Merge multiple sleep fragments into one sleep log and score

[PeterMikl]

I am constantly being awakened in the middle of the night because I have 4-year old twins (one with autism which means his sleep cycle is all over the map). When I am awakened, I am usually moving around (taking kids to the toilet, changing night-time nappies, soothing kids with bad dreams, switching beds to better quieten a kid so the rest of the house can sleep, getting a glass of water, etc.). I also use the Surge automatic sleep recording feature to track my sleep. I don't want to have to sstart or stop recording anything manually.

On many nights, if I get up, the Surge will create multiple sleep logs. At 4am, it has done this when I have been awake for 9 minutes or more. At 7am, it has done this when I have been up for less than a minute - and yes, sometimes I go back to bed after 7am while my wife takes over after my nighttime "shift". These multiple sleep logs are inaccurate because that 9 minutes, or 1 minute, or whatever it is isn't counted as awake time.

All I need is a single command to merge the multiple logs into a single log with the gaps between logs calculated as awake time. This would solve all the display issues with multiple logs, and give me a much clearer view of my entire night. I would have a single sleep pattern graph and a single sleep log calculation.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and labels

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @RichW30, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to merge multiple sleep logs into one automatically. Thanks for sharing your feedback. I've moved it into a similar request.  A lot of users are asking for this option, I hope we receive updates soon.

[NeedSleep10]

Thanks for the message. This one was/is important for me, and I'm really
grateful to the developers if they've had time to get to it. I was VERY
pleasantly surprised recently when I saw two sleep sessions separated by
more than an hour get merged. I had wondered where I could express my
gratitude. Hope it's here. Sue Toledo

[srothkin]

Especially with the new sleep tile on the main Android app dashboard, I would like to see a bigger tolerance for merging sleeps. The other night it reported my sleep as 9:30-10:48pm and 11:53pm-5:38am. That should have been a single sleep event.

Perhaps you could have a setting for range of normal bedtime (e.g. 9:30-10:30pm) and normal wake time (e.g. 6-8am) and then the sleep analysis would automatically merge all sleeps within that range (e.g. 9:30pm-8am) into a single sleep.

[NeedSleep10]

YES! I've said this myself. It seems their algorithm is not very
flexible, since a message came out recently that they were taking up this
issue.

[Rich_Laue]

The issue I see is not that the merge isn't working, but that fitbit puts the sleep in the day that the user wakes up. 

• 9:30-10:58 gets recorded as sleeping for yesterday. 
• 11:53-5:38 gets recorded as sleeping today. 

[SunsetRunner]

Yes, the app already has you enter your normal bedtime as a data point. I think the problem arises when you are awake over 2 hours in the middle of sleeping, that breaks the report at that point in two. Those of us that awake in the middle often have to delete one report and modify the ending of the other as a workaround to merge the reports. It seems there should be at least a user setting to allow the software to do that automagically.

[Rich_Laue]

Only awake periods of less than an hour should be be merged. Any wake period over an hour should split the sleep. 

However as long as both sleep periods end on the same day, your dashboard will merge the totals. On the sleep page they will not. 

[SunsetRunner]

Why do you think it should split the session after one hour awake? The idea is that whether it splits the sleep during the user’s usual sleep period (which the app already knows from the entered sleep time and desired sleep duration data points) should be user selectable. I’m often awake for more than two hours in the middle of the night and I don't want it to split that out. It could be on the day I went to sleep but it’s usually after midnight, so the next day.

[RichW30]

I am not saying that you can't open the collapsed result open. When I am looking at sleep patterns I want to be able to see each day as a total and then if I want more detailed data then I would click on a down (Expand) Arrow to show the detail. Got it! 🙂

[SunsetRunner]

Yes. That's why this feature should be user selectable, so we both win.

[Kcinalaska]

I agree wholeheartedly!

[NeedSleep10]

I was told by someone (probably a fitbit tech support person, who could
easily not be directly in touch with the developers) that the current
algorithm can't handle breaks longer than a certain amount of time (20-40
minutes was suggested) AND the sessions they merged together had to be of
some minimal size (more than 3 hours, if I recall ). But I have had
successful merges with a break between two sessions of almost an hour. I
could try to get a better feel by going over all my records, but don't have
the time for it right now. Just I sure wish they would communicate more
about their algorithm to us. I do try to get back to bed as soon as I can,
but I really have to wait until I begin to get tired again.

The algorithm probably does have some sense of what is "night sleep" versus
naps. (I had recommended to them many months ago something like any sleep
after 8:59 pm to 10 am, or to make it dependent on the observed sleeping
pattern of the customer... or let it be SET by the customer. And to be
changeable for people getting govs that make them work nights!) I did get
a measure of the time of a nap I had this week that occurred for an hour
and 10 minutes, starting at 1 pm, but the analysis had nothing about deep
or rem sleep. But I was informed that I was restless or awake for 7
minutes out of the 1 hour and 10 minutes of my nap. I've never slept for
many hours in the day, to see whether I would get a sleep analysis that
includes the rem and deep sleep, which is what matters to me.

I don't think it's necessarily a simple issue, though, if they're trying to
do the very best they can scientifically.

Sue Toledo

[Kcinalaska]

Thanks. Some mornings I get a partial report that starts after a period I was awake for awhile and then later I get the first couple hours before the period I was awake, so I think they are working on it, but like you I don’t always get a breakdown. Actually, it would work better if I slept better!

Sent from my iPhone

[S.C2]

Today my sleep was recorded in two sleeping sessions. I guess because I was up in the middle of the night for some minutes. Would be great to merge the two sleeping sessions to look at it at once and get combined stats.

