Sense won't track my sleep data accurately

[JoeJoeF]

I have a SENSE Fitbit and it is consistently not tracking the first few hours of my sleep. My Sleep Score is therefore often not reported  due to the device only recognizing the last 2-3 hours of sleep before I wake. When it does report my Score it is usually either POOR or FAIR.

I wanted to see if it might be the device rather than my sleep pattern and so I gave the device to my son to wear one night and he did not have the same problem - he recorded nearly 8 hours of sleep. 

The above said, I do know that I am 'dead to the wind' during those first few hours that the SENSE is not registering my sleep. Anyone witnessing my sleep would tell me that I am definitely asleep !

Does anyone have any insight to what might be happening ? 

Thank you. 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Guy_]

You might be able to improve things for you by:

1) set a sleep schedule in the watch settings

2) turn on sensitive sleep in the dashboard. You can login to the account in the browser here

[seeker419]

I’ve been having the same problem.  I usually go to bed around 9-10pm and fall asleep quickly but my sleep report usually starts measuring my sleep around midnight to 2am.  Hence my “time asleep” is under counted.  Since this is 50% of the sleep score, I can likely never score above “fair.”  I have sensitivity set at “normal”.  Is this a fault of the sense.  I’ve wondered if I may be restless early in my sleep such that the sense is detecting movements it interprets as “awake”.  But this seems to defeat the purpose of tracking light sleep or restlessness.  Curious if there is a solution to this. 

[mikehend]

Same problem here.  I usually go to bed around 10pm every night, but the tracker only starts tracking between say 2-3am.  I do have to get up several times during the night to pee (old man problems), don't know if that causes the problem.

[Mcubed3]

At least it is doing something.   I get nothing for sleep nor for health metrics except for RHR.   Not happy.

[eezeepee]

I manually turn on sleep mode before I sleep so that probably helps with the start of my sleep tracking even if I don't actually go to sleep in 30 minutes or so. 

[Guy_]

HI @eezeepee -  it is generally preferable to set a schedule for sleep in watch settings, this avoids forgetting to turn it off in the morning, and remembering to turn it on. It doesn't matter if it is on too early. It doesn't affect the recording of Sleep.

[eezeepee]

True but I'm just saying in my case because my sleep habits vary (yes I know consistency is key) if I'm working the following day or not.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone, and welcome to our new members.

Thanks for letting us know about your Sense, and the steps tried on your own. Before anything else, let me clarify that the sleep mode is a feature that prevents you from being disturbed with notifications or other type of alerts when sleeping or doing an important activity. However, this won't affect your sleep tracking.

That being said, since your watch isn't detecting your sleep times correctly, let me recommend the following:

1. Restart your Sense to refresh its performance.
2. Wear your device higher on your wrist (about 2-3 finger widths above your wrist bone).
3. Open the Fitbit app and pull down on the screen to force a manual sync.
4. Try it for one more night and sync it once you're awake to check your details.

Hope this helps.

[Mcubed3]

That is the standard response. It is already been done and said several
times. It would be nice to get a person to really help you work through the
issue if it can or is it just a defect being as so many people experience
it. I'm working on finding the receipt so I can return it.

[seeker419]

After watching for several more days, it seems the problem is related to what my sense considers to be a “day”.  On Tuesday  this week I went to bed more than 3.5 hours before midnight.  The next morning my Fitbit reported 58 minutes of sleep on TUESDAY (but with no sleep score) and then 3:41 sleep on WEDNESDAY with a sleep score.  So, it seems to be splitting a single night’s sleep into two sleep days; and since there is usually not the minimum 3 hours to calculate a sleep score it’s effectively skipping sleep before midnight most days.  Alternatively I could be so extremely restless for the first few hours of my sleep it thinks I’m awake when I’m not; but I don’t think that is happening.  

[eezeepee]

I would at least try to exchange it. FitBit devices in general are actually very accurate in sleep tracking.

This video compares the Sense and other FitBit devices to EEG readings and they do well.

https://youtu.be/IqtkUoVcpFs

[eezeepee]

Is that consistently happening or just the one time you mentioned? Ally sleep tracking carries through midnight just fine. 

[Mcubed3]

So if that was the case how do you fix it? I get absolutely nothing.

[Mcubed3]

My last Fitbit was a charge and it was good but all of a sudden it stopped
calculating sleep and then it started giving incorrect resting heart rate
and then stopped giving it at all.

[eezeepee]

I would factory reset first. Exchange second. Return is the third and final thing if the first two fail.

[mikehend]

This is probably the reason for the Sense not tracking all of my sleep:

"When your body is completely at rest and you haven’t moved for about an
hour, your Fitbit device records that you’re asleep."

I guarantee that I am not perfectly still when I go to bed most likely for
hours which would explain the problem.

If this is true, this method of sleep detection seems horribly flawed.

[eezeepee]

It's been very accurate for me with the starting time. Even the video I linked above objectively says it's a good sleep tracker in comparison to an EEG. Last night I tried to sleep around 10pm, got up to do something, it was 1010pm, and this morning it marked it at 959pm with some time awake in the beging. You might just really toss and turn that very beginning. Pretty much all devices that aren't EEG based use motion, at least to determine the start.