there aren't currently any plans to release this feature. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us and we will let you know if anything changes.

[Nyusha]

I once logged my sleep schedule by pressing "start sleep now" in my Ionic (instead of allowing it to detect my sleep automatically). This day I noticed you can't get usual Sleep Stages information because of this.

Instead I got what's it called my "Sleep Pattern".

What I loved in this pattern was a “Sleep Quality” data. This data was a bit different that is shown in Sleep Stages. One line described - "X mins to fall asleep". 

I really liked this line data and was wondering why my Sleep Stages do not have this as well? Instead there is the time being awake shown by percentage.

Perhaps this line can be included too? (Also, I remember one user in similar topic wanted to see Time Being Awake in minutes rather than percents)

[LanuzaFitbit]

Nice suggestion, thanks for sharing. We look forward to hearing what other community members think.

[AnnDroidGirl]

This is something I'd love to see.  I used a One before moving to the Charge 2.   Being able to start sleep mode is much easier than having to edit my sleep hours each morning!

[Rich_Laue]

Until then open the Fitbit app. Tap the sleep tile. tap start sleep now .

[AnnDroidGirl]

Thank you so much Rich_Laue! I will do that tonight!

[mowermatch]

When you put your FitbitOs watch into sleep mode, it would start tracking you sleep rather that automatically starting to track your sleep

[EdsonFitbit]

Hi @mowermatch, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback about being able to track sleep manually, this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here as it is not currently planned.

[mb2323]

Add manual "I'm going to sleep" and "I'm getting up" buttons and a stat for "Time in Bed"
Obviously if you could improve the app to do a better job of logging all sleep (even if < 3 hours) that would be ideal but I think this would be a simple improvement to implement.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @mb2323, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to manually input your sleep. This feature suggestion already exists, so I’ve moved your post here. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. 

To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

I hope to see you around.