[KenD45]

I set target bedtime and wakeup time. All sleep within this period should be included in one analysis, not broken into segments just because I was awake for an extended period in the middle. This implies that all sleep should get full sleep stage analysis, not be reduced to basic for an artificially imposed "segment" that was shorter than 3 hours.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @KenD45, thanks for sharing this suggestion about having one single sleep log instead of separate sleep logs with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. This will help us to make sure the suggestions don't get confused, or split a popular vote. Please click on the thumbs-up to show your support.

[KenD45]

The comments about merging sleep logs are good. But since they can be merged, it's also important to do the complete sleep stage analysis (not just the basic analysis of awake, restless, asleep) on the full night's sleep time, not only on segments that happen to be longer than 3 hours. And it shouldn't be necessary for me to do this merging manually. It should happen automatically when the periods of sleep intersect the sleep window I've set (my Target Sleep Schedule with specified Bedtime and Wake Up Time). By "intersect" I mean that each sleep period has to overlap the sleep window, but doesn't have to be completely contained between the Bedtime and Wakeup Time.

I see many comments here are several years old and based on earlier models. I'm writing in October 2021 and I'm using a Charge 5 with premium.

[KenD45]

I see the comment from LizFitbit stating that the algorithm merges two sleeps if they are less than an hour apart. This is the problem I'm talking about. This limit is arbitrary. For example, last night, I slept for 4 hr 32 min, was awake for 2 hr 9 min, then slept for 2 hr 12 min. There is no reason the two sleeps cannot be analyzed as one. That way, my very distinct REM sleep during the final segment would have been detected and recorded. As it is, the stages were only analyzed for the first segment, giving the appearance of zero REM sleep. This is a purely unnecessary limitation and flaw in the algorithm. 

[SunsetRunner]

KenD45: since they can be merged, it's also important to do the complete sleep stage analysis (not just the basic analysis of awake, restless, asleep) on the full night's sleep time, not only on segments that happen to be longer than 3 hours. And it shouldn't be necessary for me to do this merging manually. It should happen automatically when the periods of sleep intersect the sleep window I've set (my Target Sleep Schedule with specified Bedtime and Wake Up Time). By "intersect" I mean that each sleep period has to overlap the sleep window, but doesn't have to be completely contained between the Bedtime and Wakeup Time.

I completely agree, the app should have done this from the beginning. However I would go one step further and ask that the consolidation window either: 1. Be user definable, separate from the ideal sleep window so that the user decides when it should be consolidated and when it should be considered a nap, or: 2. Make it a larger than the ideal sleep window by a predefined amount. So if you go to bed 1.5 hours before your ideal window regularly, maybe the app automatically consolidates it, or even better asks you whether to consolidate it or make it a nap. But the app should NEVER make a nap out of irregular sleep/wake patterns within your defined ideal sleep window.

[KenD45]

There is an older thread called "Merge Multiple Sleep Logs into one automatically" about this same topic. It has 267 votes. I don't know how many votes it takes to get action from the developers. In that thread, one of the moderators stated that sleep segments are combined if the gap between them is less than an hour. This is completely arbitrary  and unnecessary.

My current example: last night, I slept for 4 hr 32 min, was awake for 2 hr 9 min, then slept for 2 hr 12 min. As a result, the last segment, being shorter than 3 hours, only got the basic analysis (awake, restless, asleep) and not the full sleep stage analysis (awake, light, REM, deep). My "sleep score" for the night was based only on the first segment and was much lower than it should have been, because there was 0 hrs REM sleep in that segment; and there was plenty of dreaming in the second segment, but the analysis overlooked it.

I'm repeating this complaint in every comment thread where it fits. The sleep analysis is one of the main reasons I bought into the Fitbit Charge 5.

[Rich_Laue]

On the dashboard, the two sleep periods are merged. On the stats page, do you want your wake time calculated into your sleep score? 

[SunsetRunner]

Affirmative.

[KenD45]

@Rich_Laue: The only merging I see on the dashboard is the total sleep time from the two segments. Below that, the graphic display shows the two segments separately and they are analyzed separately.

Let's say the first segment is > 3 hours and the second is < 3 hours. Then the sleep score analysis is based only on the first segment and includes only the amount of time slept in that segment. Only this segment gets the full sleep stage analysis, which makes up 25% of the sleep score.

The second segment, being shorter than 3 hours, gets only the basic analysis that shows awake, restless, asleep: no sleep stages. Therefore no sleep score can be associated with this segment. 

There is no reason to split these segments. They can both be included in one analysis. Yes, the wake time would be included in the score. As the description says, "Time asleep is your total time in bed, minus the time you're awake." And there is no real reason the second, shorter segment can't have the full sleep stage analysis. In the existing algorithm it has been arbitrarily separated out from the full night's data by a rule that says we have to start a new "segment" if we go back to sleep after being awake more than one hour (This is per a moderator from a different thread on this topic, LizFitbit, not the same as @LizzyFitbit).

[KenD45]

I'm trying the suggestion from @Sidsousa about deleting the second (later) segment and changing the wakeup time of the first segment to match the second. It does seem to work. I didn't see the update until I totally closed the app and restarted it. 

There's one night where the shorter segment (< 3 hours) was early and the longer one (> 3 hours) was later. When I deleted the later one and extended the earlier one, I got only the basic analysis, not the sleep stages. The original analysis for the later segment included the stages. On another similar night, it looks like it worked OK to first delete the early segment and then adjust the start time of the second one. That way I did get the complete sleep stage analysis.

Well, this helps, but it should not be necessary to jump thru these hoops!

[SunsetRunner]

Yes. It will occasionally screw up but it works most of the time.