Sleep stages accuracy

[Brittneyneff]

I’m curious about the accuracy of sleep stages. I’ve been keeping an eye on my sleep for the past month, and I’m either concerned about my sleep, or my Fitbit is inaccurate. 

For example, for the last 3 night, I have had 9-17 minutes of REM total. I find that very hard to believe. I’m also “awake” a lot. 

I’m most concerned about my REM. See attached photo. I’ve also included me numbers against the benchmark for women my age 

 

 

 

[Deoge]

Your looks similar to mine 

[Clove6060]

one thing that stood out is You blew through the light sleep for women your age. May have something to do with your REM.

What does you 30 day avg for women your age look like?

Did you ever stop taking oil to see if that impacted your numbers? 

[Brittneyneff]

I attached the photo for the averages. I did stop taking it

[Clove6060]

The 30 day average. I see the today and benchmark. 

[Brittneyneff]

 

[Clove6060]

I am not a sleep expert but you spend a lot of your time in light sleep.  That may be why you are not seeing much REM.  I’d be interested in seeing more data from people who spend a lot of time in the light sleep stage.  Let’s see if there is Correlation. 

“Sleep works in a cyclical fashion. During a night of at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep, your brain cycles through stages several times. With each cycle, you spend progressively more time in REM sleep. The deeper stages of sleep are critical for physical repair, emotional processing, and memory consolidation.

When light sleepers wake up, it interrupts this cycle. As a result, they may miss out on getting sufficient amounts of the more restorative stages of sleep like REM. They are more likely to wake up feeling sleep-deprived. In the long term, these sleep disruptions can increase the risk for certain health conditions.”

Have not slept long the last few nights but here are my 30 day and benchmark

 

 

[Goosse1962]

For me, the sleep stages appear to be mostly accurate. I have been using them for several years to help make and monitor changes. I know what is normal for me, which varies from men my age. Changes in the data have helped me learn what changes in my life work for improving sleep, and when I needed to consult a doctor. To get the sleep I need, I changed my daily routine and started taking a supplement. Now when the sleep stages data changes, it has been after a change to my daily routine, or a failure in handling a medical condition. When I don't know the reason for a change to the data that lasts more than a few days, it is time for me to consult medical advice.

Your situation is different. But what you need to do might be similar to what I did. What @Clove6060 posted matches what I have learned. It might be time to look at what is keeping you from REM sleep. Medical advice might be needed, or maybe just using some of the lifestyle changes suggested both by Fitbit and on the Internet.

[nk777]

I have a miband 6 and when I bought Fibit Sense with snore report (though paywalled), I thought I upgraded. But I got the same experience, which shows 20% of time as awake.  Also if you are lying on the bed once you are away, Fitbit Sense considers it as sleeping and adds to Awake time.  MiBand Sleep tracking is far superior than Fibit Sense Sleep tracking (minus snore report).